Asking for an ECT’s start date
Why we’re doing this
We want to ask for the school start date so that we can:
- surface to the lead provider a start date for the ECT, so that they can make sure that the ECT starts training at the right time
- show the correct lead provider, delivery partner and appropriate body organisations to the school user – ones that are working within the early career framework for that academic year
- know what funding that the ECT is entitled to
What we tested with users
We tested a page where users could input a month and year for when the ECT had started with the school.
Users suggested they’d have no issues providing this information. However, we’ve noted we can iterate the heading to better clarify the ask – by changing the heading to ask when the teacher ‘started as an early career teacher’.
In rare circumstances, the date they started may be different to the contract start date. In those circumstances, users stated they’d use the date that the ECT started rather than the contract date.
In the previous service, we had asked users to select from a list of terms, which could be confusing when ECTs were starting in between academic years. We only asked this at certain times of the year, and asking always will make sure that we hold an accurate date.
What we need to do next
We’ll progress adding this journey to the development of the service build and keep monitoring in further rounds of research to ensure issues aren’t flagged.