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In 2003, the National Agreement set out measures to raise standards and tackle workloads. Alongside these measures, the National Agreement set out workforce reforms. These reforms ushered in a new professionalism for teachers, encompassing new professional standards for teachers; performance management arrangements for teachers and headteachers; and the promotion of professional development as an integral part of a teacher’s everyday life.

This report sets out the findings from a study commissioned by the then Department for Children, Schools and Families (now the Department for Education) which evaluates the extent to which ‘new professionalism’ has been introduced in schools, and its impact on teaching and learning. For the purposes of the research, ‘new professionalism’ is taken to include professional standards, performance management, ongoing continuing professional development (CPD) and newly qualified teacher (NQT) induction.

The findings revealed that:

• schools are implementing the four strands of new professionalism, and that this is making a difference to aspects of teachers’ and headteachers’ working practices
• awareness of the four strands was high, and the majority of respondents reported that each of the four strands had led to improvements in teaching and learning practices
• the majority of respondents agreed that as a result of new professionalism, they or teachers in their school were now more able to exercise their own professional judgement in their teaching and learning practices, gave more recognition to the importance of a good work-life balance, received the recognition they deserved for the contribution they made to teaching and learning, and had been more able to access pay progression opportunities.

Walker, M., Jeffes, J., Hart, R., Lord, P. and Kinder, K. (2011). Making the Links Between Teachers' Professional Standards, Induction, Performance Management and Continuing Professional Development (DFE Research Report 075). London: DfE.