Guidance

Backfill payments for time off timetable for early career framework (ECF) mentor training (national roll-out)

Guidance for schools and local authorities on funding for schools using one of the DfE funded lead training providers to deliver early career framework mentor training from 1 September 2021 (national roll-out).

Applies to England

Documents

Details

This guidance is for:

  • local authorities
  • school leaders
  • school teachers
  • governing bodies and their representatives

Overview

Eligible schools using one of the DfE funded training providers to deliver early career framework (ECF) mentor training will receive backfill payments to cover 36 hours of mentor time off timetable for training per mentor, over a 2 year period. Year 1 and year 2 refer respectively to the first year and second year of ECF induction training for a mentor.

This funding will be made in arrears over 2 payments:

  1. The first payment will be made after the summer completion of year 1. This will be paid on a pro rata basis for each term the mentor participated in training as confirmed by the lead provider, covering up to 18 hours of mentor time off timetable for training.

  2. The second payment for the remaining maximum 18 hours of mentor time off timetable will be made after the summer completion of year 2. This will be paid on a pro rata basis for each term the mentor participated in training as confirmed by the lead provider.

Conditions of grant

This guidance sets out the terms and conditions applied to the funding for eligible institutions that have provided time off timetable for mentors to complete the provider-led ECF based mentor training with one of the DfE funded training providers as part of the national roll-out of the early career framework reforms.

Please note, we have published an additional ‘Backfill payments for time off timetable for early career framework (ECF) mentor training (national roll out) conditions of grant for academic year 2023 to 2024’. This document provides details of how payments for academic year 2023 to 2024 will be paid on a pro rata basis and will be made in arrears over 2 payments after the summer of year 1 and year 2 completion, respectively.

Allocations

You can view the revised academic year 2021 to 2022 and academic year 2022 to 2023 grant funding on the backfill payments for time off timetable for ECF mentor training grant allocations spreadsheets above. These updated spreadsheets include all corrective and sweep up allocations up to December 2023.

We will publish allocations for 2023 to 2024 before the end of the autumn term 2024.

Payments

Allocation payments for the 2022 to 2023 academic year were made to local authorities at the end of July 2023 for maintained schools, and directly to academies at the start of August 2023. This included grant funding for year 1 mentor training (for those who started in the academic year of 2022 to 2023) and year 2 mentor training (for those who started in the academic year of 2021 to 2022). The grant funding was based on whether an individual was on year 1 or year 2 of the ECF mentor training.

We made all corrective action and sweep up payments at the end of January 2024, which ensures all eligible schools and organisations not captured in the summer 2023 payment window have been paid in year.

Allocation payments for the 2023 to 2024 academic year will be made to local authorities for maintained schools at the end of November 2024 and directly to academies at the start of December 2024.

Further details

For any further enquiries you can contact: continuing-professional-development@digital.education.gov.uk

Updates to this page

Published 20 July 2022
Last updated 9 September 2024 + show all updates
  1. We have updated the dates for when payments will be made to local authorities and academies.

  2. We have published an additional 'Backfill payments for time off timetable for early career framework (ECF) mentor training (national roll out) conditions of grant for academic year 2023 to 2024'. For transparency purposes, we have retained the original published conditions of grant on this page too, for reference. This document has been renamed 'Backfill payments for time off timetable for early career framework (ECF) mentor training (national roll out) conditions of grant for academic years 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2023'.

  3. We have published revised academic year 2021 to 2022 and academic year 2022 to 2023 grant funding allocation spreadsheets for the backfill payments for time off timetable for ECF mentor training grant, which details allocations updated in December 2023. We have updated wording in the 'Allocations' and 'Payments' sections on this landing page to reflect these allocation updates.

  4. We have updated the 'Payments' section on the landing page to advise the sweep up payment will now be made early 2024.

  5. We have re-added the 'Backfill payments for time off timetable for early career framework (ECF) mentor training grant allocations - July 2022' spreadsheet so users can view both July 2022 and July 2023 spreadsheets.

  6. Backfill payments for time off timetable for early career framework (ECF) mentor training (national roll-out) conditions of grant - we have updated the 'Funding' section to advise users of the payment process for mentors supporting early career teachers. We have published the 'Backfill payments for time off timetable grant for early career framework mentor training grant allocations - July 2023' spreadsheet with allocation information provided at school level.

  7. Backfill payments for time off timetable for early career framework (ECF) mentor training (national roll-out) guidance - we have updated this guidance for 2023.

  8. First published.

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