Once you have a confirmed ECT commencing or continuing their entitelement at your school, please register your ECT on the DfE portal as soon as possible. Registration for September 2025 will open by the 30th of June 2025. We also advise you to send over these ECTs details to ect@exceedacadmiestrust.co.uk

To register your ECT with our Appropriate Body service, please login to ECT Manager and follow the registration process. 

If your ECT is continuing employment from Year 1 to Year 2 of entitlement, no actions are needed on the DfE portal or ECT Manager. 

Register them in the same way you would with an ECT commencing entitlement for the first time - register on the DfE portal and ECT Manager.

When you access the DfE portal, you will be presented with details of the training they have already accessed. You can select to maintain this programme or to change to a different option. 

When registering on ECT Manager, it's important you have accurate details of the number of terms of induction completed in former schools.

It is always the Induction Tutor. 

If you would like to commence or resume induction for an ECT part-way through the academic year, we advise that you contact Exceed Teaching School Hub so we can advise you on the best induction start date. Contact us at ect@exceedacademiestrust.co.uk. 

We advise you to provide a school email address. Induction tutors can amend the email address for an ECT at any point on the DfE portal, and this updated address will automatically be provided to the training provider where appropriate. We do advise that you notify the ECT team with any email address changes at ect@exceedacademiestrust.co.uk

To register an ECT on ECT Manager, a TRN is required. For the DfE portal, it is strongly encouraged that if the Induction Tutor has this at the point of registration, they enter it as this will speed up the registration and validation process.  If no TRN is available at the time of registration, then it can be left blank and the participant will be emailed to remind them they need to add it once they have it.

If a school has previously nominated someone as their Induction Tutor, the DfE will contact the school using that email address. If a school’s Induction Tutor has changed, a school can contact the helpdesk by emailing continuing-professional-development@digital.education.gov.uk and providing the name and email of the new Induction Tutor.

If the school has not previously nominated an Induction Tutor, the DfE will use the email address associated with the school. This is often a head@, office@ or admin@ address and schools can check their details are up-to-date by using DfE Sign-in.

The ECT will need to access the TRA’s system to print a PDF version of their certificate. They will need to log in onto the Teacher Self-Service Portal (https://teacherservices.education.gov.uk/SelfService/Login). This portal provides teachers with access to their own records held on the database of qualified teachers in England (DQT). For any questions or queries regarding this, ECTs will need to email the TRA’s Teacher Qualification Unit at qts.enquiries@education.gsi.gov.uk. 

ECTs on the ECF Programme will continue with this until the end of their 2-year induction. 

We will resume the programme the ECT commenced their induction on e.g. if an ECT started their induction in September 2024, they will continue to access the ECF Programme. 

 The ECF Programme will no longer exist from August 2027. ECTs still on the ECF programme beyond this point will move to training based on the initial teacher training and early career framework from 1 September 2027 if they’ve not completed by 31 August 2027.

Mentors will receive orientation modules based on the cohorts they are mentoring on Steplab. Exceed Teaching School Hub will also offer additional training and bespoke support. 

Yes. Mentors who are completing the 2-year training programme will continue to receive training until July 2026. 

Mentors will receive orientation modules based on the cohorts they are mentoring on Steplab. Exceed Teaching School Hub will also offer additional training and bespoke support. 

Ambition will be providing training in Half Term 6 2025. Exceed Teaching School Hub will also offer additional training and bespoke support. 

Ambition are introducing the option of pastoral meetings each fortnight in year 1 ECT-mentor meetings.

This could encompass a wide range of topics, such as managing and planning parents' evenings, tutor groups, wellbeing, phone calls home, and workload to name a few. The content of this would be based on ECT needs and decided by the mentor.

These sessions need to be logged on My ECT, including the focus of the pastoral session. 

The minimum period that can be counted towards completion of the induction period (for both full-time and part-time teachers) is continuous employment for one term (based on an institution that operates three terms in a school year). This applies to both permanent and long-term supply teaching posts. Separately, in exceptional cases, Appropriate Bodies have the discretion to reduce the length of the induction period to a minimum of one term to recognise extensive prior experience.

In both of these scenarios, teachers serving an induction length of one term should still receive an induction based on the Early Career Teacher Entitlement (ECTE). Headteachers should work with Induction Tutors (and providers, where appropriate) to ensure the training is appropriate in each individual circumstance. Appropriate Bodies are expected to check that the ECT receives their full entitlement through quality assurance processes. 

For long-term supply colleagues of one term or more, there are instances where entitlement can take place. We recommend you contact your Appropriate Body Service to enquire about this.

Early Career Teacher Entitlement (ECTE) is only funded for those serving statutory induction. An Early Career Teacher cannot undertake statutory entitlement (or a period of employment counting towards entitlement) unless they have been awarded Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). Headteachers and Appropriate Bodies must check with the Teaching Regulation Agency that the individual holds QTS. Teachers with Early Years Teacher Status who do not also hold QTS are not eligible to serve statutory entitlement and therefore not eligible for the funded Early Career Teacher Entitlement.

Yes, FE institutions do have access to funded 'Use a DfE-funded provider' option for Early Career Teacher Entitlement.

An FE institution, sixth-form college or 16–19 academy wishing to offer an ECT a post in which to serve a statutory entitlement period is expected to:

• ensure that normally no more than 10% of the ECT’s teaching in the FE institution is devoted to teaching classes predominantly consisting of pupils aged 19 and over;
• enable the ECT to develop a sound knowledge and understanding of day-to-day practices and the role of a teacher in a school; ECTs should spend the equivalent of at least ten days teaching children of compulsory school age in a school during their induction; and
• make every effort to provide the ECT with up to a further 15 days’ experience in a school setting

Annex A of the Statutory Induction Guidance provides information on those categories of qualified teachers who are exempt from the requirement to satisfactorily complete a statutory induction period in order to be employed as a teacher in a relevant school. This includes teachers who have been awarded Qualified Teacher in Learning and Skills (QTLS) Status by the Society for Education (SET) (formerly the Institute for Learning – IfL) and who hold active membership with the SET.

Statutory entitlement can be served in an independent school. These schools still need to appoint an Appropriate Body, but they will only need to use the manage training for early career teachers service in the following two situations:

● If they are an independent special school registered as in receipt of “Section 41 funding” (i.e. state-funded) and they wish to use a DfE-funded training provider

● If they wish to deliver the DfE-accredited materials in school themselves

Independent schools that do not receive “Section 41” funding can choose to engage with a training provider directly, but they do not need to use the manage training for early career teachers service in order to do so.

If you are an independent school wishing to use the "provider-led" option, there is an annual Delivery Partner and Lead Provider fee. 

Induction Tutors need to inform ect@exceedacademiestrust.co.uk and your Appropriate Body service about this so the team can action a withdrawal and set up an Interim Assessment for completion. 

When an ECT is registered on the DfE service at their new school by the school’s Induction Tutor, the DfE is able to match the validated record to the old school and reflect the transfer. Training providers are notified automatically about the transfer. When the ECT is registered at a new school to an Appropriate Body Service, prior induction will be carried forward along with prior reports. 

If an ECT is going to be leaving school part way through induction, the Induction Tutor needs to let us know at ect@exceedacademiestrust.co.uk. The Induction Tutor will also need to inform the Appropriate Body, so the necessary arrangements can be made in regard to the statutory entitlement.

An ECT should continue their training programme until they leave school.

As soon as a school has concerns about an ECT's progress towards the Teachers' Standards, the Appropriate Body should be informed. The Appropriate Body will make recommendations to the school in line with Section 4 of the Statutory Guidance for Induction. 

In particularly serious cases, it may be necessary to instigate capability procedures before the end of the entitlement period. Refer to section 4 (paragraphs 4.7- 4.8) of the Statutory Induction Guidance for further information on action in the event of serious capability problems. Importantly, the Early Career entitlement should always continue alongside any capability proceedings.

Schools are funded to cover ECT time off timetable and mentor support during the 2-year early career teacher entitlement (ECTE). Funding comes from 2 sources. 

This normally means: 

• Year 1 funding comes from the core funding your school gets through the dedicated schools grant (DSG) 
• Year 2 funding comes from additional support from the DfE (we call this ‘grant funding’) - for academies and others we pay this to your school directly or, if you’re a maintained school, your local authority will pass the funding to you

Schools receive their core funding through the dedicated schools grant (DSG), which is calculated using the National Funding Formula (NFF). The NFF allocates funding primarily based on the characteristics of the schools and
their pupils.

Schools initially received funding for the time off timetable through the “standards fund”. Now, the funding is incorporated into the core schools funding that schools receive through the DSG. As such, schools are expected to meet the cost of the 10% release time for newly qualified teachers as part of their core funding.

The NFF does not ‘earmark’ a certain amount of funding which schools receive for, or should spend on, their ECTs. It is up to Headteachers to manage the funding they receive.

For those on the DfE-funded provider option, there will be an additional payment to schools for the time that mentors of ECTs spend on Department-funded mentor training, which will consist of 36 hours of backfill time over two years per mentor.

Schools will receive the funding in arrears at the end of the ECT’s second year to pay for 5% of time off timetable. So, if a school has an ECT starting the ECF in 2021, the payment for 5% time off timetable will be made in 2023. 

This funding is paid via a grant and will be calculated using the Schools Workforce Census.

The 5% time-off timetable is not a calculation of the 5% of an M2 salary, but instead the cost of taking an ECT out of the classroom for 5% of their teaching hours. This is calculated by taking 1265h of ‘directed working hours’ and multiplying by 69%, the proportion of teaching hours including PPA. This figure is then multiplied by 5, providing the 5% time-off timetable, which accounts for 44hr, multiplied by the regional hourly pay rate.

It is at each school’s discretion as to who should mentor each ECT.  There is no requirement that there be one mentor for all ECTs within a school – see the Statutory Induction Guidance for further information. The DfE has committed to funding up to a 1:1 ratio. This means there is one funded mentor place for each ECT registered. 

Funding for training and mentor backfill is allocated per mentor. If one mentor is working with two ECTs, one lot of funding will be provided for that mentor to attend the training and backfill payments will be made to allow the mentor time off timetable to attend training. 

The funding to allow for 5% off timetable for mentoring sessions is allocated per ECT, so when a mentor is working with two ECTs, the school will receive funding to allow for two lots of time off timetable for that mentor.

If an ECT leaves part way through their second year of induction, then part funding will be calculated based on the School Workforce Census returns.

Year one funding is already included in the National Funding Formula so schools will continue to receive this as normal.

If a mentor leaves the ECTE programme having completed one term or more, funding will be made on a pro-rata basis.