National Professional Qualification for Special Education Needs Coordinators

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to notify potential suppliers of the forthcoming procurement activity relating to the National Professional Qualifications (NPQ) for Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) and to publicise that the Department has published the new content framework here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-professional-qualifications-frameworks-from-september-2021.
The Department for Education (Department) has previously engaged with stakeholders relating to the commercial routes for delivering the new qualification and can now confirm that it intends to conduct three separate procurement processes to source suppliers to provide the new NPQ. In addition to undertaking call off processes from existing framework agreements, the Department intends to procure a new framework agreement with any parties that can demonstrate their ability to deliver the NPQ for SENCOs. Background Delivering on the commitments set out in the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy (which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-recruitment-and-retention-strategy), the Department has developed a suite of specialist and leadership NPQs to complete the golden thread of support, training and development available through a teacher’s entire career. In the SEND and AP Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, the Department announced the decision to replace the current National Award for SEN Co-ordination (NASENCO) with a new leadership level NPQ for SENCOs as the mandatory qualification for SENCOs. First teaching of the NPQ will begin in Autumn 2024. The new qualification has been designed to: • Improve SENCOs’ leadership expertise, making them well-placed to be part of schools’ senior leadership teams (as per expectations set out in the SEND Code of Practice) and inform the strategic direction of a setting. • Ensure the mandatory SENCO qualification is based on the latest and best available evidence and provides SENCOs with the knowledge and practical skills they need to fulfil their role. • Align SENCO training with reforms to teacher development, supporting SENCO status and career progression. The new content framework for the NPQ for SENCOs is now available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-professional-qualifications-frameworks-from-september-2021.