Roadmap

This document explains what we’re working on to improve and rebuild the digital services that facilitate the early career framework (ECF) policy reforms. These digital services are named Register early career teachers.

It sets out what we’re working on now, what will come next, and what we might pursue later.

By sending this out publicly, we hope to:

give direction to our team
be transparent about what we’re working on and why
gather more feedback about the work we’re aiming to do

All of these items of work are related to our objectives as a team.

The services that make up Register early career teachers (ECTs)

Register ECTs, where schools register their ECTs and mentors to receive training and funding
an API for lead providers, where they can receive and send information about the training of ECTs and mentors to the DfE
Record inductions, where appropriate bodies can tell us an ECT is serving induction with them, and whether they’ve passed or failed
a joint admin and finance console to view information and aid in support queries for all our users

We decided to combine Record inductions and the rest of the services for training because:

induction data is used by these training services, so being closer together made sense
historically, there was a separate service for appropriate bodies to check ECT data submitted by schools, whilst now there can be one for them to do this and record inductions
in the future, we hope to try to deduplicate registration for schools, so appropriate bodies can just approve of information schools submit relevant to induction

What we’ve done

So far, we have:

built a way for schools to register ECTs and mentors to save school’s time and improve data accuracy
set up DfE Sign in for appropriate bodies, so we can improve how all users access the service
improved how mentors are assigned to ECTs, so we can reduce having to chase schools to tell us mentor information
built a service for appropriate bodies to record data about inductions individually, so we can start to consolidate services and reduce workload for all users
set up how we want to migrate data from ECF1 to the new Register early career teachers service, and started cleaning these up
designed and built how ECTs and mentors are registered when they are moving schools
set up how ECT and mentor records are viewed by schools so school users can understand their status

The roadmap

Now 🏃

We are:

starting to build the first parts of our API, so we can start testing it with lead providers
building the first draft of the API guidance, so lead provider users can see the guidance applicable to them and understand it easily
creating designs and building financial statements for internal users, so they can understand how lead providers need to be paid for training
building a way to update multiple inductions, so that appropriate bodies can better manage updates in peak periods
adding features to our support console to support updates to induction data, so that it can support all of our users internally and externally

Next ➡️

We will:

consider how to indicate when early career teachers have left for other reasons, so we can reduce confusion for schools and lead providers
finish work on the API for lead providers, so we can send them information from schools and pay them for providing training
improve how the API works, so lead providers can submit the data they need and have it validated correctly, saving them time and improving our data quality
build a check using this API to make sure migrated data is correct
improve our admin and finance console, so all our users can get the information and support they need
work out how to communicate best with schools on the transition between services, including how to contact us for support
improve how schools can make changes to ECT and mentor records, so we can get more accurate information for them
work out how we might integrate with the third party services which appropriate bodies use to manage inductions, so we can make it easier to record inductions

Later 🔮