Early Career Framework adds too much to workloads

A report on the Early Career Framework (ECF) from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation has found that teachers are generally supportive of the concept of the ECF, with just one-in-ten saying they would entirely scrap the reforms. However, many say it adds a lot to workloads.

The new Early Career Framework (ECF) seeks to improve early career support and development for teachers, by extending the period of support to two years and by offering a package of professional development. This includes in-school mentoring, training, and self-study materials.

The survey by Teacher Tapp questioned 300 Early Career Teachers (ECTs), around 500 of their mentors and over 1,000 senior leaders.

The report shows that most Early Career Teachers and mentors believe that the ECF adds a lot to their workload. Most ECTs see the ECF as a burden (with 57% in February and 72% in August saying it adds a lot to their workload). Among mentors, 59% also believe that their workload is too high as a result as well.

Just 2% of mentors and 4% of ECTs say that the self-study material they have used has been specialised to their subject or phase. This is a key area in which both groups feel improvements need to be made, with half of ECTs saying that further specialisation of self-study material should be a priority. Further specialisation of external training was also raised by a third of mentors, who
also wanted further professional development to help them deliver the ECF.

Early Career Teachers and mentors were happy with the level of subject and phase specialisation within ECT-mentor relationships and conversations. Almost nine-in-ten secondary ECTs have a mentor who teaches the same subject (secondary) or work in the same phase (primary) as them and less than one-in-ten ECTs say these conversations need more specialisation.

Many Early Career Teachers and mentors see huge opportunities to improve the externally-provided resources that ECTs are using for their self-study and training. Four in five ECTs and mentors alike say that the training they have received was not well-designed and just 1-in-10 say it was a good use of time.

The picture isn’t any better for self-study materials, with just a third of ECTs saying they were clear and a quarter saying they give good advice.

Almost eight in ten mentors (78%) believed Early Career Teacher support would neither increase nor decrease the retention of ECTs. Secondary mentors were more likely to think it would make a difference than primary mentors. Some 13% of secondary mentors believed the ECF would increase retention, a view shared by only 6% of primary mentors. However, 15% of secondary mentors
thought the ECF would decrease retention, a view shared by 9% of primary mentors.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, commented: “It is enormously concerning that schools are finding the additional workload from the ECF so debilitating. One of the key aims of this new system is to improve retention of early career teachers. That obviously won’t happen if they are so overwhelmed in their first two years.

“What’s needed is further and immediate action to create additional flexibility in the programme to allow ECTs and mentors to focus on what matters most for their individual contexts. This report underlines the need to return to the original and agreed intention of the ECF – which should provide a practical programme of support for new teachers, rather than an early career curriculum that too often repeats content covered in initial teacher training.

“The two-year induction period clearly has great potential to improve professional development for teachers in their early careers, and there is general support for the new system. But changes must be made to bring the workload and impact on work-life balance under control, or it could end up doing considerable damage to retention rates, even as it tries to improve them.”