Creating Value In Schools
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NPQs are part of the ‘golden thread’ of professional development offered for teachers and leaders by the DfE. While they are no longer free to all school staff, there is still funding available and you can check your setting’s eligibility on the DfE website.
National professional qualifications (NPQs) are flexible CPD courses for teachers and leaders, designed to:
Some NPQs are aimed at enhancing teaching specialisms, such as the leading teacher development or leading teaching mathematics NPQ.
Others are aimed at leaders, such as the headship or SENCO NPQ. See National professional qualification (NPQ) courses for the full list.
Courses last between 12 and 22 months and are delivered by approved providers.
The NPQ offer is currently being reviewed: see Need to Know: What next for NPQs for more detail.
There is funding available from the DfE for some NPQs and to those in eligible settings.
If you are in a publicly funded school, maintained nursery school or 16-19 setting in England, scholarship funding is available for:
Schools eligible for targeted regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) intervention can also receive funding for these NPQs. (See Funding for national professional qualifications (NPQs) for other eligible settings).
If you work in a school identified as one of those in the top 50% of publicly funded schools with the highest proportion of pupil premium students, you are eligible for a scholarship funded NPQ place.
Download the relevant spreadsheet to check if your school or setting is on the list.
Also, for the leading teacher development NPQ, scholarship funding is available for people who are, or will be, taking on the role of lead mentor for an initial teacher training provider accredited to deliver initial teacher training from September 2024.
Note that being eligible for an NPQ scholarship does not guarantee that a funded course place will be available or that you will be accepted onto it. NPQ providers determine suitability through their application processes.
You can only receive scholarship funding for each NPQ once. If you receive scholarship funding but then withdraw from or fail a course, you cannot get scholarship funding for the same NPQ again.
| Note: This Need to Know was first published in October 2024 and has been updated for September 2025. |
