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Changes for the 2025/26 academic year

Published: 25 February 2025

Updated: 15 April 2025

This is a summary of planned changes to API processes lead providers will see when early career teacher (ECT) and mentor registrations open (date to be confirmed).

We’ll update this section with any further details providers might need to help them test their endpoint integrations in the run up to registrations opening.

Reduced declarations for mentors starting training in the 2025/26 academic year

We’re removing the following declarations from the POST participant-declarations endpoint for mentors starting in the 2025/26 academic year:

  • retained-1
  • retained-2
  • retained-3
  • retained-4
  • extended-1
  • extended-2
  • extended-3

This means there’ll be just 2 mentor declarations from the 2025/26 academic year onwards:

  • started
  • completed
Providers will need to update their integrations to support submitting 2 milestones only. Providers will see a 422-error message if they try to submit retained or extended declarations for a mentor who starts training in the 2025/26 academic year.

Evidence types for the 2025/26 academic year

We’ll be updating the evidence_held values lead providers will be able to use when they submit participant declarations for the 2025/26 academic year intake of ECTs and mentors.

These values represent the evidence lead providers hold to show participants have met the retention criteria for the current milestone period.

For the 2025/26 academic year, every declaration_type will have its own evidence_held values (see tables). In previous years we’d applied the training-event-attended, self-study-material-completed and other values across all declaration types.

Declaration and evidence types for ECTs

Declaration type Evidence held values
started
  • training-event-attended
  • self-study-material-completed
  • other
  • materials-engaged-with-offline (new value)
retained-1
  • training-event-attended
  • self-study-material-completed
  • other
  • materials-engaged-with-offline (new value)
retained-2
  • 75-percent-engagement-met (new value)
  • 75-percent-engagement-met-reduced-induction (new value)
retained-3
  • training-event-attended
  • self-study-material-completed
  • other
  • materials-engaged-with-offline (new value)
retained-4
  • training-event-attended
  • self-study-material-completed
  • other
  • materials-engaged-with-offline (new value)
extended-1
  • training-event-attended
  • self-study-material-completed
  • other
  • materials-engaged-with-offline (new value)
extended-2
  • training-event-attended
  • self-study-material-completed
  • other
  • materials-engaged-with-offline (new value)
extended-3
  • training-event-attended
  • self-study-material-completed
  • other
  • materials-engaged-with-offline (new value)
completed
  • 75-percent-engagement-met (new value)
  • 75-percent-engagement-met-reduced-induction (new value)
  • one-term-induction (new value)

Declaration and evidence types for mentors

Declaration type Evidence held values
started
  • training-event-attended
  • self-study-material-completed
  • other
  • materials-engaged-with-offline (new value)
completed
  • 75-percent-engagement-met (new value)
  • 75-percent-engagement-met-reduced-induction (new value)
New evidence types are not compatible with previous cohorts. If providers try using a new evidence type for an older cohort declaration, it will not work and they’ll see a 422-error message.

Changes to induction programme types

We’ll be making the following changes to the induction_programme_choice field options in the GET schools/ecf and GET schools/ecf/{id} endpoints:

  • core-induction-programme and diy will change to school-led
  • full-induction-programme and school-funded-full-induction-programme will change to provider-led
These changes will apply across all cohorts. We’ll contact providers directly to ensure their integrations can support the new values.

Change to withdrawal reason value to reflect new programme types terminology

To align with the new programme types terminology, we’ll be changing one of the options in the reason field for the PUT participants/ecf/{id}/withdraw endpoint:

  • school-left-fip will change to switched-to-school-led

As a result, we’ll update records across all cohorts that have previously used the school-left-fip value. This is not expected to affect how the endpoint functions. However, lead providers will need to update the options when submitting withdrawal requests to pass through the new value.

Records that have already been withdrawn using the old value will surface the new value and have a modified updated_at timestamp.

API testing and integration

The introduction of the 2025 contracts requires updates to the API service.

To help lead providers prepare for the opening of ECF registration, we’ll run a testing window throughout May 2025.

Refer to our release notes for all the relevant spec changes.

Timelines

As set out in the Model Call-off Contract, lead providers must complete testing by 1 June 2025. This is to ensure there’s enough time to resolve any urgent issues or integration challenges ahead of registration opening for the 2025/26 academic year on 30 June 2025.

Timeline overview

Date Activity
By 22 April Test data added to test environment (sandbox)
By 30 April Test scenarios shared with lead providers
Throughout May DfE product team will join digital check-ins
By 16 May Providers should attempt all test scenarios
By 1 June Deadline for providers to submit testing evidence
By 6 June Deadline for providers to raise any issues or defects
By 13 June DfE will have resolved any identified defects
16 June Soft launch of registration (for selected schools)
30 June Full registration opens

Affected API endpoints

These changes affect the following endpoints:

  • GET schools – affected by induction type changes
  • GET participants and PUT participants/ecf/{id}/withdraw – includes new withdrawal reasons
  • POST participant-declarations – updated for mentor funding and evidence types
  • GET participant-declarations – updated for mentor funding and evidence types

Support from DfE

During testing, we recommend lead providers:

  • use existing Slack channels and check-in sessions to raise questions
  • review all provided API documentation and guidance

We will:

  • give timely access to technical support, including one to one sessions (contact digital engagement leads for more details)
  • monitor testing to anticipate provider needs

Integration changes to consider

Evidence types

New values must be added to evidence types to meet 2025 policy requirements. Pay close attention to:

  • retained-2 declarations for ECTs
  • completed declarations for all participants

Mentor declarations

Providers will only be able to submit started and completed declarations for mentors who start training from June 2025 onwards. The API will return a 422 error if providers submit retained or extended declarations, as these are not accepted.

School induction types

Language used in the GET schools endpoint will change. This is not expected to affect how the endpoint functions. However, lead providers should:

  • resync with the API
  • review downstream systems for impacts

Withdrawal reasons

We’re adding a new value for participant withdrawals: switched-to-school-led

Providers must ensure their systems can both submit and process this new value.

API integration testing

Lead providers must test to confirm:

  • functionality has not been lost
  • all common journeys work as expected
  • their systems integrate correctly with the updated API

Testing areas

Providers will be expected to complete and provide evidence for the following:

Updated evidence types

Test declaration submissions using these values:

  • started (ECTs and mentors)
  • retained-1, retained-2, retained-3, retained-4 (ECTs only)
  • completed (ECTs and mentors)
  • extended (ECTs only)
Declarations

Providers must demonstrate correct declaration submissions for both ECTs and mentors.

Withdrawal scenarios

Test withdrawing a participant using the new reason: switched-to-school-led

Creating partnerships

This will not be tested directly. However, to submit declarations, a lead provider must first create a partnership between an eligible school and a delivery partner.

Full sync tests

Run full syncs on:

  • GET schools
  • GET participants
  • GET participant-declarations

Providers must check that changes are accepted and that they remain within rate limits.

Test data

We’ll add test data to the ECF sandbox by 22 April 2025. This will include:

  • schools with different induction types for the 2024 and 2025 cohorts
  • assigned delivery partners for those cohorts
  • participants attached to each school

If providers need additional data or encounter issues, they should contact their digital engagement lead with detailed information.

Deployment readiness checklist

Before the registration window opens, lead providers must confirm to us that:

  • integrations have been reviewed and updated
  • test scenarios have been completed and evidenced
  • full syncs using updated APIs are functioning correctly

We also welcome providers to share their test plans, feedback and concerns via the DfE Slack channel.

ECF test environment (sandbox)

ECF API guidance