Role and responsibilities

The national induction arrangements are designed to ensure that everyone involved has confidence in a school’s assessment procedures, and is clear about the progress of each NQT against the induction standards, well before the headteacher makes the formal recommendation.

In its role as appropriate body the local authority has two key responsibilities:

• to assure itself that the schools for which it is the appropriate body understand, and are able to meet, their responsibilities for monitoring, support and guidance and for undertaking a rigorous and equitable assessment of the NQT, and
• to decide, in the light of the headteacher’s recommendation, whether an NQT has satisfactorily completed the induction period, and to communicate this decision to the NQT, the headteacher and the GTCE. It may, in exceptional circumstances, offer an NQT the opportunity of an extension to the induction period (Guidance paragraph 124).

In undertaking these responsibilities, the local authority should bear in mind its obligations under the Code of practice on LEA and school relations.

Specific tasks

The above responsibilities encompass more specific tasks. These require the local authority to:

• identify a named contact on induction matters at the local authority, with whom NQTs may raise issues about their induction programme which cannot be resolved satisfactorily within the school. To ensure that this person is seen to be impartial, and that NQTs have no hesitation in contacting them, it is important that the named contact is not directly involved in the areas about which the NQT may be raising concerns, such as making decisions about satisfactory completion of induction
• keep a record of the name, DfES reference number, date of birth and national insurance number of each NQT for whom it is the appropriate body, and the stage of the induction period which each NQT has reached, based upon information from headteachers
• liaise with other local authorities as appropriate about an NQT employed on a part-time basis in more than one school at the same time
• make sure that it is fully aware of the circumstances where any summative assessment forms have not been submitted or signed (see Guidance paragraph 58), and
• retain the assessment reports received on an NQT until the GTCE has confirmed that the NQT will remain registered or has been removed from the register, following the end of the induction period and, where relevant, any appeal process.

Conflicts of interest or disagreement

The local authority will want to consider whether any potential conflicts of interest will arise from its role both in making the decision about satisfactory completion of induction, and in responding to schools’ requests to provide support for NQTs, especially if they are at risk of not meeting the induction standards.

Some local authorities are addressing the need to separate such functions by identifying a small panel of officers and/or headteachers to make the decision about satisfactory completion of induction.

Schools should alert the local authority as early as possible to any concerns about a particular NQT; local authorities will need to offer support and guidance to any schools that require it in order to discharge their responsibilities. Because of this communication between the school and local authority, and the local authority's quality assurance mechanisms, the local authority should only very rarely need to disagree with the headteacher’s assessment. If there is a disagreement, however, the final outcome will be decided by the local authority or by the appeal body if an NQT wishes to appeal against the local authority’s decision.

Career entry and development profile

The career entry and development profile is designed to help trainee and newly qualified teachers think about their development at three transition points: towards the end of ITT, at the start of induction and at the end of induction. The profile process supports the reflection on teaching and development that has been established during initial teaching training.

Induction tutors will be supporting NQTs at transition points 2 and 3 of the profile process but they will also refer to the responses recorded by the NQT (as a trainee) at transition point 1, to enable them to find out about prior experience and the strengths, development needs and aspirations identified at the end of initial teacher training.