Phase 3 of the Professional Development Programme rollout (PDP3)

The purpose of this notice is to notify the market of forthcoming procurement activity relating to Phase 3 of the Professional Development Programme rollout (PDP3)

This notice is associated with the EY Recovery Programme strand 4 Phase 3 of the Professional Development Programme rollout (PDP3): Building on PDP1 and PDP2.

Further details can be found via the link below.

An early engagement event will be held at 2pm Tuesday 7th December 2021. To register for the event, email:

[email protected]

You can also respond to this notice by completing our questionnaire. For a copy of the questionnaire please email the address above.

Investing in focused professional development in the early years to improve skills and practice can lead to rapid improvements in setting-level quality, children's cognitive outcomes in language and numeracy development and their socio-emotional development. The need to ensure practitioners are fully equipped to best support 2 - 4 year olds has become even more vital following the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on child development.

The Professional Development Programme (PDP) aims to ensure children develop the skills we know make the most difference to cognitive outcomes by providing early years practitioners with access to high-quality, evidence-based programme of training and professional development support.

The existing PDP provision has been delivered in phases.

The first phase, 'PDP 1', was rolled out to 50 Local Authorities (LAs) in 2019 through a £20 million investment. Training here focused on early language and maths and utilised a cascade model to train champions who then embedded their learning in settings. Training was initially delivered face to face, but has pivoted to online provision following the COVID-19 pandemic. PDP 1 is due to finish in April 2022.

PDP has been extended to around 50 new local authorities across England in the 2021 to 2022 academic year through a further £10 million investment: 'PDP 2'. As well as early language and maths, PDP 2 will include content on personal, social and emotional development (PSED) for 2 to 4-year-olds in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that children's mental health and wellbeing is prioritised. The training also includes a focus on staff wellbeing. PDP 2 will be delivered online directly to practitioners, rather than using a cascade model, and training will commence in January 2022.

We will expand the offer of PDP for frontline practitioners further through a third phase of the programme, i.e 'PDP 3'. This will be a key strand of the Department for Education's EY Recovery Programme which will support the very youngest children's learning and development following the Covid-19 pandemic. PDP 3 responds to concerns since the pandemic, ensuring national coverage of a training package that covers early language, numeracy and PSED which will be targeted to ensure we reach the most disadvantaged children.

Additional information: Please note: this notice is for expressions of interest from organisations interested in Professional Development Programme rollout element of the Department's Early Years Recovery Programme.

This notice is for information only and is intended to be indicative. Therefore, all information presented here is subject to change. Accordingly, DfE will not be liable for any cost, expenditure, work or effort incurred by any party acting on the basis of this PIN.

All future information will be issued to potential providers via the DfE eTendering Portal. Providers can access this system at:

https://education.app.jaggaer.com/

for details of how to register and the terms of free registration.