Strengthening the evidence base for NPQs

Earlier this year, the Department for Education (DfE) launched a call for evidence as part of its review of NPQs, requesting “recent, relevant, and high-quality research” to inform updates to the frameworks for NPQs focused on headship, senior leadership, and executive leadership.

As an organisation committed to advancing the evidence base for teacher and leader education, any process that recognises the evidence base is evolving, and is open to broadening the evidence sources, has the potential to be positive. We wanted to support this, and believe we are well-positioned to contribute given our commitment to being school-led, our close integration with schools and our dedicated in-house research and best practice function.

We have listened carefully to school leaders and considered their priorities when responding to this call for evidence. While we acknowledge this is only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ given the wide range of areas that could benefit from further evidence and research, we feel that the recommendations we have put forward are the ones which meet the DfE’s evidence requirements and touch on some of the most tangible impacts leaders have in their schools.

Our recommendations

A key theme of what we have put forward is for the frameworks to draw from additional evidence linked to relational leadership, highlighting the building of strong relationships, trust, and collaboration among individuals and teams to achieve shared goals.

• Building leadership for professional development: We recognise that the most effective leaders develop middle leaders to lead professional learning effectively. This includes statements about role clarity, time allocation, and strategic alignment for middle leadership. This is supported by systematic reviews such as Lipscombe (2023) and Lillejord (2020).
• Linking leadership and staff wellbeing: The most effective school leaders prioritise staff wellbeing as a focus for their leadership approach. Research by Sims (2020), which highlights the relationship between ineffective leadership and staff wellbeing, with significant implications for teacher retention, supports this.
• Trust and organisational culture: We propose refining statements in NPQ frameworks to emphasise building trust as a leadership competency that supports staff engagement and retention. This recommendation is supported by evidence from Fischer, Hyder, and Walker (2020), which shows how trust enhances organisational commitment and citizenship behaviours.
• Supporting behaviour change in teachers: We suggest making strategies for supporting teacher behaviour change more explicit in NPQ frameworks to better link leadership practices with teacher development. This is based on evidence from Merle et al. (2022), which highlights practical approaches for supporting teacher behaviour change.
• Feedback processes for students: We recommend additions to NPQ frameworks that focus on designing feedback processes that empower students to take ownership of their progress. This recommendation is supported by research from Winstone et al. (2017), which emphasises the importance of designing feedback processes that explicitly support students to engage with and act on the feedback they receive.
• Sustained professional learning for system-level leaders: We propose refining statements to better link recruitment, workforce development, and leadership pipelines with CPD priorities. This recommendation is based on evidence from Rai (2023), which highlights the effectiveness of system-level leaders who embed sustained professional learning within organisational management frameworks.

What does this mean for NPQs going forward?

The DfE has stated they will publish an “initial summary response” which will include the number and types of submissions received, and how they will be “sifted” and incorporated into the review. Changes to NPQ frameworks are unlikely to be immediate, and we can expect any updates on this work not be implemented until 2027.

Details for the next cohort of NPQs have not yet been announced by the DfE. If you’d like to learn more about the different NPQ programmes we offer and sign up for updates of when we are next accepting applications,please click here.