Guidance

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 and 2024 to 2025

Updated 25 November 2024

Applies to England

1. Introduction

Schools using one of the Department for Education (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 2 years. 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.

2. Proportionate funding

Funding for eligible mentors working part-time, or for those who commence DfE funded mentor training later in the academic year, for example January, will be paid pro rata at the end of each academic year they complete their training.

Funding for eligible mentors who start their training late in the academic year and are not registered and validated on DfE’s manage training for early career teachers service by 31 August, will receive their payment after the following summer.

3. Eligibility

All state-funded schools and establishments where induction can be served and have a mentor signed up and completing DfE-funded provider-led ECF based mentor training will be eligible for the funding.

4. Lead providers

You can view the list of national roll-out ECF lead providers. Lead providers will submit evidence of substantial mentor engagement on DfE’s manage training for early career teachers service per term in the academic year. Lead providers will have minimum requirements for engagement to ensure mentors receive the full benefit of their training programme.

5. How DfE checks the eligibility of mentors

If a school uses a DfE funded training provider to deliver ECF based mentor training, we must make sure that all mentors taking part are eligible for funding. We do this by checking mentors’ details in the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) records.

When school induction tutors register mentors with the department using DfE’s manage training for early career teachers service we:

• send each mentor an email (so it is important the addresses provided are for active email accounts)
• ask them to sign into our service and tell us their teacher reference number (TRN) or National Insurance number, name and date of birth

We check that the mentor:

• does not have any prohibitions, sanctions or restrictions on their record
• has not previously received funding for ECF based mentor training

The school induction tutor can sign in to the manage training for early career teachers service to see the status of these eligibility checks.

6. Funding

Eligible schools and establishments will receive a minimum of 2 academic year payments to enable mentors to have time off timetable to complete the 36 hours ECF based mentor training. Eligible mentors working part-time, or for those who start DfE funded mentor training later in the academic year may have more than 2 pro rata payments, but no more than 36 hours paid training.

Funding will be paid over 2 payment instalments, in arrears, to mentors undertaking training to support ECTs with a standard 2-year ECF based induction.

The first payment for 18 hours mentor time off timetable will be paid after the summer of the academic year where the eligibility criteria is met. This payment will be made pro rata, based on termly evidence submitted by lead providers on the manage training for early career teachers service that confirms the mentor has engaged with the training.

The second payment for the remaining 18 hours of mentor time off timetable (36 hours in total) for mentor training will be made after the summer of the academic year where the eligibility criteria is met. This payment will be made pro rata, based on termly evidence submitted by lead providers on the manage training for early career teachers service that confirms the mentor has engaged with the training.

For mentors who do not complete a full year of training, payments will be made to the school on a pro-rata basis. Each year consists of 3 pro-rata payments which will be made based on evidence that lead providers share with DfE and will be made after the summer of the academic year where the eligibility criteria is met.

For mentors who are supporting ECTs following a non-standard ECF -based induction, payments will be paid pro rata after the summer of the academic year they complete training where the eligibility criteria is met.

DfE makes backfill payments directly to schools and establishments or to local authorities to pay maintained schools.

The funding amount is calculated using the average hourly rate for mentors and will differ by region:

Mentor time off timetable for training	England (excluding the London area)	Inner London area	Outer London area	Fringe area
Payment 1 18 hours (1 year of training)	£856.93	£1,048.80	£944.42	£882.53
Payment 2 18 hours (1 year of training)	£856.93	£1,048.80	£944.42	£882.53
Total (36 hours)	£1,713.86	£2,097.60	£1,888.84	£1,765.05

We collect data on mentors through DfE’s manage training for early career teachers service to minimise the administrative burden on schools.

7. Payments

The 2 payments will be made in arrears as follows:

• after the summer of the academic year where the eligibility criteria is met, after completion of year 1, and,

• after the summer of the academic year where the eligibility criteria is met after completion of year 2

Each year consists of 3 pro rata payments and are based on evidence that lead providers share with DfE and eligible mentors recorded through DfE’s manage training for early career teachers service. It is therefore, essential that your school submits accurate and up to date information about ECTs to the service to ensure payments are received.

Schools can find more information about how to submit and update mentor information.

Schools do not need to do anything else to receive this payment. Schools and local authorities will receive this funding as part of their normal payments from Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). For local authority maintained schools, the funding must be made available by the local authority to the school irrespective of the existence of any deficit relating to the expenditure of the school’s budget share. The funding is not part of schools’ budget shares and is not part of the individual school’s budget. It is not to be counted for the purpose of calculating the minimum funding guarantee.

If you think that your school should have received this payment and has not, please email continuing-professional-development@digital.education.gov.uk to let us know.

8. Variation

These conditions of grant may be altered at any time. Participating schools and establishments will be notified of this through existing channels.

9. Recovery of funding

This funding is being provided under sections 14 to 16 of the Education Act 2002 and we reserve the right to audit the expenditure.

We may seek to recover funding that has been paid in error or has not been used for the intended purpose.

Recoveries will be made by invoice or by offsetting the amount against subsequent payments due from DfE.

The recipient must notify DfE immediately via the continuing-professional-development@digital.education.gov.uk mailbox if it becomes aware of any instance of error, suspected fraud or financial irregularity in the use of the funds.

10. Assurance

We have a responsibility to make sure that public funds are managed properly in line with these grant conditions. As payment will be made in arrears, we reserve the right to ask schools to confirm that the money has been or will be spent in the way intended. Acceptance of the funding will be taken as confirmation.

Schools should keep some record of this expenditure such as a receipt for classroom cover, or a timetable for the mentor(s) involved, but we will not mandate what form this record should take, and trust school leaders to use their judgement.

We reserve the right to conduct light-touch, proportionate assurance such as spot checks with individual schools, asking for sight of such records.