Appropriate Body Services
Follow the steps below to register with our Appropriate Body
Explore Vantage TSH Appropriate Body Service and costs
Appropriate Body Services
The role of the Appropriate BodyAppropriate Bodies Services (AB) play an important role in statutory induction of teachers. ABs will be expected to check that Early Career Teachers (ECTs) are receiving their statutory entitlements, including a professional development curriculum underpinned by the Early Career Framework and that they receive high-quality mentoring. They will continue to play their role in quality assurance and assessment for all ECTs.
Schools offering statutory induction to ECTs will need to register with an AB. There is a charge to schools for the AB package which covers our costs in providing the service that includes working with regional partners to deliver the service. As a Teaching School Hub, we are able to offer both the AB service and the fully funded ECF programme but schools can choose to access either or both with us.
This means that Vantage Teaching School Hub can provide a cost and time efficient support service to ensure that all of your statutory duties for teacher induction are covered.
Our high-quality AB service is delivered by experienced professionals from across the region, ensuring that you receive a high-quality service from people you know and can trust to provide you with the best available support.
It is statutory that all Early Career Teachers have access to an ECF based statutory induction and are registered with an Appropriate Body.
From September 2021, the AB role expanded to reflect the expectation that every new teacher has access to an ECF based induction. As part of the AB role, we are expected to check that teachers are receiving a programme of support and training based on the ECF, alongside the quality assurance checks that we carry out. The DfE is referring to this as "ECF fidelity checking" - this means checking that an induction programme is faithful to the ECF.
The AB role, and the level of fidelity checking will vary depending on the induction route a school has chosen:
- For schools who have enrolled on the Vantage ECF provider led programme, the AB does not need to carry out fidelity checks. This is because the lead providers of the programme will be subject to separate quality assurance through Ofsted and the DfE to ensure their training provides fidelity to the ECF.
- Where schools choose to deliver the high quality DfE materials or design their own induction programme using the ECF, we will be expected to check that the support and training being provided is faithful to the ECF and that all parties have time set aside in order for the programme to be delivered as intended. These were previously referred to as the Core Induction Programme (CIP) or the School Induction Programme (SIP).
Schools who have new ECTs from September will be charged in October for one year. Schools who have ECTs joining the January or April cohort will be charged until August 2027 and any outstanding terms will be charged the following academic year.
The pricing structure has been under review in consultation with other AB providers regionally and nationally. After careful consideration we have made the decision to support schools by staging the increase over the next two years. This means that the costs will increase initially from £225 to £250 for the year 2026-27 (an increase of £8.33 a term per ECT).
From Sept 2026 a £50 late charge per review/assessment will be incurred by schools whose reviews/assessments are more than 21 days late. The exception to this is when the AB has received a written request to delay the completion of a review/assessment.
Reduced induction visits and fast track visits incur an additional charge of £175 to cover the cost of a half day visit (as per the SLA).
Induction tutors should ensure their finance leads are aware of these charges so that invoices can be processed swiftly and additional charges avoided. Late payment of invoices will result in an additional admin charge of £25 plus an additional £10 a term.
Please note that any work undertaken by the Appropriate Body in respect of visiting schools as part of an application for a reduced induction will be charged at an additional visit rate of £175 for a half day.
Register your Early Career Teacher with our Appropriate Body Service
For schools that wish to register for both the Early Career Framework and Appropriate Body Services with us, you should follow the steps on our Early Career Framework Page.
We are listed as an Appropriate Body on the 'Manage training for early career teachers' service as The Vantage Teaching School Hub, North Humber.
For schools wishing to register with us for Appropriate Body Services only, please complete section1 and 2 of our on-boarding form which you can access HERE during the Autumn onboarding window. Outside of this time, please contact us directly via email.
This form provides us with the essential details we need to ensure that you are swiftly on-boarded and receive your link to ECT Manager so that we can register you with the Teacher Regulatory Agency (TRA).
ECT Manager - your online portal to manage Statutory Induction
ECT Manager is an online system that makes it easy for Appropriate Bodies and schools to manage every part of the ECT induction process in one place.
The ECT Manager platform allows you to manage all aspects of how you share information with us (E.G. progress reviews and final assessments) in a paperless way, saving you time, money and contributing to a greener planet.
Once you have completed the form to provide us with the necessary details that we need to set you up on ECT Manager, you will receive a link to access the software and upload details of your ECTs.
ACCESS ECT MANAGER PORTAL HERE
Accessing optional Induction Tutor support and training
Vantage Appropriate Body Service will provide optional support and training to ensure that Induction Tutors are well-informed and knowledgable about their role and what to do if an ECT requires additional help and support if they need to get back on track.
Optional Induction Tutor training and support will be updated prior to the start of each year, informed by your feedback on what is most helpful. Additionally, we will include the following:
- ECT Manager orientation and user induction
- Meeting an ECTs statutory entitlements and remaining compliant
- The importance of high quality, evidence informed mentoring to ECT development
- Progress reviewing and making evidence informed interim and final assessment judgements
- Supporting an ECT who is not making expected progress
- Meeting your equality, inclusion and diversity duties and ensuring ECT well-being
- What to consider when making requests for changes in length of statutory induction.
We offer optional Induction Tutor termly seminars. Links to these meetings are sent out to all registered Induction Tutors in advance.
Termly Induction Tutor Seminars
- 8th October 2026 at 4.00pm
- 4th March 2026 at 4.00pm
- 17th June 2026 at 4.00pm
Progress reviews and assessments dates
Schools registered for Appropriate Body Services will receive reminders about dates for submission of progress reviews and interim/final assessments. We will provide support through our optional training modules to ensure that Induction Tutors have confidence and clarity with regards to expectations for submission of reviews/assessments whilst ensuring unnecessary workload is avoided.
The following dates represent the windows to submit progress reviews and assessment returns using the paperless ECT Manager system:
- Autumn Assessment submission date:
- Friday 5th December 2025
- Autumn Progress Review submission date:
- Friday 12th December 2025
- Spring Assessment submission date:
- Friday 13th March 2026
- Spring Progress Review submission date:
- Friday 20th March 2026
- Summer Assessment submission date:
- Friday 3rd July 2026
- Summer Progress Review submission date:
- Friday 10th July 2026
Contact us for advice and support
Appropriate Body Service Lead:
Nicola Tennison - ntennison@smchull.org
Telephone - (01482) 851136 ext 1170
ECT Induction Explained
DFE guidance for Induction for Early Career Teachers (June 2026
