The White Paper | What does it mean for professional development in our region?

With recent developments linked to the Government’s White Paper it is important to reflect on what this means for professional development across our schools. These reforms place continued emphasis on high-quality training, leadership development and sustained improvement - areas we remain fully committed to supporting.

Teacher Training Entitlement

We’d like to highlight the launch of the new Teacher Training Entitlement (TTE). The TTE sets out four strategic priorities that will guide our work on professional development, with an aim to ensure every teacher and leader can access high-quality professional development opportunities:

• Strengthen the existing national offer of professional development. The DfE will embed the new Early career teacher entitlement that started delivery in September 2025, and reform National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) for school leaders to better reflect the training needs of today. This will include new content on supporting pupils with SEND and people leadership skills as well as reviewing NPQ training to help more teachers from underrepresented groups step into senior roles. We have also committed to an expanded and enhanced early headship coaching offer. The review of NPQs is already underway, followed by a further review of the Early Career Teacher Entitlement in 2027.
• Extend the national offer so there is training at every stage by introducing new professional development programmes for experienced teachers and leaders. The DfE will develop new models of CPD programmes that complement the ECTE and NPQs, starting with:

New inclusive teaching and inclusive leadership programmes, to help teachers and leaders meet all children’s needs and lead schools that are inclusive by design.

• New training for reception classroom teachers to help ensure every child gets the best possible foundation in their first year of school.

The DfE have vowed to ensure development opportunities are clear and accessible to all teachers and leaders. This will involve our Teaching School Hub working with the DfE and Universal RISE to ensure all schools know how to access high-quality professional development within their communities.

• Support strong development cultures in schools, by supporting and better promoting research on implementing effective CPD, ensuring NPQs reflect this. This includes work by the DfE already underway with the National Institute of Teaching on their recently launched CPD portal and developing a promising Teacher Education Dataset to help dig into what makes teaching most effective.