Additional Support Offer (ASO) – Iteration

Posted on 17 September 2021

Following on from the initial ASO journey we tested a new version with the following:

ASO choice presented as a course in the NPQ list
Details about registering to NPQH and an ASO revealing when you select either of them
A shortcut call to action linking through to registering for an ASO after completing an NPQH registration
Clarifying who is eligible to study an ASO, and who is eligible for ASO funding
Asking about eligibility to study an ASO via asking about NPQH

Research findings

We spoke to 4 users, all aspiring heads and so not in headship role already.

After research we found some key issues and following a workshop we decided to:

not link from the NPQH confirmation to an ASO journey
not try and do any ASO heavy lifting around raising awareness of ASO, instead leaving that to providers
remove the revealing content about registering for both in sequence as it was confusing
favour ‘Additional Support Offer’ over the ‘ASO’ abbreviation
refer to funding consistently as ‘DfE scholarship funding’
be clearer who the ASO is targeted towards by consistently saying ‘Additional Support Offer for new headteachers’

Content changes following workshop

Key findings

Awareness of ASO is low.

The expanding info on the choose course page is problematic:

speedy users do not read it
the messaging is misinterpreted, “registering” was read as “taking”, and users thought they needed to take an ASO after their NPQH

By the end of registration of an NPQH, aspiring heads were not clear if:

they were eligible for the funding of ASO
if ASO is an appropriate course for them

We might consider linking to guidance here, or showing it only to headteachers. Otherwise users who are not eligible have to go through the first few pages of the ASO journey to find out definitely that they’re not eligible for funding. Until they see the ‘You are not eligible for scholarship funding’ page they are unsure.

Messaging on eligibility criteria questions are clear and users are unlikely to end up in the wrong place.

Choose NPQ page

Speedy users may ignore the expanding info on the ASO in their journey to register for NPQH (might be an artefact of getting them to repeat a journey they’ve already done in own time)

Awareness of ASO is low-to-none. But once have they read the revealed guidance the ASO is “one of two different options” though that isn’t always clear at a first reading “reading it first time I thought I’d have to do both”. One user thought that it would be a choice between doing the ASO or the NPQEL. As in they were both follow ups to the NPQH, even though that user did know what the NPQEL was as targeted towards executive leaders.

The information in the revealed text accidentally implied that the ASO is to be taken after the NPQH, which contrasts with messaging later about being able to do both concurrently.

You may qualify for funding page

Users picked up on use of the word ‘may’, but nonetheless had an expectation at this page that probably funding was going to be available to them. This is partly due to these users being at the next step of the process, and had heard from providers.

Initial Registration complete page (for NPQH)

Users liked that we told them what would happen next, but there have been fairly long delays without comms between registration and hearing from providers. Some sense of the timescales would be useful, but users had an appreciation that this was year 1 and it’s a hectic start to term.

Providers in their comms to users have asked them to check they have completed registration - not sure if that’s due to a slightly fudged data passing activity at the moment, but it causes some confusion to users who are sure they’ve done the registration already.

ASO messaging

The messaging on this page makes it clearer that the ASO can be taken alongside the NPQH. When these aspiring heads were asked at this point if they expected they’d be eligible for funding they were able to say no “because I’m not a head”.

When considering if the ASO is worthwhile doing concurrently, knowing the workload would be an important part to consider
One user interpreted “additional support offer for NPQH” as meaning additional support in applying for the NPQH which made no sense to them as the registration was so straight forward. As such, saw it as something you do before the NPQH.

ASO start page (after clicking link on NPQH registration complete page)

This page helped make it clear to the aspiring heads that this was still a course that’s open to them, under the category of ‘have recently registered to start an NPQH’.

Messaging about 'if you are a headteacher in your first 2 years of headship" is clear.

‘Alternatively you can pay for an ASO another way’ also clear.

P2 saw a copy of the page where the link to guidance was at the top and ignored this link. The link was then moved to the bottom of the page above ‘continue’ button. This made it more noticeable and users were inclined to click it to find more information.

GOV.UK guidance page

“a targeted support package for teachers new to the role of headship.” which appears here and on the service confused one user who personally distinguished this being for ‘leaders’ or ‘headteachers’ and not ‘teachers’.

“have either completed an NPQH before taking up your first headship post or are currently taking the NPQH” the latter clause in this sentence doesn’t imply being in the role of headship.

Are you a headteacher?

At this page, the aspiring heads still were not 100% confident whether or not they may be eligible for funding until they progress further but they were clear on the question and answered it correctly

Are you in your first two years of headship

Again question is clear, users understood these two questions as coming together to assess eligibility for scholarship funding

ASO funding is not available to you

This page was very clear in the messaging that they are not eligible for the scholarship funding.

Finding out that it can be paid for in another way is also useful, especially when the cost of course was shown.

Users would go off and have conversations with the budget holders at school at this point, or knew flat out that the money wouldn’t be there.

Users understood that they would qualify for funding at a later date - after they had become headteachers

Doing both courses at once or not

‘I would want to do an NPQH first as I feel the work would be too much alongside a current head role’
‘Doing it throughout would be beneficial’

ASO initial registration complete page

Two users that we got to the end.

One rightly identified:
“I think I’ve signed up to the NPQH and the ASO. NPQH is scholarship funded and I’m paying for the ASO”.

Another user however thought:
“‘I have registered for an NPQH - and confirmed my provider etc. I haven’t registered for an ASO”.

Choice of provider for ASO

Users would likely pick the same provider for the ASO as was delivering their NPQH, especially if doing both concurrently.
There was recognition that if they did their ASO later, they could change providers.

The meaning of the word ‘registered’

We got a sense that the meaning of registration is less clear-cut in the minds of users than ourselves. One user who had used our service to register, but had not yet heard back if they’d been successful from the provider, wasn’t sure if they were in the camp of ‘registered for an NPQH’ because registration for them was tied to ‘approved’ or ‘successfully applied’.