The Early Career Teacher Entitlement (ECTE) is a new term to be used from September 2025 that describes the support that must be made available to Early Career Teachers (ECTs)

Key Documents
Core rights under the ECTE
Length of the ECTE period
Reduction in teaching timetable
Underpinning of the ECTE by the ITTECF
ECTE tutors and mentors
Pay progression
Appropriate bodies
ITTECF delivery approaches
Assessment, support and monitoring arrangements
Funding

The terms ‘induction’ and ‘Early Career Framework (ECF)’ will no longer be used. However, the rights and entitlements that ECTs had under previous arrangements during their induction remain unchanged. The most significant change relates to the content of the framework used to support the development of ECTs’ professional skills, knowledge and understanding.

The ECF has been replaced by the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF) which joins together the frameworks used previously during initial teacher training (the Core Content Framework) and the ECF. The content of both frameworks has been updated as part of the introduction of the ITTECF.

It is important to note that the DfE has yet to publish updates to all documents to take account of this change. This page will be updated when revised versions of relevant documents are made available.

This page will be of interest and relevance to all teachers and school leaders working in schools in which new teachers will be accessing the ECTE. The information set out below will be helpful for new teachers, although dedicated advice and guidance on the ECTE for new teachers is available on our new teacher section of the website.

Key documents

The ECTE is described in a suite of documents published by the DfE which are available at Early career teacher entitlement (ECTE) support. The key documents include:

  • statutory guidance setting out legal obligations on schools, employers and appropriate bodies as well as ECTs’ rights and entitlements (NB – revised guidance that discontinues use of the term ‘induction’ has yet to be published by the DfE);

  • guidance for schools on managing ITTECF-based training and the ECTE;

  • a guidance document that describes the experiences and learning that must be reflected in all ECTE programmes for ECTs; and

  • statutory guidance for appropriate bodies to which they must have regard in undertaking their monitoring and oversight functions of under the ECTE.

Any further significant advice and guidance published by the DfE on the ECTE or the ITTECF will be referenced in an updated version of this briefing.

Core rights under the ECTE

The introduction of the ECTE does not change ECTs’ key rights and entitlements. The ECTE’s key features include:

  • the underpinning of ECTs’ rights and entitlements in statutory guidance;

  • a right to a 10% reduction in teaching time during the first year of the ECTE, supplemented by a right to a 5% reduction in teaching time in the second year of the ECTE;

  • appropriate bodies having a legal duty to oversee ECTE arrangements in the settings for which they are responsible, to ensure that legal obligations are being met and to intervene when there are problems;

  • no statutory limit on the time after the award of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) that ECTE must be started or on how long ECTs will have to complete it;

  • the right to undertake short-term supply work within a period of five years after the award of QTS;

  • assessment during and at the end of the ECTE against the Teachers’ Standards only. The ITTECF is not an assessment framework but sets out the way in which the ECT can progress towards meeting the Teachers’ Standards during the course of the ECTE;

  • scope to curtail the ECTE for those with significant prior experience or to extend it for those new teachers not meeting the Teachers’ Standards at the end of the ECTE period; and

  • a prohibition on those deemed to have failed assessment against the Teachers’ Standards at the end of the ECTE from working in roles that require QTS.

Length of the ECTE period

The length of the ECTE period will continue to be two years for those ECTs working on a full-time basis.

While it is intended that the ECTE period should be lengthened on a pro-rata basis for ECTs working part time, it is recognised that this could lead to an overly long period under the ECTE for some ECTs. The statutory guidance, therefore, makes provision for agreement to be reached between an ECT working under a part-time contract, their employer and the appropriate body to assess whether the Teachers’ Standards have been met successfully after the ECT has been working for at least two years.

However, it is important to recognise that the content of the ITTECF is such that it is usually not appropriate or manageable for ECTs on part-time contracts to work through the programme at the same pace as those on full-time contracts.

The ECTE is designed to be undertaken in the equivalent of two years for a teacher working full-time. For the majority of ECTs on part-time contracts, this will mean that it is most appropriate that the overall length of the ECTE period is longer than two years.

Reduction in teaching timetable

ECTs have an entitlement to a 10% reduction in teaching time during the first year of the ECTE and to a 5% reduction in their second year. This time is included in directed time and all compulsory ECTE-related activities should be identified as part of an ECT’s directed time. Further information is available on our Directed Time (England) page.

The reduction in timetabled teaching time is allocated on a pro-rata basis for ECTs with part-time contracts. In all cases, the reduction in time should equate to 10% of the total amount of teaching time an ECT is contractually obliged to undertake during the equivalent of the first full-time year of induction and 5% during the second year.

Underpinning of the ECTE by the ITTECF

All ECTE programmes must be underpinned by the ITTECF. There are two broad approaches that settings can take to meeting this requirement, described in further detail below, but all programmes will include key elements including:

  • behaviour management;

  • pedagogy;

  • curriculum;

  • assessment; and

  • professional behaviours

ECTE tutors and mentors

Headteachers or principals must allocate both an ECTE tutor and an ECTE mentor to every ECT. The tutor is expected to hold QTS and their main function is to assess the ECT against the Teachers’ Standards. The tutor is responsible for determining the ECT’s progress towards the Teachers’ Standards and to ensure that appropriate action is taken where the ECT may be experiencing difficulties. It is a legal requirement on all employers to ensure that the tutor has the time to carry out their duties effectively and to meet the needs of the ECTs for whom they are responsible. This time should be made available during the mentor’s and ECT’s directed time.

In all but exceptional circumstances, the headteacher or principal must ensure that for each ECT, a person different to the tutor is identified to serve as the ECT’s mentor. The mentor’s core role is to support the training and development of each ECT for whom they are responsible. It is a legal requirement that they are given the time needed to fulfil this role effectively and that they are appropriately trained to ensure that the requirements of the ITTECF are met. Each mentor should receive appropriate training directly. It is not appropriate that mentors should receive formal training from other mentors to meet the requirements of the ITTECF. Specific programmes are made available for direct training of mentors.

The DfE’s guidance for schools makes clear that schools should timetable ECT and mentor sessions during teaching hours wherever possible. Where there are good reasons why this cannot happen, sessions should continue to take place within directed time. The DfE’s guidance confirms that it is the responsibility of the headteacher and the appropriate body to ensure that these expectations are met. The approach to the delivery of the ITTECF chosen by schools will also have implications for the financial support they receive for mentor training. Further details are set out in the section on funding below.

In exceptional circumstances, it is recognised that a setting may have little practical option but to appoint a single individual to undertake both the tutor and the mentor roles. In such cases, the statutory guidance makes clear that safeguards need to be put in place so that the support and the assessment functions of both roles are not conflated.

The NASUWT expects that teachers undertaking the mentoring role should be paid an additional TLR allowance in accordance with the provisions of the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) in maintained schools or according to equivalent provisions in academies and free schools.

Pay progression

The School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) makes clear that ECTs should not be subject to unreasonable barriers to pay progression after their first year in service as an ECT. An ECT moving from the first to the second year of their ECTE should move up the pay range accordingly. In those schools where decisions on pay progression remain related to the outcomes of performance management, NASUWT will insist that the DfE’s position on the pay progression of ECTs is reflected unambiguously in pay policies.

Appropriate bodies

The statutory guidance for appropriate bodies confirms that they have a critical role to play in ensuring that ECTs and mentors receive their statutory entitlements.

A central function of the appropriate body is to ensure that the provisions of the statutory guidance on the ECTE are being implemented in every setting in which ECTs are deployed. It is the duty of the appropriate body to monitor compliance in these settings with legal requirements, including the provision of the full range of entitlements for ECTs and mentors set out in this guidance and to take steps to put matters right where there are problems.

ITTECF delivery approaches

To ensure that ECTE arrangements are consistent with the provisions of the ITTECF, schools and other settings employing ECTs can choose from one of two delivery models:

  • A funded provider-led programme. Settings using this approach access a programme from a range of DfE-accredited providers that offer a comprehensive programme of face-to-face and online training. The training and support for ECTs and mentors delivered through these programmes is fully funded by the DfE. Schools can access the provider-led programme through their teaching school hub or by contacting a preferred provider directly. Not all settings can choose from all providers, although at least one provider is available to each. This remains the most popular approach to ensuring access to the ITTECF.

  • Schools delivering their own training using DfE materials and resources. In this model, schools can make use of materials produced by the DfE to deliver their own programmes of ECT and mentor support. Schools using this model do not have access to an external provider and are subject to fidelity checks by appropriate bodies to ensure that their programmes are consistent with ITTECF requirements.

DfE guidance for schools recommends that schools do not change to a different training delivery method part-way through an ECT’s ECTE period. NASUWT’s advice is that schools should only do this if it is genuinely unavoidable and only at the end of a school year rather than during the year of circumstances permit

Assessment, support and monitoring arrangements

ECTs are subject to formal assessments at the end of their first and second years of ECTE. They undertake progress reviews at the end of their first, second, fourth and fifth terms. The statutory guidance confirms that schools are expected to share the outcomes of progress reviews with the appropriate body.

ECTs must also have one-to-one mentoring sessions with their designated mentor, be observed teaching periodically during their ECTE period with written feedback provided and have the opportunity to work alongside other teachers to observe and develop their practice.

ECTs are not included in the performance management or appraisal arrangements that schools apply to other teachers. Assessment of ECTs’ effectiveness is undertaken through the ECTE process.

Funding

All state-funded schools providing the ECTE will receive additional funding to cover the 5% reduction in teaching time in the second year of the ECTE period as well as funding to cover the second year of mentor time based on 20 hours of mentoring per ECT. Further details of funding levels and payment arrangements are set out in the DfE’s ECTE funding overview document.

From September 2025, schools adopting the provider-led induction model will receive additional funding to cover backfill for 20 hours of mentor training over a one-year period. Currently, this funding is not available for schools that select the school-led approach to ITTECF delivery. For those mentors who started training before September 2025, funding will continue to cover 36-weeks of training provided over a two-year period.

 


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