NEU reacts to EPI report on teacher training and development

Commenting on the Education Policy Institute (EPI)’s new report on training and development for teachers, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:

"We welcome the EPI’s clear findings that high quality CPD for teachers is both needed and cost-effective. Teachers have been denied normal CPD in the past two academic years due to Covid, but this entitlement would mark a step-change in the CPD provision for all teachers. It is, as the EPI points out, a key factor in retaining teachers, to improve how they are valued as professionals.

"The DfE will point to the early career framework and new National Professional Qualifications it has in development, but we call for high quality CPD for all teachers at all stages of their careers. It is crucial that teachers are trusted as professionals and their CPD needs and interests identified collaboratively, rather than purely as part of a whole-school or government-led agenda.

"The cost, as estimated by the EPI, is affordable to government and should be funded centrally; individual schools are struggling to balance the books but the government should value the benefit this would bring to children and young people, by valuing teachers and investing in them."