CPD
Staffing
Please enjoy this free content - for more Need To Know articles please consider a subscription
Top takeaway
From September 2025 schools will be working to the combined and revised initial teacher training and early career framework (ITTECF). Early career teachers have a training entitlement and schools are responsible for choosing one of two routes for provision. The problem of mentor workload has been acknowledged and changes made to simplify the role.
Acronyms and definitions
- Appropriate body: appropriate bodies are responsible for assuring the quality of statutory teacher induction. Teaching school hubs are now the main provider of appropriate body services. Schools must appoint an appropriate body to quality assure their induction processes.
- ECT: early career teacher – a teacher in their first two years post initial teacher training (e.g. PGCE).
- ECTE: early career teacher entitlement – a two-year training programme and supporting activities that will equip ECTs for their career.
- ITTECF: initial teacher training and early career framework, the updated framework based on a combination of initial teacher training (ITT), core content framework (CCF) and the early career framework (ECF).
|
School roles
Headteachers, induction tutors and mentors all have a role to play in the delivery of the ECTE.
Headteacher: has overall responsibility for the ECTE in their school. This includes selecting an appropriate body, ensuring that ECTs and mentors get their time off timetable entitlements, and assuring the quality of the school’s training programme.
Induction tutor: leads on the delivery of the ECTE in the school; they also have responsibility for reviewing and assessing the ECT against the Teachers’ Standards.
Mentor: meets regularly with individual ECTs to give support, training and feedback. They don’t assess the ECT.
For further detail and breakdown of roles and responsibilities of headteacher, induction tutor and mentor, see Early career teacher entitlement: roles and responsibilities
Provision routes
Schools can follow two provision routes for delivery:
- Provider led, where the school choses to work with a DfE-approved provider, who delivers a programme of training to ECTs and their mentors. This programme is funded by the DfE.
- School led, where the school delivers their own training and support programme, based on the ITTECF. The content of the framework must be covered in full. There are freely-available materials which schools can use, accredited by the DfE and quality assured by the Education Endowment Foundation.
Changes based on feedback
Based on the review conducted in 2023, some changes to the ITTECF and induction process have been made.
- The ITTECF includes new wording on progression, setting out how knowledge and skills should develop across ITT and through ECF-based induction, to reduce unnecessary repetition.
- The framework has more content around special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), high-quality oral language (oracy), early cognitive development and evidence literacy. Training programmes will include more content on adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with SEND.
- Training for new mentors has been reduced to one year.
- Training providers (for the provider-led route) are to provide more session materials for mentors to use with ECTs in school, to save preparation time.
- Training programme materials will include examples for different phases, settings and subjects.
Guidance documents and frameworks
There are a number of pieces of guidance to be aware of in this area. What do they do?
|
Questions for reflection
- Do the relevant staff in your setting know about these changes? Will they impact your role?
- What’s the mentors’ experience been like in your setting? Do you think that the changes to reduce their workload will be effective?
- Has your setting opted for the provider-led or school-led approach? Have you considered changing routes? Is this a good time to review arrangements?
- Has the provision for early career teachers been beneficial, do you think? Has it made a difference to the induction experience?
