NPQ Funding

Scholarship funding for Autumn 2026

Scholarship funding is available for teachers and leaders in publicly-funded schools (including maintained nursery schools) and 16 to 19 educational settings in England for the following NPQs:

• special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOs)
• senior leadership
• headship

Funding for these courses is also available to:

• hospital schools
• young offender institutions
• local authority virtual school headteachers, staff in a defined deputy headteacher role and staff in direct teaching roles
• other local authority staff in direct teaching roles – for example, local authority supply or peripatetic teachers.

Early years leadership NPQ scholarship

Scholarship funding is available for the early years leadership NPQ for publicly funded early years settings and maintained nursery schools, including:

• private, voluntary, independent (PVI) settings
• Ofsted-registered early years childminders
• maintained nursery schools
• those working in publicly-funded early years educational settings

NPQ scholarships for settings with high levels of disadvantage

Scholarship funding is also available for the following NPQs based on disadvantage criteria:

• leading teaching
• leading behaviour and culture
• leading literacy
• leading primary mathematics
• executive leadership
• leading teacher development

For these NPQs, scholarship funding to cover the full NPQ course cost is available to teachers and leaders from eligible schools and 16 to 19 settings that have high levels of disadvantage. 

RISE scholarships

Schools in the targeted regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) programme are eligible for scholarship funding for all NPQs. Regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE): school support provides further details on the targeted RISE programme and lists schools that are eligible for targeted RISE intervention.

Leading Teacher Development NPQ scholarship

For the leading teacher development NPQ, scholarship funding is available if you:

• work in a school or setting that appears on one of the disadvantage eligibility lists
• are taking on the role of lead mentor for an initial teacher training (ITT) provider accredited to deliver ITT from September 2024 (this includes those working in non-school settings or in schools not otherwise eligible under the disadvantage criteria)

Disadvantage eligibility lists

Details of eligibility lists based on disadvantage are set out as follows.

Schools

The top 50% of publicly funded schools that have the highest proportion of students attracting pupil premium. This does not include maintained nursery schools.

Further education

The top 50% of 16 to 19 settings where the highest proportion of funded students attracting a disadvantage uplift. This is based on a combination of disadvantage block 1 and block 2 funding.

The eligible settings are fixed for the autumn 2026 recruitment period.