TED in the 6,500 Teachers Delivery Plan: a brief mention with real significance

The government’s 6,500 additional teachers delivery plan, published alongside Every child achieving and thriving on 23 February 2026, makes a clear argument: improving recruitment is only part of the answer. Retention, professional development and stronger evidence about what works are also central to building a high-quality teaching workforce

That is why the plan’s reference to TED matters.

In the “Develop” section, the government says it will support strong development cultures in schools by promoting research on effective continuing professional development, ensuring NPQs reflect that evidence, and working with the National Institute of Teaching on its recently launched CPD portal while “developing a promising Teacher Education Dataset to help dig into what makes teaching impactful.”

This is only a brief mention, but it signals something important. TED is being positioned as part of a wider effort to understand which forms of teacher education and professional development actually improve practice. In a policy environment focused on 6,500 additional teachers, that matters because workforce growth alone is not enough; the system also needs better evidence on how teachers develop, stay and thrive in the profession.

OS Schools is part of the wider infrastructure needed to make this ambition real. While the government’s delivery plan points to the importance of a “promising Teacher Education Dataset”, OS Schools is focused on creating the secure research environment needed to work with data like this responsibly and effectively. By enabling robust analysis and careful linkage of datasets, it can help generate better evidence about what makes teaching impactful.

That matters because data alone does not improve practice. To strengthen teacher development, retention and pupil outcomes, the system also needs the infrastructure to turn data into insight. OS Schools is being built to support exactly that.

The mention also sits in a significant context for the National Institute of Teaching. The government explicitly names NIoT as a partner in this work, alongside its CPD portal. That suggests confidence in NIoT’s role not only as a provider of professional development, but as a contributor to the evidence infrastructure behind a stronger school system.

In other words, TED’s appearance in the delivery plan may be brief, but it is meaningful. And read alongside the work underway on OS-Schools, it points to something bigger: a growing recognition that teacher development should be informed by better data, sharper evaluation and a clearer understanding of impact.