Understanding declarations

What are declarations?

Declarations are formal submissions made by lead providers to confirm that a participant (an early career teacher or mentor) has engaged sufficiently with training during a specific period.

What declarations do

Declarations:

  • inform DfE that training has taken place over a specific period of time
  • trigger payments from DfE to lead providers

The possible declaration types over the API are:

  • started – training began in a given period
  • retained-1 / retained-2 / retained-3 / retained-4 – participant continued training through subsequent engagement windows
  • completed – engagement window criteria has been met for training
  • extended-1 / extended-2 / extended-3 – when an ECT’s training is required beyond the standard schedule due to the ECT’s induction being extended (not to be used for mentors)

Declaration types should ideally be submitted in order for each participant. For example, submit a started declaration before a retained-1 declaration. This enables DfE to pay lead providers promptly.

For participants in the 2025 cohort or later, declaration dates must also be submitted in sequence.

For example, if you have already submitted a started declaration, the declaration_date of any subsequent declaration must be later.

If you submit a retained-2 declaration before a retained-1, the retained-1 declaration date must be earlier than the retained-2 date.

Submitting a declaration with an out-of-sequence declaration_date will return a validation error.

Submitting declarations in order:

  • makes our data more accurate and reliable
  • reduces the need for clawbacks, voiding, and manual adjustments

For declarations relating to participants in pre-2025 cohorts, the declaration date must fall within the milestone dates set out in the contract management payment guidance. This requirement does not apply to the 2025 cohort or later.

How declarations should be ordered

For ECTs in the 2025 cohort onwards, the declaration types in order are:

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

For 2023 or 2024 ECTs, the declaration types in order are:

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

For mentors in the 2025 cohort onwards, the declaration types in order are:

  • started
  • completed

For 2023 and 2024 mentors, the declaration types in order are:

  • started
  • retained-1
  • retained-2
  • retained-3
  • retained-4
  • completed

How declarations are submitted

Declarations are submitted via the API, using endpoints like POST participant-declarations.

Each declaration includes:

  • participant ID
  • declaration type
  • declaration date (aligned with what’s outlined in the payment guidance, this refers to the date the engagement has taken place during an engagement window.)
  • course identifier (indicates whether the declaration is for ECT or mentor training)
  • evidence held (the type of evidence a lead provider holds to verify that a participant has engaged in training)

The evidence type that can be used may differ by cohort and declaration type. Check the schema in the Swagger documentation to see which evidence types will be valid. Declarations cannot be submitted or voided after a cohort has closed.

Duplicate declarations cannot be submitted. If a duplicate is attempted, the API will return an error.

Providers can test they’re able to submit declarations using X-With-Server-Date.

See the Swagger documentation for full details of the declaration endpoints.

How lead providers get paid for training participants

  1. Participant engages with training and meets the evidence requirements within the engagement window.
  2. Lead provider records this internally.
  3. Lead provider submits declaration via API.
  4. API validates and links to relevant financial statement.
  5. Declaration triggers payment if valid.

If an ECT hasn’t had their eligibility for funding confirmed, this means that their induction hasn’t been recorded as starting by an appropriate body yet. You will be unable to receive payment for the associated declarations. They will be stuck in the ‘submitted’ state.

Appropriate bodies will not be able to submit inductions until after the ECT has started. Expect declarations to stay in submitted until after the ECT should have officially started induction.

Once an induction_start_date appears over the API, an ECT will be eligible for funding and any submitted declarations that are valid should move to eligible.

Declaration states

Declaration states are defined by the state attribute.

A declaration’s state value will reflect if and when DfE will pay providers for the training delivered.

state Definition Possible actions lead providers can take
submitted A declaration associated to a participant who has not yet been confirmed to be eligible for funding. An ECT’s induction must be recorded as started by an appropriate body to make them 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
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 or DfE 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 or DfE 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

When a declaration is voided, it will become:

  • voided if it had been submitted, ineligible, eligible, or payable
  • awaiting-clawback if it had been paid

Evidence types

To see which evidence types are valid for each declaration type, check the Swagger documentation and refer to the relevant schema.

For pre-2025 cohorts, evidence is optional for started declarations. If you do provide it, valid evidence types are:

  • training-event-attended
  • self-study-material-completed
  • other

For the 2025 cohort and later, evidence is now mandatory for started declarations, as shown in the documentation above. This means evidence is now required for all declaration types for cohorts 2025 and later.

In the 2025 cohort and later, there is also a new evidence type 75-percent-engagement-met-reduced-induction. This is used for ECTs undergoing a reduced induction, but also for mentors doing reduced hours training. Mentors don’t do induction, but the same evidence type is used as the training is still reduced.

This evidence type should be used when the mentor has already undertaken mentor training as an ITT mentor or school-led mentor training.

Evidence types for the 2025 cohort and later are not compatible with pre-2025 cohorts. If a provider submits a declaration for a pre-2025 cohort using a evidence type that is only valid for the 2025 cohort and later, the API will return a 422 error.