Early Years Leadership (NPQEYL)

For leaders who are, or are aspiring to be, managers of private, voluntary and independent nurseries, headteachers of school-based or maintained nurseries, or childminders with leadership responsibilities.

NPQEYL brochure

Duration: 18 months (plus 3 months for summative assessment process)
Hours of study: 81
Cost: Free to those who meet the scholarship eligibility criteria. The cost for school or self-funded participants outside of the criteria is £1,148

Scholarship eligibility criteria:

  • Teachers and leaders, employed in state-funded schools in England. This may include nurseries within schools, or local authority nursery schools.
  • Early Years practitioners and leaders that work in early years settings in independent schools that provide free early years entitlements places.
  • Early Years practitioners and leaders, employed at childcare providers registered on the Ofsted Early Years Register:

- providing childcare on non-domestic premises (people or organisations - providing care for individual children in premises that are not someone’s home. e.g., nurseries, pre-schools, holiday clubs and other group-based settings)
- providing childcare on domestic premises (providers where four or more people look after children together in a home that is not the child’s own).

  • Early Years practitioners and leaders, working as:

- Childminders, registered on the Ofsted Early Years Register (where the care takes place in a home that is not the child’s own)
- Childminders, registered with an Ofsted-registered Childminder Agency, caring for early years children.

Apply for an NPQEYL

  • Register: To begin your application journey, please complete a registration form via the DfE registration portal to verify your details.
  • Apply: Once your details have been validated by the Department for Education (this can take up to 3 working days), you will be added to our database. We will then be in touch to advise on next steps and how to complete your application.

We are now accepting applications for our October 2023 and February 2024 cohorts.