Making the Early Career Framework the centrepiece of teacher education in England

The quality of an education system can never exceed the quality of its teachers. So runs the well worn aphorism. But despite its ubiquity, it is still true (or mostly true: I think it more accurate to say cannot exceed the quality of its teaching)

But yet, it’s much easier for policymakers to try and drive improvements through structural changes, where the levers are more under their control. If I had a pound for every time someone made the point that Finland draw their teachers from the top 10% of graduates, I’d have enough money to make teaching competitive in salary terms. But knowing it isn’t the same as being able to make it happen in a U.K. context.

Kudos then to the DfE for producing a teacher recruitment and retention strategy that mostly steers away from cliches and pipe dreams towards something that is concrete and focussed. Given the context facing the department (no money, no political capital for the government to create something disruptive in the system), it’s a highly, highly commendable result to have actually corralled the things that government can and should do into one strategy.

The Early Career Framework – a step change?

At the centre of the strategy is the Early Career Framework (published alongside the strategy doc itself). And this, I think, can lead genuinely to a step change in how we train teachers, for three reasons.

Firstly, it’s in absolutely the right space policy wise. Getting new teachers secure in their pedagogy and their craft early on is an absolute sine qua non of a top performing education system. Yet pressures of time, a fractured training system, and a natural human inclination not to write off too many new professionals means that the quart of content required for outstanding teaching practice has for some time failed to fit into the pint pot of ITT year. Moving to a multi year system, having a really clear framework for what teachers need to know not just in year 1 but in the first few years, and extending the NQT period, is absolutely spot on.

Secondly, it’s genuinely – as opposed to rhetorically – evidence based. It’s been produced in concert with a whole host of serious practitioners and researchers in this space (check out the advisory group listed at the front of the ECF doc), and it has the explicit EEF stamp of approval for what is quite a staggering task, which is to synthesise the best research from around the world about everything to do with what new teachers should learn and do, and then turn this into a series of relatively short and concrete actions. Perhaps not coincidentally, given that it’s been designed slowly, iteratively, and in clear and open consultation with experts, it has been welcomed by many. That means, in turn, that its chances of being implemented by the many thousands of people who will be needed to participate in it – new teachers, school mentors, ITT staff, academics, and the like – increases substantially. (On the same front, it’s great to see again the endorsement of the whole strategy from the main sector bodies who will be needed to make this work. This really does feel like a joint endeavour)

And thirdly, and not to be under estimated, it’s funded. The document is clear – a minimum of £130m of new money every year to actually implement the significant changes that are needed to make this work, including additional time off timetable for second year teachers. Given that we’re just in advance of a Spending Review, and money is tight, to have been able to make this commitment shows both political skill and also policy forte.

There’s a lot of other bits and pieces in the strategy, some of which I also like very much (switching bursary funding into retention) and some, er, less so (a competition for Ed Tech? Really?) But if Damian Hinds and his team can land the rollout of the ECF properly, with the new money, then it has the potential to be the flagship achievement of his entire tenure as Secretary of State.