Funding and programme costs
Department for Education scholarship funding is available to all state schools and state funded organisations that offer 16-19 places in England, meaning NPQs are now free for the majority of schools and settings: they are also free for many people from Nursery and PVIs who wish to undertake the NPQEYL. There is also a bursary payment of £200 for some participants from smaller schools!
As part of the government’s long-term education recovery plan, NPQ training scholarships will be available in academic years 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024.
Eligibility for funding
Organisations eligible to access scholarships are:
- state-funded schools
- state-funded 16 to 19 organisations
- independent special schools
- virtual schools (local authority run organisations that support the education of children in care)
NPQ Scholarship funding has been extended for Autumn 2022 cohorts. Organisations / individuals now also eligible to access scholarships include:
- all state schools and state funded organisations that offer 16-19 places in England.
- Independent special schools.
- Virtual schools (Local Authority run organisations that support the education of children in care).
- Hospital schools not already included in other categories of eligible organisations.
- young offender institutions.
- Local authority employed supply teachers will also be able to access scholarships.
Teachers and leaders who are employed as above are eligible for training scholarships for the following NPQs:
- NPQ for Leading Teaching (NPQLT)
- NPQ for Leading Behaviour and Culture (NPQLBC)
- NPQ for Leading Teacher Development (NPQLTD)
- NPQ for Leading Literacy (NPQLL)
- NPQ for Senior Leadership (NPQSL)
- NPQ for Headship (NPQH)
- NPQ for Executive Leadership (NPQEL)
- NPQ for Early Years Leadership (NPQEYL)*
*NPQ for Early Years Leadership (NPQEYL) Eligibility:
Training scholarships for the NPQ for Early Years Leadership are available to those leaders qualified to at least level 3 with a full and relevant qualification: who are, or are aspiring to be:
- managers of private, voluntary and independent nurseries
- headteachers of school-based or maintained nurseries
- childminders with leadership responsibilities
And are employed:
- in a maintained nursery school in England
- in a pre-school class that’s part of a school in England
- in a nursery that is registered on the Ofsted Early Years Register
- as a childminder and registered on the Ofsted Early Years Register, or with a registered Childminder Agency
Targeted Support fund for smaller schools – free study bursary of £200
From autumn 2022, state-funded schools and state-funded 16 to 19 educational settings with 1 to 600 pupils will be paid £200 for each teacher or leader they employ who takes an NPQ. This will be applied for automatically during the application process based on details you provide to the DfE, and you will be notified of the funding once your application has been accepted.
Additional eligibility criteria
- Participants will only be eligible for funding for each NPQ once.
- Participants who receive scholarship funding for a reformed NPQ available from November 2021 and who then subsequently withdraw from, or fail, their programme will not be eligible for scholarship funding for the same NPQ in the future. If a participant is unable to continue with their NPQ, we will talk to you about deferral and restarting at a later date if appropriate.
- Participants who received scholarship funding for a legacy NPQ (prior to November 2021) and who withdraw from their programme will be eligible for scholarship funding for the new reformed NPQs.
- Access to funding remains conditional on successful validation of participants’ registration information against Teaching Regulation Agency records, so you must ensure that the information supplied to your NPQ provider matches your teacher record. You can check and update your record via the Teaching Regulation Agency’ teacher self-service portal.
If you are not eligible for scholarship funding, you can still undertake an NPQ and should contact us at info@fivecountiesalliance.co.uk
