Appropriate Body Services

Our Team

Our AB team provide a fair and independent quality assurance service for school inductions.

Our Regional AB Lead, Kate Castro-Martin, is responsible for leading the strategic direction and operational management of the AB  service across all our TSH regions. Kate oversees AB delivery partners, AB reviewers, and the AB administration team. She is the main point of contact from onboarding to completing induction and leads our quality assurance function, visiting schools, providing training, and advising on panels regarding struggling ECTs.

Our AB Delivery Partners, Catalyst Academy Trust, Seven Kings High School, Redbridge Local Authority and Waltham Forest Local Authority provide localised school support and monitoring of Induction, review ECT reports, provide feedback, and manage ECTs on support plans.

Our AB Coordinator, Melanie Jones, is responsible for tracking ECT progress; managing our online platform, ECT Manager; quality assuring our marketing, events and communications, including our weekly bulletins; reporting to the Teacher Regulation Agency; and liaising with school business partners on SLAs and invoices.

Our AB administrator, Sophie Bannister, is responsible for school registrations and onboarding, responding to ECT Manager help desk tickets, and general communications with schools.

 

 

 

 

Our Director of Teacher Development, Natasha Evans, is an experienced AB leader and manages any conflicts of interest with appeals panels for failing ECTs, or reviews for reduced or extended inductions.

Appropriate Bodies quality assure statutory teacher induction. We do this by providing specialist training and support to schools to ensure all stakeholders adhere to the latest DfE Statutory Guidance for Induction (April 2024).  We pride ourselves on reviewing all ECT reports and entitlements and provide the Teacher Regulation Agency with data recording the progress of ECTs who start and complete Induction. We expect all ECTs, Mentors, Induction Tutors, Headteachers, and Governors to have read and understood the guidance as it pertains to their role.

The most recent changes from the April 2024 statutory guidance include:

• Introducing a new Appropriate Body to support ECTs serving induction in BSO.
• Carer’s leave added types of absence exempt from automatic extension.
• Calculating induction length for FT or PT ECTs who leave employment mid-term
• Update to the list of institutions where induction may not be served.
• Considerations for appointing a suitable mentor, namely QTS, subject/phase experience, time for role and training, timetabled meetings during school hours and different from the Induction Tutor role.
• Aligning English guidance for ECTs who serve part of their induction in Wales.
• Exemption of ECTs from performance management appraisal, clarification of school’s HR role in capabilities to run alongside induction.
• Appropriate Bodies ultimate responsibility for decisions in third party arrangements.

In July 2024 the DfE also published the updated Induction Appeals Procedure. We expect all Headteachers, and governors overseeing induction read this update.

Myth-Busting the ECF

The DfE have issued additional guidance for ECTs, Mentors, and Schools following the AB reforms. For example,

1. ECTs cannot fail their ECF training programme.
2. ECTs do not need to produce a folder of evidence against the Teachers’ Standards.
3. ECTs can start Induction at any time.

Our AB Services

There should be no surprises during induction.             

We seek to ensure that Induction is fair and consistent for all ECTs and achieve this via:

• Dedicated AB Website including DfE policy updates, training videos, and FAQs
• Mon-Thurs. 8am -5pm, and Friday 8am - 3pm AB Phone Line (including school holidays)
• Onboarding Welcome Webinars for Schools and ECTs
• AB Handbook with templates to support induction including exemplars for Lesson Observations, Mentor Meetings, and Tracking the Teachers’ Standards
• Weekly Bulletins for Induction Tutors, Mentors, and ECTs
• Weekly Drop-In Webinars with the Regional AB Lead for 1-2-1 or group support
• Access to the online platform ECT Manager to track the ECTs’ learning journey
• Keep-in-touch surveys each term for early intervention and support plans
• Streamlined processes for reporting and moderating Professional Progress Reviews and End of Year Assessments
• Flexible Training for Headteachers and Induction Tutors via live and recorded termly walk-throughs
• Annual Mentor Conference, with online, free access to the ‘best bets’ in evidence-informed practice
• Teacher Regulation Agency Administration and Final Recommendation for Induction
• Localised Delivery Partner support in London and Essex
• School Visits, in-person and remote, with constructive and supportive feedback
• Transition Support for ECTs moving to a new AB, school, or contract
• ECF Fidelity Checking where schools are using the DfE accredited materials or designing their own training programme based on the ECF 
• Designated Safeguarding Team, including support during ECT absences and leave
• Free access to MTPT, The Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher workshops
• 1-2-1 Coaching Services for pastoral & wellbeing issues (additional costs apply)
• Communication with external bodies, Unions, Occupational Health, HR
• AB Panels to Review Reductions, Extensions, and Failures of Induction
• Governance Support for Complaints and Appeals
• Expertise from Regional and National AB Network

New schools can contact our AB administration team to register their school or existing schools can use their ECT Manager profile with us to register new ECTs.

Please note, registration with an appropriate body is a separate process to signing up for Department for Education funded training based on the Early Career Framework.

All Early Career Teachers must be registered with an Appropriate Body before they begin induction. Induction start dates cannot be back-dated. The start of term within our TSH regions is Monday 2^nd September 2024. The ECT’s End of Induction Date is calculated two years after their start date.

All qualified teachers who are employed in a relevant school in England must, by law, have satisfactorily, completed an induction period, subject to specified exemptions and confirmed by an Appropriate Body.

The DfE state: “Schools are encouraged to choose their local teaching school hub for appropriate body services, unless they have specific reasons to access these services from another appropriate body.”

If your school is located outside of our designated region, please contact your local Teaching School Hub/AB first to notify them of your reasons for requesting to work with us. Reasons why we may agree to work with your school include being part of an affiliated MAT that has schools located in one of our Hub regions, or being situated a short distance from the TSH or within the same Local Authority. We abide by the Teaching School Hub Council Code of Conduct and will not advertise our services beyond our Hub regions and will redirect requests to the relevant TSH. Please visit the DfE for a full list of all appropriate bodies

We have a standard fee of £550 per ECT for the two years of Induction payable at registration. 

Discounts for 2024-2025

We will apply regional discounts for schools who register early and pay by 11^th October 2024, starting at £490 per ECT for the two years of Induction payable at registration.

If an ECT joins our AB part way through Induction, we will charge the following fees:

Terms to serve	Fee	Discounted Fee until 11/10/2024
1	£300	£240
2	£350	£290
3	£400	£340
4	£450	£390
5	£500	£440
6	£550	£490

Reduced Inductions will follow the payment model above based on the number of terms reduced.

Extended Inductions beyond 6 terms will be charged an additional £50 per term.

All ECTs are entitled to a 2-year induction with training and support based on the Early Career Framework. The AB will check that the following are in place:

• Reduced Timetables for Year 1 and Year 2 ECTs
• A Mentor, who conducts weekly (Y1) or fortnightly (Y2) mentor meetings
• An Induction Tutor who reports on each ECT, each term, based on progress towards meeting the Teachers’ Standards.
• Engagement with an ECF based training programme.

Appropriate bodies will inform the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) of the induction type the school has chosen for each ECT at the point they commence induction. There are 3 options available to schools to deliver an ECF based induction:

1. Provider-Led Programmes, these are fully funded by the DfE and use the same ECF framework following “Learn That” and “learn How To” Statements. National Lead Providers are designated by the DfE and vary by curriculum and delivery methods and are inspected by OFSTED. Visit the DfE for a full list of all National ECF Lead Providers. Our Teaching School Hubs have chosen to deliver the National Institute of Teaching ECF Programmes for our ECTs and Mentors.

You do not have to follow our TSH ECF Programme to access our AB services.

2. Schools using DfE Accredited Materials (no DfE funding available)
3. Schools Designing and Delivering their own Training Programme based on the Early Career Framework (no DfE funding available)

It is the DfE’s recommendation (page 33) that schools choose a provider-led programme, if it is available to them, to ensure ECTs benefit from the highest quality support and ease the burden and cost for schools. The DfE’s Evaluation of the National Roll-Out of the ECF Induction, February 2024, states that 95% of all ECTs nationally in cohort 1 (approximately 27,000) were in schools that chose to follow a provider-led induction programme. Please visit the DfE for information regarding backfill payments for ECF Mentor Training for those schools who follow a provider-led programme like NIOT.

Additional quality assurance will be necessary for schools who choose to use DfE Accredited Materials or Design and Deliver their own training programme based on the ECF to safeguard ECTs’ entitlement to an ECF-based induction. Schools delivering their own induction programmes will require an appropriate body to check these have been designed and delivered with fidelity to the ECF. This means that training and support provided to the ECT has covered the ECF evidence statements in sufficient breadth and depth.

Appropriate bodies apply greater scrutiny where schools have opted to design their own training programme based on the ECF due to the greater risk that this type of induction could diverge from the ECF when the DfE-accredited materials are not used as the basis for an induction programme. Appropriate bodies adopt a supportive approach to ECF fidelity checking as schools continue to fully adjust to the ECF reforms but maintain the expectation on schools that whichever induction type they are delivering, it is expected that ECTs receive full coverage of the ECF.

Where there have been extenuating circumstances, practical reasons, or circumstances relating to the individual needs of an ECT meaning that delivery has diverged from the planned sequence, appropriate bodies are expected to take a pragmatic view of whether the ECT is on course to receive full coverage of the ECF. Feedback to schools will be constructive and supportive. If schools have struggled to deliver aspects of their plan, appropriate bodies are expected to work with them and support them to address this for future inductions. This might include signposting them to available resources or other alternative induction routes where appropriate.

If a school struggles to adequately design and deliver their own training programme based on the ECF, appropriate bodies will signpost to the DfE-accredited materials available for free online to support the school in planning an ECF-based induction or the provider led route.

These costs apply to schools using School Based ECF Programmes using DfE Accredited Materials or Designing and Delivering their own programme based on the ECF.

• Each school will be charged £400 per fidelity check. There are three checks conducted: before the start of delivery, before the end of year one, and before the end of year two. These checks may include a quality assurance visit to the school as part of the AB monitoring process. Headteachers are expected to provide the AB with sufficient information to complete the ECF fidelity checks. This process applies to every cohort of ECTs.

For example:

In 2024-25 a school is charged £1200 for 3 fidelity checks on this cohort of ECTs.

They have 3 ECTs charged at £490 per ECT. The total payable is £2,670 for 2 years.

In 2025-26 the same school is charged £1200 for 3 fidelity checks on this cohort of ECTs. They have another 3 ECTs charged at £490 per ECT. Total: £2670, 2 years.

In our open-source resources section you can find:

• Our Welcome Webinar for New Schools
• DfE Statutory Guidance for Induction – Essential for Headteachers and All
• DfE Teachers’ Standards – Essential for All
• Key Dates and Deadlines for Reporting – Essential for Induction Tutors
• Onboarding Briefing Video – Essential for Induction Tutors
• Mentor Meeting Exemplar
• Teachers Standards Tracker Exemplar
• Video Tutorials for Quality Assuring Best Practice in Mentoring
• Lesson Observation Exemplar
• Professional Progress Review (PPR) Exemplars
• PPR Walkthrough Videos
• End of Year Assessment (EOY) Exemplars
• EOY Walkthrough Videos
• ECT Manager Support Slides

Further resources and templates including our AB Handbook can be found on your ECT Manager Profile.