The ‘Teacher and Leader development: ECF and NPQs’ publication is a new experimental statistics publication that 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 the 2021 to 2022 academic year in England.
Teacher and Leader development: ECF and NPQs
- Published
Summary
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. 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. Lead providers submit information to the department to confirm that teachers and leaders have started their NPQ course.
The data for ECF-based training is accurate as of 21 June 2022, and the data for NPQs is accurate as of 1 July 2022. 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, introduced in 2010. The census 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 the census content, please see the census guidance.
The census collects information on school staff from all state funded schools in England. This includes staff working in:
- Local Authority (LA) maintained nursery, primary, secondary and special schools.
- Academies: free schools, university technical colleges, studio schools, city technology colleges, and pupil referral units.
- LA 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 School Workforce Census 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 School Workforce Census 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 School Workforce Census who are doing the provider-led ECF-based training programme.
- The School Workforce Census is also used to provide school and individual level breakdowns of the total teaching workforce.
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 School Workforce Census using unique Teacher Reference Number (TRN). These data sources are used to identify ECTs who are starting induction in the academic year 2021 to 2022.
Get Information about Schools
Get Information about Schools (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 that special free schools, academy special converters, and sponsor led schools 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 service, early career teachers 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 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.
ECF-based induction
The Teacher CPD Service dataset collects 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.
The 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 2021 as a newly qualified entrant or a deferred newly qualified entrant and who started their ECF-based induction in the academic year 2021 to 2022.
- The denominator includes all ECTs appearing in the School Workforce Census who have started their ECF-based induction from 1 September 2021, when the ECF reforms were implemented nationally.
- The numerator includes ECTs in the SWC in 2021 who are confirmed in the Teacher CPD Service dataset as having started the provider-led ECF-based induction from 1 September 2021.
The 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 Database of Qualified Teachers (DQT) as having started the school-led ECF-based induction from 1 September 2021.
There is a small proportion of ECTs (1.6%) with a pending provider-led induction status. These ECTs appear in the School Workforce Census from 1 September 2021 and 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.
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 2021 to 2022, including those ECTs who were not listed in the SWC in 2021. 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 on 4 November 2021.
- 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 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 September 2021 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 the academic year 2021 to 2022. The number includes mentors replacing other mentors who withdrew from the provider-led ECF-based induction programme.
NPQs
The Teacher CPD Service dataset collects 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.
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.
Because teachers and leaders are eligible to take more than one NPQ simultaneously, a separate metric on the number of funded unique NPQ participants is provided. This number is calculated by including all teachers and leaders who are recorded in the Teacher CPD Service dataset as having started an NPQ course.
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 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. This is calculated by dividing the number of teachers and leaders who are in the SWC in 2021 and are taking a funded NPQ for a given category by the headcount of the teaching workforce of that category in the SWC in 2021. The percentage metric is limited insofar as not everyone who is eligible to take a funded NPQ course also appears in the SWC. In total, 700 (2.4%) of funded NPQ participants have not appeared in the SWC and so are excluded from the percentage metric.
Breakdowns of teacher headcount figures may not be integers because the SWC uses non response weighting.
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.