Changes to Early Career Teacher (ECT) Induction protocols

Changes to Early Career Teacher (ECT) Induction protocols in light of the recent DfE consultation on the future of Appropriate Body status for local authorities.

The ECT period of induction now covers two years. Appropriate Bodies (ABs) are responsible for the quality assurance of ECT induction. They have a statutory role of ensuring ECTs receive entitlements to mentoring and time off timetable during induction and verifying the ECT’s assessment against the Teachers’ Standards to pass induction.

The DfE have been reviewing the role of ABs to make sure that these organisations deliver their critical statutory functions effectively.

The white paper, ‘Opportunity for all: strong schools with great teachers for your child’ also outlined the changing role of local authorities and a focus on moving towards a fully trust led system which has informed the proposed reforms to who can operate as an AB.

These changes to induction, and the commitment to reviewing the role of ABs, led to the consultation on AB reforms and induction assessment. This online consultation was launched on 26 May 2022 and ended on 21 July 2022.

A major question that the DfE sought to clarify with the consultation, focused on the transition period of transferring the role of AB from local authorities to teaching school hubs (TSHs). Originally this transition was going to be at the end of the 2022/2023 academic year; that is, transition would be completed by September 2023 and from that date, a local authority would no longer be allowed to be an AB.

As a result of the consultation, the DfE have concluded that the date of September 2023 proposed in the consultation would not allow sufficient time for ABs and the schools they work with to plan a well manged transition and provide a consistent, quality experience for all ECTs.

The DfE state, 'We are committed to ensuring that there is a sufficient transitional period for local authorities to wind down their AB service provision and for TSHs to build their capacity to cover need. We will introduce a phased transitional period for this reform where local authorities will be able to continue acting as ABs until September 2024 but in the interest of consistency for ECTs, local authority ABs will not be able to register any new ECTs from September 2023. This will mean that local authority ABs will be able to continue acting as AB for the majority of their 2022/23 cohorts, while also ensuring consistency for future cohorts.'

This means that the majority of the ECTs that started in this academic year (2022/23) will be able to complete their induction with Lancashire as their AB. There will be a minority of ECTs serving ‘nonstandard’ inductions (either part time ECTs, ECTs who started induction during academic year 2022/23 after September 2023, or ECTs who require an extension at the end of their induction period) who will need to transfer to a new AB from September 2024.

With this in mind, it has been decided that Lancashire AB will not take new registrations for ECT induction from January 2023, as we would be unable to support new ECTs for the duration of their two-year induction period and it would be unfair for them to have to move to a new AB.

However, as stated above, we will maintain support for ECTs already registered with us until September 2024 (almost all of those that are currently signed to us).

ECTs registered with Lancashire AB will still have access to training in 2023/24.

ECTs from January and those starting during the next academic year (2023/24) must be signed with non-LA Appropriate Body (TSH).

If you have any questions or queries about this, please contact a member of the team.