Education and training services

Tender description

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to notify the market of forthcoming market engagement events relating to the Early Career Framework (ECF). The Department will be undertaking three online events between 13th and 17th July 2020 for interested providers to input into the implementation of the ECF. In May 2018, in response to a public consultation on ‘Strengthening Qualified Teacher Status and Improving Career Progression for Teachers’, the Department for Education (DfE) committed to improving the support for early career teachers (ECTs) through a new Early Career Framework, and extended induction and strengthened mentoring. In collaboration with an Expert Advisory Group, the DfE consulted extensively with the sector to design the ECF. The ECF has been designed to support early career teacher development in 5 core areas – behaviour management, pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and professional behaviours. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has independently reviewed the framework to ensure it draws on the best available evidence and that this evidence has been interpreted with fidelity. The ECF is at the heart of the recruitment and retention strategy for school teachers. The strategy confirms that DfE will fund national roll-out of the early career reforms in September 2021, as our top priority to support early career retention and to support teacher quality. To ensure national roll-out is a success, DfE is seeking national providers to lead the delivery, from September 2021, of the national roll-out of the ECF for ECTs and mentors. Successful providers for national roll-out will be expected to develop and deliver training based upon early roll-out Basic Induction Programmes (BIPs), which we anticipate will be made available to interested organisations in the summer of 2020 and include: — a carefully designed curriculum sequence, — comprehensive self-directed study materials, — comprehensive mentor session materials, — training session outlines to support group training. Successful providers will be expected to create a Full Induction Programme (FIP), which will need to build on one chosen BIP. The FIP will offer: — full high-quality training for ECTs delivered to schools, that builds on the training session outlines and complements the self-study and mentor sessions in the relevant BIP. It is envisaged that this should include a minimum with 18 hours face-to-face training, — full high-quality training sessions for mentors. It is envisaged that this should include a minimum with 9 hours face-to-face training. It is anticipated that DfE will appoint successful bidders to a national Framework Agreement for ECT and mentor training. Under the terms of that framework agreement, this will allow DfE to make specific purchases (Call-Offs) from suppliers within a four-year term. It is expected that lead providers will need to: • train a minimum of 1 000 ECTs and 1 000 mentors for cohorts starting in September 2021, • significantly increase capacity to train a minimum of 2 000 ECTs and 2 000 mentors for cohorts starting in September 2022 onwards It is expected that lead providers will deliver their service in partnership with other high-quality organisations including the national network of teaching school hubs which will be in place in early 2021. It is expected that teaching school hubs, along with other education training providers, will play a key role in the delivery of the ECF. DfE recognises that lead ECF providers might need to build their capacity and partnerships over the term of the Framework Agreement, therefore, we are proposing to create the flexibility for lead providers to add new delivery partners once they are appointed to the framework.