Kollektiv members worked alongside England’s education policymakers to uncover systemic blockers in the flagship new teacher induction programme. The work realigned incentives, and helped reduce burdens on schools — shifting the programme toward quality training that truly supports teachers at the start of their careers.

What was the problem?

A year into the Department for Education’s (DfE) flagship teacher induction programme, hundreds of new teachers across England found themselves without access to the very training designed to support them.

Schools were struggling to navigate the changes, with many devising their own workarounds to support their new teachers. Meanwhile, DfE teams and training providers were inundated with support requests.

A programme intended to give new teachers greater support at the start of their career was instead adding pressure on schools and uncertainty for the teachers it was meant to help - at a time when a third of new teachers were leaving the profession within five years. 

From crisis to opportunity

Recognising that these challenges could not be solved with the same thinking that created them, the DfE brought together a small Agile team to work alongside policymakers.

Our role was to reimagine programme delivery to better meet the needs of schools.

We were pointed to three key areas for improvement:

• Understanding and communication: The programme had been launched under intense pressure, leaving schools with little time to understand what was required or why. How might schools receive clearer, more timely and more consistent communication? 

• The digital service: The systems through which schools and teachers accessed the programme were unnecessarily complex, making engagement harder. How might these better reflect schools’ mental models?

• The training provider contract: This document set expectations for training providers. How might it centre more on the needs of teachers and school staff?

Building bridges for collaboration

We set out to listen, build trust, and collaborate — not just with schools but with those who had created the original policy. 

We used approaches including:

• generative user research, with design provocations

• quantitative data analysis

• systems thinking and multiple perspective models

These helped us uncover root causes and shift the conversation toward what ‘better’ might look like.

Aligning incentives to outcomes

While programme communication was important, our work revealed a deeper issue: conflicting incentives across the programme delivery system. Schools, training providers and the DfE had misaligned priorities, preventing them from pulling in the same direction.

Most notably, the funding model prioritised attendance over meaningful engagement. Training providers were paid based on session attendance and completion, which led them to pressure schools to participate, regardless of whether the training was useful or relevant. Many schools felt pestered rather than supported, leading to disengagement and frustration.

Co-designing with policymakers

By working closely with policymakers, the team helped shape a more nuanced funding model — one that prioritised training quality and impact rather than just attendance figures. This shift would help training providers focus more on the benefits of their courses rather than just getting teachers through the door.

We also made the case for reducing the mentor training period from two years to one year, easing the burden on experienced teachers and leaders.

Driving meaningful change

By bridging perspectives, aligning incentives, and designing for reality, we helped shape a programme that is becoming more effective, sustainable, and responsive to schools.

This work demonstrates our ability to:

• listen deeply

• rethink narratives

• uncover systemic blockers

• design incentives that drive change

• build trust with policymakers and engage them in the user-centred design process.

  “The team combined a systematically strategic approach with a commitment to listening intently to the perspective of teachers and schools leaders - this led them to both join up the dots to make activity more coherent, push us to be bolder but also deliver real tangible and practical improvements.”

  Chris Armstrong-Stacey, Director, Department for Education.