Definitions and states

Key concepts

Concept	Definition
cohort	The grouping of participants who begin their induction or training in a given academic year under a given funding contract. For example, a participant who started their training in the 2024/25 academic year is assigned to the 2024 cohort. This is because funding for their training comes from the 2024/25 call-off contract. In most cases providers cannot change a participant’s cohort once they have started their training
course_identifier	The participant’s training as either an early career teacher (ECT) or mentor
declaration	The notification submitted by providers via the API as the sole means for triggering output payments from DfE. Declarations are submitted where there is evidence of a participant’s engagement in training for a given milestone period
participant	An early career teacher (ECT) or mentor registered for training
partnership	The relationship created between schools, delivery partners and providers who work together to deliver early career training to participants
schedule	The expected timeframe in which a participant will complete their early career training. Schedules include defined milestone dates against which DfE validates the declarations submitted by providers
statement	A record of output payments (based on declarations), service fees and any adjustments the DfE may pay lead providers at the end of a contractually agreed payment period. Statements sent to providers by DfE at the end of milestone periods can be used for invoicing purposes
unfunded-mentor	Mentors linked to a provider’s ECTs but not eligible for funding through that provider. Typically, these mentors have either completed, or are currently doing, mentor training with a different lead provider than the one delivering training to the ECT they support

API status values

The API uses status values to describe the current state of partnerships, participants, and declarations.

Each status tells providers what actions they can take through the API and what to expect from DfE.

Partnership statuses

Partnership statuses are defined by the status attribute in partnership endpoint responses.

Providers must confirm their partnerships with schools for each cohort. Once a partnership has been established the status value will become active and providers will receive participant information via the API.

Schools can challenge existing partnerships at any time. Once a partnership status becomes challenged, providers will no longer be able to update partnership details.

status	Definition	Action
active	A partnership between a provider, school and delivery partner has been agreed and confirmed by the provider	Providers can view, confirm and update active partnerships
challenged	A partnership between a provider, school and delivery partner has been changed or dissolved by the school	Providers can only view challenged partnerships

The 2025 cohort will be the last to have challenge fields in partnership responses. From 2026, schools will make changes at an individual participant level (for example, moving an ECT to a different provider) rather than challenging a school-wide partnership.

View more detailed specifications for the partnerships schema

Participant statuses

The API uses two different status fields to describe a participant’s journey in the participant endpoints:

• training_status, set by providers through the API. It determines what actions you can take, such as updating data or submitting declarations
• participant_status, set by schools through the ‘Register early career teachers’ service. It reflects the participant’s position in the school (for example, joining, leaving, or withdrawn).

Together, these statuses give both providers and schools a shared view of a participant’s training progress.

Training status field

training_status	Definition	Notes
active	Participant is currently in training	Update participant data and submit declarations
deferred	Participant has paused training	Providers must notify DfE when the participant restarts
withdrawn	Participant has left training	Cannot update participant data. Can only submit backdated declarations if declaration_date is before withdrawal_date

Participant status field

participant_status	Definition	Notes
active	Participant is currently training at the school	Matches the school’s latest confirmation
joining	Participant is due to join the school	Will update to active once the join date is reached
leaving	Participant is due to leave the school	Will update to left after the leaving date passes
left	Participant has left the school	No longer associated with the school
withdrawn	School has recorded that the participant has permanently left	May overlap with provider-recorded training_status

Example of how the two participant statuses can differ:

• a provider records a participant as training_status = active because they are still completing training
• at the same time, the school records the participant as participant_status = leaving, with a leaving date set for the end of term.

In this case, the participant is still active in training, but their school has flagged that they are due to leave soon. Once the leaving date passes, the participant_status will update to left, while the provider will need to update the training record if the participant transfers or withdraws.

View more detailed specifications for the ECF participant schema

Declaration states

Declaration states are defined by the state attribute.

Providers must submit declarations to confirm a participant has engaged in training within a given milestone period. A declaration’s state value will reflect if and when DfE will pay providers for the training delivered.

state	Definition	Action
submitted	A declaration associated with to a participant who has not yet been confirmed to be eligible for funding	Providers can view and void submitted declarations
eligible	A declaration associated with a participant who has been confirmed to be eligible for funding	Providers can view and void eligible declarations
ineligible	A declaration associated with 1) a participant who is not eligible for funding 2) a duplicate submission for a given participant	Providers can view and void ineligible declarations
payable	A declaration that has been approved and is ready for payment by DfE	Providers can view and void payable declarations
voided	A declaration that has been retracted by a provider	Providers can only view voided declarations
paid	A declaration that has been paid for by DfE	Providers can view and void paid declarations
awaiting_clawback	A paid declaration that has since been voided by a provider	Providers can only view awaiting_clawback declarations
clawed_back	An awaiting_clawback declaration that has since had its value deducted from payment by DfE to a provider	Providers can only view clawed_back declarations

View more detailed specifications for the declaration schema

IDs explained

We use various unique identifiers (IDs) in the endpoint requests and responses to help make the API reliable, efficient, and unambiguous.

ID	What the ID is for
clawback_statement_id	Identifies a clawback statement we’ve attached when funding paid to a lead provider needs to be returned due to overpayments or participant data changes (for example, someone withdraws from training or is found to be ineligible). Enables lead providers using the declarations endpoints to identify which clawback statement a participant’s funding adjustment relates to and reconcile clawbacks against their monthly or cumulative funding reports
declaration_id	Created when providers submit a declaration. This ID can also be used to void a declaration. It’s shown as simply id at the top of successful responses in the declarations endpoints
delivery_partner_id	Identifies delivery partners. Used when providers form partnerships as part of the POST partnerships endpoint. It’s also listed in GET participants/ecf and GET participants/ecf/{id} responses in API v3
mentor_id	Identifies individual ECT mentors within the API. This ID is used to link mentors to ECTs they’re supporting, and tracks their training status, funding eligibility, and contact information. The same mentor_id is used whether the mentor is funded or unfunded, including those trained by a different lead provider than the one supporting their ECT
participant_id	Identifies participants registered for training. This is used for declarations, changing schedules, notifying us of a change in circumstances related to their training as well as other endpoints to monitor training and progress
participant_id_changes	A record of changes where a participant’s ID has been updated, usually to fix a data issue like a duplicate or incorrect registration. In such cases, the from_participant_id field is the original ID that has been retired or replaced. The to_participant_id is the new ID that should now be used when referring to this participant
partnership_id	Identifies the partnership between schools, delivery partners and providers for a specific cohort who work together to deliver training to participants. It’s shown as simply id at the top of successful responses in the partnership endpoints
statement_id	Identifies a financial statement we’ve attached to a lead provider. It acts as a reference for each individual payment cycle or statement and allows lead providers to retrieve financial data using the GET statements endpoints
school_id	Identifies schools. Used when providers form partnerships as part of the POST partnerships endpoint
training_record_id	Identifies participants with multiple enrolments, such as an ECT who later becomes a mentor. Providers using the participants endpoints will see separate records for the same participant, each with a different training_record_id based on their role