National Professional Qualifications
We are delighted to be delivering our National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) in partnership with UCL Institute of Education to support leadership development at all levels.
Registration is currently closed. We are expecting registration for Autumn 2026 NPQs to open in the Summer term. In the meantime, please complete UCL's expression of interest form here.
See our NPQ tabs below to find out more about each award.
We are awaiting a DfE update for funding information for Autumn 2026 NPQs.
Please see the information below for what was in place for Autumn 2025
For Autumn 2025, all state funded schools in England were eligble for full funding for the NPQSENCO, NPQH and EHCO.
Scholarship funding to cover all other NPQ courses was available to state funded schools, further education and early years settings in England that had the highest levels of disadvantage. These schools were set out in the eligibility lists which were availble on the DfE website here. Schools eligible for targeted Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) intervention were also included in the eligibility criteria.
Please see below for information about Best Practice Network's funded NPQSL and NPQEL using the apprenticeship levy, for schools not on the DfE eligbility list.
Funded NPQSL with an Apprenticeship - Spring 2026 cohort
Thames South TSH have also partnered with Best Practise Network for an exciting CPD opportunity for those schools in our region who are not on the DfE's list of funded schools for NPQs, but who pay into the apprenticeship levy.
The offer includes a dual award of an NPQ award along with a Level 5 (SL) apprenticeship. By mapping the two qualifications, BPN have created a programme which allows participants to complete two qualifications concurrently with a much smaller workload than would be required if completing the qualifications separately.
For schools who pay into the apprenticeship levy there is no cost to the participant. For non-levy paying schools there is a small course fee of just 5%.
The next deadline to apply for this route into the NPQSL is 1st March 2026:
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To apply for the 'Senior Leadership Level 5 apprenticeship with NPQSL' visit here.
Please see the flyers below for more information or contact us in the hub where we will be happy to talk you through the unique offer.
