Education and training services

Tender description

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to notify the market of forthcoming market engagement events relating to the reformed suite of National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) and a new headteacher programme. The Department will be undertaking three online events between 14 and 16 July 2020 for interested national lead providers to input into the implementation of these programmes. In January 2019, the Department published the widely appraised teacher recruitment and retention strategy, which included a commitment to invest in specialist NPQs to support teachers to develop expertise in particular areas and to complement existing leadership qualifications. The three new specialist qualifications are leading teaching; leading behaviour and culture and leading teacher development. The Secretary of State for Education announced in March that the Department is also reviewing the full current suite of leadership NPQs to ensure that they cover the specific knowledge and skills that school leaders need for the future, and the development of the new headteacher programme which will be closely linked with the national professional qualification for headship and made available to new headteachers in their first 2 years of headship. The reformed suite of NPQs and the new headteacher programme will be available to teachers and school leaders from Autumn 2021 alongside the early career framework. Together they will help deliver improved teacher quality by creating a coherent, career-long, development programme. To ensure success, DfE is seeking national providers to lead the delivery of the NPQs and the new headteacher programme, from Autumn 2021. Successful providers will be required to work within a flexible set of frameworks, that are being designed for each level of qualification and the new headteacher programme. It is anticipated that DfE will appoint successful bidders to a national framework agreement for NPQs and the new headteacher programme. Under the terms of that framework agreement, this will allow DfE to make specific purchases (Call-Offs) from suppliers within a 4-year term. It is expected that lead providers will deliver their service in partnership with other high-quality education training providers including the national network of Teaching School Hubs (TSH) which will be in place in early 2021. TSH, along with other education training providers, will play a key role in the delivery of the NPQs and the new headteacher programme. DfE recognises that lead providers might need to build their capacity and partnerships over the term of the framework agreement, we are therefore proposing to create the flexibility for lead providers to add new delivery partners once they are appointed to the framework.