The Early Career Framework will subject to a government review to make improvements in terms of mentor workload and flexibility, the Department for Education announced today.
The DfE has also pledged to introduce an “early career teacher entitlement”, formally known as the Early Career Framework Programme, from September 2025.
In response to the upcoming review, the DfE announced this afternoon that improvements on mentor workload, flexibility and contextualisation will be delivered by September this year.
The Early Career Framework (ECF) was last reviewed in 2023, having been launched under the previous Conservative government in 2019.
The announcement comes with the new ECF and the Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework due to be rolled into one from September 2025.
Tes previously revealed the four providers awarded contracts to deliver the ECF from 2025: Ambition Institute, the Education Development Trust, Teach First, UCL Institute of Education and National Institute of Teaching.
Last month the Teacher Development Trust announced that it plans to stop offering National Professional Qualifications and had also withdrawn its bid to deliver the ECF.
Full government review of the ECF
The ECF is also set for a full review in 2027, which the government has said will focus on mentoring and teaching pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
“We recognise that there is more work to do in these areas, and taking a longer-term approach will allow us the time to take account of the latest evidence and any implications following our reforms to the SEND system,” a Department for Education spokesperson said.
The DfE has also promised to provide schools with a package of support, including free materials to train their own mentors to support pupils with SEND.
However, a timeline for the delivery of these measures is yet to be confirmed, Tes understands
In addition, the DfE will offer a review of the charges that schools face for ECF quality assurance to ensure that the school-led route is not financially restrictive.
The government plans to strengthen the guidance to ensure that appropriate bodies, which charge schools that design their own training for quality assurance, only charge where necessary.
Tes understands that the guidance for appropriate bodies will be updated in the spring and implemented starting September 2025.
Expert steering group to review NPQs
National Professional Qualifications (NPQ) will also be the focus of a government review.
Government funding for NPQs for 2025 was slashed for most teachers and leaders.
The review will be supported by an “expert steering group”, which will advise on changes.
However, the DfE will chair this group and retain control of all policy decisions related to the programme, it confirmed today.
The NPQ review will consider the following:
- Best practice for teaching pupils with SEND.
- Ensuring that areas that are repeated across the different NPQ frameworks genuinely support progression through different levels of leadership.
- Addressing how leadership practices can support workload reduction.
- Best practice, particularly at executive leadership level, in operational aspects of leadership, such as how to manage a budget and deploy a workforce effectively.
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