Review of the National Leaders of Education (NLE) programme

In May 2019, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned an external National Leaders of Education (NLE) advisory group to evaluate the existing NLE programme and to make recommendations to DfE on future reforms.

In November 2019, the advisory group sent its report to ministers, which presented their findings, along with a set of proposed NLE standards, both of which have been accepted by ministers.

The NLE Standards set out the department’s expectations of designated NLEs, and cover the requisite knowledge, experience and attributes of those supporting under-performing schools to improve.

The accompanying research commentary includes references to published literature relating to school leadership and school-to-school support and does not include any new research.