Teaching is in a crisis of morale, recruitment and retention, so policy ideas to try and tackle this are particularly important. Amongst a number of policies announced by the Labour Party recently, the one that caught our eye here at the TDT was the plan for a CPD entitlement, on page 11 of their mission document on Breaking Down the Barriers to Opportunity:
“Labour will work with schools to deliver a ‘Teacher Training Entitlement’, including backfilling roles so teachers at every stage of their career can be released for training, and ensuring guidance is available on evidence-based, high-quality professional development.”
Whilst not a silver bullet, we are convinced that an entitlement could be a powerful part of a solution, if done well. We are fortunate to be working in a system with a strong evidence base on effective professional development, and Labour is able to build on the work already done to establish a clearer regime for professional development with the introduction of the Early Career Framework and National Professional Qualifications – the so-called ‘Golden Thread’.
Importantly, as this report published by the EPI shows, an entitlement need not be prohibitively expensive. However, done badly, it could be a damaging intervention, at best costly and pointless and at worst becoming an additional burden on already overstretched teachers and school leaders.
