CPD training inadequate despite £1bn annual spend, report finds

Around £1bn is spent each year on teacher professional development in England, but only a quarter of teachers believe their training “adequately takes pupil needs into account”, according to a new report by the Teacher Development Trust.The study, ‘Teacher Development: The CPD Landscape in 2025’, surveyed more than 1,000 teachers and school leaders to examine how continuing professional development (CPD) is experienced in schools. 

It is described by the charity as the first comprehensive review focused solely on CPD in England, highlighting what it calls a “gap between investment and impact”.

Nearly 40% of respondents said professional development had not clearly improved their ability to perform their role. Classroom teachers were more likely than senior leaders to report limited benefit, at 46% compared with 33%.

About one in five teachers – an estimated 112,000 nationally – said they had spent less than a single day on formal CPD during the 2024/25 academic year. Only 24% felt their training sufficiently considered pupil needs, and 67% cited lack of time as the main obstacle to engaging effectively.

The report also identified a divide in perception between leaders and teaching staff. One-third of school leaders believed teachers’ needs were effectively identified, compared with just 16% of teachers.

Teachers highlighted special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), technology integration and leadership as their top development priorities, but many said they lacked opportunities to address these areas.

The report noted that while most teachers are motivated to improve their practice, structural barriers persist. Some 89% said they engaged in informal learning such as reading research, listening to podcasts or discussing practice with colleagues. Teachers who accessed higher-impact approaches – including coaching, conferences or peer observation – were more likely to report improvements in their classroom practice.

Gareth Conyard, CEO of the Teacher Development Trust, said: “This report offers a unique insight into how teachers and school leaders are responding to more than a decade of CPD reforms. Nobody should doubt the importance of focusing on evidence when it comes to professional development – the key element of recent reforms – but this report shows that it isn’t enough by itself.  

“When only one in four say professional development adequately considers pupil needs, and only one in ten say it considers their needs then something is going wrong.  We can see a system full of good intent, but riven with competing structures and pressures that mean school leaders and teachers just don’t have the time or support to make the best choices.  That has to change if we don’t want to see money being wasted.”