Written question WQ88286

The National Professional Learning Entitlement brings together a package of professional learning for all education professionals including those who have qualified outside of Wales. It is supported by a cross regional website which provides equitable access to information regarding professional learning provision for practitioners across Wales and open access to the Curriculum for Wales professional learning offer across all regions. We will introduce a new validation process to ensure all national professional learning is quality assured and recognised.

We are committed to ensuring that practitioner development is adequately resourced, with dedicated professional learning funding for schools and time for practitioners to engage with high quality opportunities. The well-established National Curriculum for Wales Development Programme delivered by education consortia will continue to support phased implementation of the new curriculum.

Over the last five years, the Welsh Government has awarded over £15 million to regional consortia to fully implement a national Curriculum for Wales Development Programme to equip all schools to realise the new curriculum. Delivery of this national programme is ongoing to support phased curriculum roll-out. Schools delivering the new curriculum since September 2022 can also access bespoke support to facilitate curriculum realisation.

In addition, a further £55 million professional learning investment has been awarded directly to schools through the Professional Learning Grant to allow time and space for practitioners and leaders to work together across schools and networks to realise the new curriculum. This funding can be used flexibility to enable schools to work together to meet the specific needs of their own settings and to enable all practitioners to deliver high quality teaching and learning.