This paper explores a three-year Creative Professional Development programme for teachers which encourages them to develop their skills as writers and illustrators in order to bring creative and original ideas about writing and illustrating into their classroom practice. The implicit message within such a programme is that without it, teachers, possibly bound by a restrictive, prescriptive curriculum and pressures to meet national standards, are not teaching their students how to write or illustrate in creative ways. The political and curricular forces at play in schools in England which have encouraged and necessitated the buying-in of such programmes are examined, as are the implications of such a programme on students', teachers' and schools' understandings of creativity. Has creativity now become something outside the curriculum, no longer the responsibility of teachers and schools? Is it something that teachers are empowered to do with their students only if schools have the money to pay for experts?