Methodology

Teacher and Leader development: ECF and NPQs

• Published: 11 July 2024

Summary

The ‘Teacher and Leader development: ECF and NPQs’ publication is designated ‘Official statistics in development’. It was first published in July 2022 and reports on the numbers of early career teachers (ECTs) and mentors participating in the Early Career Framework (ECF) induction as well as teachers and leaders taking National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) in each academic year, starting in 2021/22, in England.      

From 2024, the statistical release also reports on ECT retention of provider-led ECF programme participants, as well as NPQ outcomes (completions and pass-rates) for participants starting in the academic years 2021/22 and 2022/23. 

Data sources

Teacher CPD Service dataset 

The department holds management information on ECF-based training based on early career teachers (ECTs) and mentors registering their details on the manage training for early career teachers service (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab). The service is for ECTs working, or due to start work, in England as well as mentors assigned to work with ECTs during their induction training. The service does not include details of all ECTs who are based at a school that designs and delivers its own training based on the ECF. Lead providers submit information to the department to confirm that ECTs and mentors are actively engaged with the ECF induction training.  

The department holds management information on NPQs registrations based on teachers and leaders signing up for an NPQ on the register for an NPQ service (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab). Lead providers submit information to the department to confirm that teachers and leaders have started their NPQ course, whether they have completed their course, and if they’ve completed, what their outcome is (pass/ fail). 

The data for ECF-based training, and the data for NPQs is accurate as of 14 June 2024. Any changes to the data after that date are not taken into account.  

School workforce census 

The School Workforce in England publication is predominantly based on information provided by schools and local authorities as part of the annual School Workforce Census (SWC), introduced in 2010. The SWC collects a broad range of characteristics data, such as gender, age, ethnicity, and disability. It also collects contract information such as grade, post or role, qualifications data, pay data, and hours worked of those whose individual level data is collected. For full information on  SWC content, please see the census guidance (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab). 

The SWC collects information on school staff from all state funded schools in England. This includes staff working in: 

• Local authority-maintained nursery, primary, secondary and special schools. 
• Academies: free schools, university technical colleges, studio schools, city technology colleges, and pupil referral units.  
• Local authority centrally employed teachers and support staff who spend more than half their working time in schools. Please note that it is not possible to identify which type of institution these individuals work in. 

 

The census does not collect information from: 

• Independent schools. 
• Non-maintained special schools.  
• Other further education colleges (FE).  
• Some former FE funded sixth form colleges which are now classed as academy schools are excluded. 

The SWC is linked to the Teacher CPD Service dataset using the unique Teacher Reference Number (TRN). These data sources are used to: 

• Identify what proportions of ECTs appearing in the SWC and currently undertaking their induction, are doing the provider-led, or the school-led ECF-based training programme. 
• Provide information on the individual level characteristics of ECTs in the SWC who are doing the provider-led ECF-based training programme. 
• Provide school and individual level breakdowns of the total teaching workforce.  
• Identify whether a teacher is retained into subsequent years. 

 

Database of Qualified Teachers 

The Database of Qualified Teachers (DQT) holds information on the teachers that have completed or are currently undertaking their induction.  

The DQT is linked to the SWC using a unique Teacher Reference Number (TRN). These data sources are used to identify ECTs who started their induction from the academic year 2021/22. tGet Information about Schools 

Get Information about Schools (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab) (GIAS) is the Department for Education’s register for several organisation types and where information on other organisations is recorded and maintained. GIAS is linked to the Teacher CPD Service dataset using the establishment's Unique Reference Number (URN). GIAS data is used for allocating schools into overarching establishment types to produce breakdowns of the key metrics by school type and geography. The only exceptions are special free schools, academy special converters, and sponsor led schools, which are classed as special schools, rather than free schools or academies.  

 

Data collection and processing

Once registered by their school induction tutor on the DfE’s Manage training for early career teachers (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab) service, early career teachers (ECTs) and mentors were asked to provide their Teacher Reference Number (TRN), date of birth, and National Insurance number (optional). These details, along with their name were used to validate them against their DQT record and confirm their eligibility for the training. 

NPQ applicants registered their own details with the DfE Register for an NPQ (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab) service, providing their Teacher Reference Number (TRN), date of birth, and (optionally) National Insurance number. These details, along with their name were used to validate them against their DQT record and confirm their eligibility for the training. 

The registration details were passed to training providers along with a unique training ID. If a training provider could provide sufficient evidence that a participant had engaged with the training programme, the provider made a declaration against the participant record in the DfE service. 

These provider declarations were sampled to ensure that providers held evidence for all declarations made. 

For ECF, the cohort period runs from declarations made between 1 July to 30 June for ECTs and 1 June to 31 May each year for mentors. 

ECF-based induction

The Teacher CPD Service dataset contains information on the number of early career teachers (ECTs) who are undertaking the ECF-based induction training as well as mentors who are assigned to work with ECTs during their induction training. The service does not include details of all ECTs who work at a school that designs and delivers its own training based on the ECF.    

ECTs who started their ECF-based induction are identified in the Teacher Regulation Agency.  (see Data Sources) 

The provisional percentage of ECTs starting the provider-led induction was calculated as follows: 

• The metric is based on ECTs who appeared in the School Workforce Census (SWC) in 2023 as a newly qualified entrant or a deferred newly qualified entrant and who started their ECF-based induction in 2023/24. 
• The denominator includes all ECTs appearing in the SWC who started their ECF-based induction from 1 July 2023. 
• The numerator includes ECTs in the SWC in 2023 who are confirmed in the Teacher CPD Service dataset as having started the provider-led ECF-based induction from 1 July 2023. 

 

The revised percentage of ECTs starting the provider-led induction was calculated as follows: 

• The metric is based on ECTs who appeared in the SWC in 2022 and 2023 as a newly qualified entrant or a deferred newly qualified entrant and who started their ECF-based induction in 2022/23. 
• The denominator includes all ECTs appearing in the SWC who have started their ECF-based induction from 1 July 2022. This includes ECTs who started in January and April 2023. 
• The numerator includes ECTs in the SWC in 2022 and 2023 who are confirmed in the Teacher CPD Service dataset as having started the provider-led ECF-based induction from 1 July 2022. This includes ECTs who started in January and April 2023. 

The provisional percentage of ECTs starting the school-led induction was calculated using the same denominator but a numerator that includes: 

• ECTs who appeared in the Teacher CPD Service dataset or the DQT as having started the school-led ECF-based induction from 1 July 2023.  

These ECTs appear in the SWC 2022 and are indicated in the Teacher CPD Service dataset or DQT as undertaking but not yet confirmed as undertaking the provider-led ECF-based training.  

The revised percentage of ECTs starting the school-led induction was calculated using the same denominator but a numerator that includes: 

• ECTs who appeared in the Teacher CPD Service dataset or the DQT as having started the school-led ECF-based induction from 1 July 2022.  This includes ECTs who started in January and April 2023. 

These ECTs appear in the SWC in 2022 and 2023. They are indicated in the Teacher CPD Service dataset or Database of Qualified Teachers as undertaking but not yet confirmed as undertaking the provider-led ECF-based training.  

There is a small proportion of ECTs (0.9%) with a pending provider-led induction status. 

The total number of ECTs starting the provider-led induction was calculated by including all ECTs who are confirmed in the Teacher CPD Service dataset as having started the school-led ECF-based training. This number includes all ECTs who started the provider-led ECF-based induction in the full academic year 2023/24, including those ECTs who were not listed in the SWC in 2023. ECTs may not be listed in the SWC for some of the following reasons:  

• An ECT joined the workforce or received qualified teaching status after the collection of the SWC in November 2023. 
• An ECT is based at a school that is either not in scope for the SWC or has not submitted a return to the SWC. 
• An ECT is centrally employed by a multi academy trust. 

These figures are broken down by region as well as school-level and individual-level characteristics using data from Get Information about Schools (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab) and the SWC respectively. For each breakdown of ECTs doing the provider-led induction, an equivalent percentage breakdown of ECTs in the School Workforce Census starting their ECF-based induction from 1 July 2023 is provided.  

The number of mentors trained for the provider-led ECF-based induction was calculated by including all mentors who are recorded in the Teacher CPD Service dataset as having been trained to work with ECTs during their induction programme in 2023/24. The number includes mentors replacing other mentors who withdrew from the provider-led ECF-based induction programme.  

Building on from the ECF starts data, the ECF retention figures are then calculated. In the retention output, we calculate the retention by looking at the ECTs who appeared in the SWC, and monitoring if they are tracked in subsequent years. 

The percentage of ECTs in SWC who were retained in the SWC after one year was calculated as follows: 

• The metric is percentage of ECTs who are retained in the SWC one year after they started their ECF induction. 
• The denominator (Number of ECTs who started and ECF-based induction) is based on ECTs in SWC who started ECF-based induction and are classified as being a newly qualified entrant (not a deferred newly qualified entrant). They are only included if they appear in the SWC in the same year that they started their induction. 
• The numerator (Number of ECTs in SWC who were retained in the SWC after one year) is calculated looking at how many of the denominator, appeared in the SWC the year after they started their induction. 

The percentage of ECTs in SWC who were retained in the SWC after two years was calculated using the same denominator as above: 

• The metric is percentage of ECTs who are retained in the SWC two years after they started their ECF induction. 
• The numerator (Number of ECTs in SWC who were retained in the SWC after two years) is calculated looking at how many of the denominator, appeared in the SWC two years after they started their induction. 

 

NPQs

The Teacher CPD Service dataset contains information on the number of teachers and leaders who are taking a DfE funded or a non-DfE funded NPQ. The number of funded NPQ starts was calculated by including all DfE funded NPQ courses that are recoded in the Teacher CPD Service dataset as having been started.  

Considerations have been taken when there are participants doing multiple courses. If one person does a course in one year and another course the following year, we now treat these as two separate participants. In rare cases where participants may be doing two courses in the same year, we count them as one. Though in the three-year cumulative participant totals, each person is only counted once, regardless of how many courses they have started. 

An equivalent figure for the number of non-funded NPQ starts was calculated by including all non-DfE funded NPQ courses that are recorded in the Teacher CPD Service dataset as having been started. There was insufficient information on school and individual level characteristics of teachers taking a non-funded NPQ, so no breakdowns are provided for them. 

These figures are broken down by region, local authority as well as school level and individual level characteristics, using data from the School Workforce Census (SWC) and Get Information About Schools (GIAS) data. To provide context to the breakdowns of teachers and leaders taking a funded NPQ, a corresponding breakdown of the percentage of the total teaching workforce starting an NPQ is provided.  

The provisional rate is calculated by dividing the number of teachers and leaders started in 2023/24 and are in the SWC in 2023 and are taking a funded NPQ for a given category by the headcount of the teaching workforce of that category in the SWC in 2023.  

The revised rate is calculated by dividing the number of teachers and leaders who started in 2022 and are in the SWC 2022 and are taking a funded NPQ for a given category by the headcount of the teaching workforce of that category in the SWC in 2022.  

The percentage metric is limited insofar as not everyone who is eligible to take a funded NPQ course also appears in the SWC.  

Breakdowns of teacher headcount figures may not be integers because the SWC uses non response weighting.  

An overall participation rate for reformed NPQs was calculated as follows: 

• The numerator included all teachers in the SWC in 2023 who had started a funded NPQ in 2021/22, 2022/23, or 2023/24. 
• The denominator included all teachers in the SWC in 2023. 

The NPQ completions and outcomes data comes from the CPD digital service. There is one unique outcome per unique NPQ start, though most courses take between 18 and 22 months to complete, so there is only substantial outcome data for the 2021/22 starts. 

Percentage of NPQ starts who have completed was calculated as follows: 

• The total number of funded starts who had a completed declaration divided the total number of funded starts for an academic year.  

Percentage of NPQ completions who have passed (pass-rate) was calculated as the number of pass declarations divided by the total number of funded completions. 

Glossary

CPD                     Continuous Professional Development 

DfE                      Department for Education 

DQT                    Database of Qualified Teachers 

EEF                      Education Endowment Foundation 

ECF                      Early Career Framework 

ECT                     Early Career Teacher        

GIAS                    Get Information About Schools 

NPQ                    National Professional Qualifications 

QTS                     Qualified Teacher Status 

SEN                     Special Educational Needs 

SWC                    School Workforce Census 

TRA                     Teacher Regulation Agency 

“no data”           Data does not exist for this entry 

“Unknown”        Either the teacher could not be matched in the School Workforce Census, or that the information is missing in the School Workforce Census.  

“z”                      The appearance of 'z' in the table indicates that the metric is not applicable to this category. This could be as no teachers in this group appear in the School Workforce Census for this category, or there in the instance of retention, not enough time has passed to be able to look at the two-year figure. 

How the department uses the information

The Department for Education uses the data published in this release to monitor the delivery of the ECF and NPQs reforms.

Further information

For related publications, see:

• Number of early career teachers and mentors participating in the early career framework (opens in a new tab)
• Early career framework induction evaluation (opens in a new tab)
• Teachers and leaders participating in the reformed NPQs (opens in a new tab)

Help and support

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Teacher and Leader development: ECF and NPQs statistics and data:

Career Professional Development (CPD) Analysis Team

Email: Gary.SMITH@EDUCATION.GOV.UK
Contact name: Mr Gary Smith

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