“Teething problems” with the new, “pretty ambitious” early career framework (ECF) are to be expected and can be “sorted out” after a “few tweaks”, a former government adviser has said.

Ian Bauckham, former chair of the Initial Teacher Training Market Review Group, was asked how reforms could be comprehensive but also achievable for schools to deliver within resource constraints, given some teachers had flagged issues with delivery. 

Speaking at a Westminster Education Forum webinar today, Mr Bauckham, who is also chair of Ofqual and a school leader, acknowledged some of the issues with the scheme and responded: “Teething problems can be sorted out. Streamlining can happen just to make sure we can really embed this.”

• The ECF: Teething problems or is change certain?
• Related: Third of heads fear new teachers will quit over ECF
• Workload: Early career framework: how to tackle the workload

The ECF involved doubling the induction programme for new teachers to two years, and was launched with the promise of providing new teachers with “high-quality support…particularly in those first years of teaching when the learning curve is steepest”.

The framework has come under some criticism, with heads expressing concerns about the level of workload it is creating for both early career teachers and those working as mentors.

Mr Bauckham said: “I think there’s a couple of things - there may be some tweaks that need to happen, and I know the Department for Education will be in close conversation with providers to look at how this can be effectively done.

“I think, inevitably, when you ask professionals to take on something new that they’re not familiar with, it may seem more burdensome in the first year than it does once it becomes embedded and deeply understood by the people providing it.”

He then likened the situation to a teacher delivering a new course for the first time, and said: “When I’m second, third, fourth year of that course, it becomes more manageable.”

Last year, survey findings from the NAHT school leaders’ union showed that nearly a third (32 per cent) of the union’s members responding to a poll were concerned that the ECF would have a negative impact on recruitment.

Last month, schools minister Robin Walker wrote to schools to promise that the DfE was “making improvements” to the framework in areas it has heard are “causing some difficulties”.

At the time, Mr Walker said that the DfE will also be producing guidance before September 2022, advising mentors on how to maintain the “high quality” of the ECF, while also using their own “professional judgement”.