Abstract

On 15th December 2017, the Department for Education (DfE) launched a consultation on strengthening Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and improving career progression for teachers, which set out a range of proposals:

* ensuring teachers have the right support in place at the beginning of their careers, raising the baseline of support for all teachers
* improving access to high-quality professional development,
* improving progression opportunities for all teachers throughout their careers.

Around 2,000 responses received and strong sector engagement at several large consultation events held throughout the country. Reception to the proposals set out in the consultation was largely positive and on 4th May 2018 the government’s response was published which took on board the feedback and recommendations from the sector.

As part of the response published by the government, they committed to introduce: “…an Early Career Framework (ECF) for the induction period. The ECF will ensure new teachers have more support in this crucial phase of their career and schools have more guidance about what they should be offering their new teachers”.(DfE, 2018)
In recognising the amount of work which is necessary to ensure the success of this initiative the DfE believe that it is necessary to undertake intensive work with the profession to determine what should be included within the framework, and how this should be delivered through enhancing professional development opportunities for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs). This commitment to seeking the view of the wider profession led to representatives from the DfE approaching the University of Sunderland to host a consultation event, in mid-October 2018, with strategic partners to seek their opinions and feedback around key areas in relation to the ECF. This report covers the discussion and outcomes from the consultation event held at the University of Sunderland attended by a range of strategic partners from across the education sector.