Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 29 September 2023

What's happened this week?

Important stories across the board:

Pretty much the full range of stories this week – from pupil absences in school to teaching excellence in universities. 

This is how the week has shaped up. 

The big story for schools has been the report from the Education Committee on the growing issue of persistent pupil absence and how to help those most in need. ‘Nearly a quarter of all children missing 10% or more of their sessions’, according to the Chair of the Committee. The figure provoked some strident headlines and an urgent call for action from the Committee. Summary details below.    

Elsewhere in schools this week, unions and education bodies called on the PM to ensure extra money in the Autumn statement for school buildings. As they explained in an open letter, 'the crisis involving Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) has shone a broader light on the crippling underfunding of our school buildings, which has left many unsafe and no longer fit for purpose'.

In other news for schools, Labour backed down on plans to remove charitable status for private schools, but pledged to introduce VAT on private school fees ‘immediately’ if elected. It had been thought they might be phased in. The Independent Schools Council reckoned it’ll make things worse. “VAT may have the effect of making independent schools more elitist”.

Elsewhere, Ofqual sent round initial information about next summer’s exams. The Nuffield Foundation and the Ada Lovelace Institute responded to the government’s call for evidence on the use of AI in education. And, the Bacc debate simmered. What will Rishi do? Summary details below.

For FE this week, the government published the latest (2022) Employer Skills Survey showing among other things a drop in per-employee training. The CBI continued to bang the drum for reform of the apprenticeship levy in their submission to the Treasury ahead of the Autumn Statement.  

In other FE news, the government moved to strengthen initial teacher training for FE cutting out private providers and ‘restricting it to courses delivered by or in partnership with universities’ And plans to introduce a Greater Manchester Bacc for young people moved a step closer.

In HE, the big story has obviously been the release of the 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) results, “a moment for celebration of the very best of higher education in England,” according to the boss of the Office for Students (OfS), which oversees the TEF exercise. HEPI’s Nick Hillman has an excellent summary of it all here

Elsewhere, the OfS launched a new survey into sexual misconduct in English universities. 'We don’t know enough about how often it happens, where it happens, and who it happens to', apparently. The NUS reported that students were struggling with the cost-of-living. 'They must juggle their studies with paid work in order to simply eat and put a roof over their heads'. And the Times Higer reported on the latest World University Rankings.

And briefly two other particular items of news that have attracted headlines this week.  

First, Dr Jo Saxton, the Chief Regulator at Ofqual, announced she was heading off to take over at UCAS at the end of the year. It suggests an interesting time looming for education, with a change of leadership at Ofsted coming at the same time.

And second, it’s not just pupil absences, but worker absences that have been causing concern this week. CIPD and Simplyhealth published a new survey report pointing to ‘a marked increase in sickness absence’, up two days a week on average per employee compared to 2019.  

And finally, it’s party conference time, and party leaders have taken to music to herald their entrance and exit on and off stage. At the Lib Dem Conference this week, Ed Davey came on to ABBA’s ‘Take a Chance On Me’ and left to Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. It’s the Conservatives next week. Isn’t Rishi a Taylor Swift fan?

Links to most of these stories below, but first some details behind two of the big stories this week.  

• Pupil absences. What to do about the growing problem of pupils missing – and in some cases persistently missing – school? Last week’s survey report from Public First provided a stark reminder of some of the challenges involved. In effect, it suggested that the link between parents and schools had in some cases broken down. MPs, Ofsted, the children’s commissioner and a host of education bodies have been highlighting the issue for some time and this week the Education Committee published the results of its deliberations. It pointed to a range of factors behind the rise in absences such as 'sky high waiting lists for children’s mental health services' and the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, all of which have been acknowledged, but ultimately as the report concluded, 'there has been no significant improvement in the speed and scale of the rate of reduction which is needed to prevent long-term harm to pupils'. So what to do? The Committee made a number of important recommendations. On mental health, it recommended a review of the scale of the problem and services available to report by next summer, but, significantly, also to consider whether those with serious mental health problems should be recorded as absent. It supported the use of attendance monitors and hubs, but called for new guidance on the use of fines which appear punitive in many cases. It also called for another look at the eligibility for free school meals, progress on a register for home-educated children, targeted resources for pupils with special needs where according to ASCL the system is still in a mess, and daily absence data to be formally published by schools. The Committee concluded by calling for ‘quick action’ on the report. The DfE has been quick to respond with four new attendance hubs and a blog here

• Baccalaureate position. Will Rishi Sunak say anything about plans for a Bacc type qualification for 18-year-olds when he addresses the Party Conference next Wednesday? It was one of the (many) policy rumours bouncing about last week. Broadening the A level programme to take in a wider range of options is not, of course, a new idea. We’ve been here many times before. The most recent perhaps was the Times Education Commission report last year proposing 'a British Baccalaureate offering broader academic and vocational qualifications at age 18'. Older hands can point to earlier battle scars, including most notably the 2004 Tomlinson diploma model – a simpler version put forward by Lord Dearing in 1995. And, stretching back even further, the 1988 Higginson report with its planned diet of a broader spread of A levels. All attempting to broaden the so-called ‘sixth-form curriculum’, but all, as one commentator put it, “lasting a few seconds on the desk of the education secretary before being rejected out of hand”. Will the latest proposal end up the same way? Former adviser Sam Freedman thinks so. “There’s no point designing new qualifications if there’s no one there to teach them and no resources to teach them with”, he wrote this week. Many in education agree with him. But former Universities Minister David Willetts argued this week that the Prime Minister was right to open up the issue. “Restricting 16–18-year-olds to three A levels drives early specialisation, and makes English education narrower and more specialised than anywhere else in Europe. The Prime Minister is right to want to change this”. At the moment, the plans encompass a broader maths curriculum up to age 18. How far this will stretch to other options remains to be seen. Labour has its own plans to broaden the curriculum too. It’ll be interesting to see if the next couple of weeks of Conference speeches shed any light. 

The top headlines of the week: 

• ‘University staff strike disrupts freshers’ week (Monday).
• ‘DfE records £96m apprenticeship underspend in 2022/23’ (Tuesday).
• ‘UK university students facing ‘unprecedented’ rent rises’ (Wednesday). 
• ‘Labour backs down from plan to strip private schools of charitable status’ (Thursday).
• ‘Attendance: Ministers plan local absence ‘action alliances’ (Friday).

 General:

• The big AI Safety Summit.The government released an introductory briefing paper setting out the key partners, working arrangements and sorts of AI risks and challenges it intended to focus on, as it continued the planning for its ‘big’ AI Safety Summit being hosted in early November. 
• Youth offer.The government extended its programme of support for young people on benefits and closest to work to include economically inactive claimants as part of its continued push to getting more people back into work. 
• Off work.The CIPD and Simplyhealth called for better preventative health and wellbeing strategies at work as they published a new report showing a big increase in workplace absences with stress and mental health a key factor in many cases.
• Our asks.The CBI called for a 2-year pilot to transform the Apprenticeship levy into a Skills Challenge Fund along with realising net zero growth opportunities and creating a stronger internally competitive business environment as it submitted its proposals for economic growth to the Treasury ahead of the Autumn Statement.
• Productivity. The Resolution Foundation and Centre for Economic Performance published their latest report as part of The Economy 2030 Inquiry, calling for ‘a change in mindset’ including supporting dynamic firms and individuals, to help boost productivity. 
• Using AI.The British Chambers of Commerce reported on its recent survey among mainly small businesses about the use of AI, finding nearly half (48%) with no plans to use it citing cost, risk, reliability and lack of understanding, although equally with some saying it was too early to predict future trends.
• Ageing society.The Nuffield Foundation announced a new three-year funded project as part of its ‘living well in later life’ series, looking at integrated support through pensions, health and care systems. 
• Early years.The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfS) examined early years funding and provision in light of recent changes acknowledging the increase in both funding and free entitlement but noting that core funding will still below that of a decade ago for many once provider costs were taken into account, and that much of the support will go to working rather than poorer families.
• Childhood trauma.The Home Office and Youth Endowment Fund launched a new programme of funded activities to find out how far training teachers, social workers and other practitioners could help reduce the effects of harmful childhood experiences on young people who often end up in further violent situations.

FE/Skills:

• FE ITT. The government launched consultation on what it called ‘a more robust approach to building a sustainable teacher training system for FE,’ with funding eligibility from 2024/5 limited to courses delivered by or in partnership with universities, and ultimately for a new accreditation process for FE ITT providers generally. 
• Skills Survey. The government published the Employer Skills Survey for 2022 based on survey evidence collected between June 2022 and March 2023 looking at issues such as training, recruitment and skills gaps, finding around a quarter of employers reporting a vacancy with a third of all vacancies being skill related but with a drop in reported training and per-employee spend on training.
• Skills shortages. The Social Market Foundation pointed to skills shortages as one of the big barriers to business scale-ups in a new commissioned report calling for better access to skilled support for key sectors as a result. 
• Youth Guarantee. The Youth Employment Group from Impetus and partners called in a joint letter to the Prime Minister for the creation of a Young Person’s Guarantee in England to encompass a range of policies such as Youth Hubs and placements in an effort to open up training and employment opportunities and reduce the risk of young people becoming NEET.
• MBacc.  FE News reported on developments around the Greater Manchester Bacc (MBacc,) a technical route proposed by local Mayor Andy Burnham for young people to develop the skills needed by local employers which has seen considerable support emerge from both business and parents and which has now created an employer-led Board to help prepare for a 2024 launch. 

HE:

• TEF results. The Office for Students (OfS) published results from the 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) exercise which saw separate ratings for each aspect of student experience and student outcomes for the first time, with at least 73 providers awarded a Gold for at least one aspect, 100 achieve a Silver and 29 a Bronze.
• World Rankings. The Times Higher published the latest World University Rankings with Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial again in the top ten at 1^st, 5^thand 8^th position respectively but with the average ranking of UK universities dropping slightly as those of China and Australia improved.
• Degree apprenticeships. The OfS published arrangements for the distribution of funding (£40m) over the next two years to help develop degree apprenticeships with bids for the first of three intended bidding waves due in by 20 November 2023.
• Sexual misconduct. The OfS commissioned a major new survey into evidence of sexual misconduct in higher education in England HE, covering 13 different types of provider and aiming to report back on both the student perspective and the effectiveness of reporting systems. 
• Working night and day. The NUS published new survey data showing increasing numbers of students having to undertake paid employment alongside their studies to cope with the cost-of-living, with over a third of those who work saying it was having a negative effect on their studies.
• Mental health. King’s College Policy Institute published new research showing a worrying rise in mental health problems among undergraduates in UK universities, up from 6% to 16% over recent years with women, LGBTQ+ people and those from lower socio-economic groups the most vulnerable. 
• MoU. The Office of the Independent Adjudicator and Ofqual published a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on their respective roles and responsibilities along with procedures for sharing information and data as appropriate.
• Annual Review. The HE Policy Institute (HEPI) reported on its activities over the past year, a year which has seen it reach its 20^thbirthday, publish a wide range of research, reports and briefings, and hold over 30 events while undertaking some ‘strategic planning for the future’ and implementing a slight increase in subscriptions.
• University challenge. Advance HE looked at the current range of challenges facing people and institutions in the HE sector, suggesting the need for providers and individuals to extend their skills as institutions increasingly react to external pressures. 
• Research support. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) set out further details of the support available for postgraduate researchers following recent survey evidence, proposing among other things to ‘explore the potential for developing a common baseline for the stipend and core support.’
• Digital toolkit. JISC released a further set of resources including a digital maturity model, action plan and roadmap, all designed to help HE institutions in their journey towards digital transformation.
• Internships. The ‘RATEMYPLACEMENT’ site reported on the best places in the UK for an internship, with Newcastle, Nottingham and Glasgow in that order coming out on top although with London and Glasgow coming out on top for the highest paid.

Tweets and posts of note:

• “One of the things we've seen waning in popularity in recent years is the Home-School Agreement. But I think it may be time for a refresh. Parents should be asked to sign up to a bunch of things, and if they don't want to, then they will need to find another school” | @miss_mcinerney
• “Gosh. There was a class of children on the train | @AvantiWestCoast
• cancelled while passengers were on board. Teachers had to source THEIR OWN COACH to take 12-year-olds home as they weren't allowed to put unaccompanied children into taxis (50 kids, 5 adults on trip) | @KateEMcCann
• “You know you're a HE policy nerd when you get excited about KEF and TEF reporting in the same week...” | @LouisMMCoiffait
• “Giving my classroom gluesticks human names has been revolutionary. Does a student care if a glue stick goes missing? No! Do they care if DEREK the glue stick has not been returned? ABSOLUTELY. It’s like a manhunt until Derek has been returned to his rightful spot” | @MissBThe3rd
• “I’m an old-fashioned girl and I think that learning to be tough, learning to be a bit resilient, is wholly to the good” | @wmarybeard
• “Multiculturalism has failed - I couldn't get a table in Wagamama” | @henrymance
• “The lovely thing about twitter, there’s something for EVERYONE to hate” | @MooseAllain

Memorable quotes

A selection of quotes that merit attention:

• “And when our schools and colleges beg, bowl in hand, asking, “please Sir, I want some more”, who is the Mr Bumble in our Dickensian nightmare?” – the Lib-Dems put the government on the spot at their Conference over funding. 
• “It’s quite depressing – I see all of these freshers having fun and I’m just looking for somewhere to live” – university students tell The Guardian about their struggles to find accommodation.
• “We are writing to call on you to act, as a matter of urgency, to ensure that our school estate is upgraded and made safe for education in the 21st century” – unions call on the government to invest in school buildings.
• “My cross-party colleagues and I know the minister will want to take quick action on this report” – the Chair of the Education Committee signs off their report on pupil absences.
• “This a debate worth having” – former universities minister David Willetts on Bacc rumours.
• “I am delighted that I am able to continue to serve students albeit in a different role, when I join UCAS early in 2024” – Dr Jo Saxton leaves Ofqual for UCAS.
• “Ofqual expects national results in 2024 to be broadly similar to this year” – Ofqual on early arrangements for next summer’s exams.
• “All in all, we’ve been willing to cut back on holidays, nice clothes, dinners out, theatre trips and all that sort of stuff to give our daughter this education, but soon it will be so incredibly tight that it won’t feel worth it anymore and it’ll create so much tension and stress” – a parent tells the i newspaper about the impact of possible rises in private school fees.
• “If a primary or secondary school requests that inspectors do not speak to pupils about a topic that the inspector agrees is reasonable for the school to consider sensitive for its pupils, inspectors will not ask pupils questions about it” – Ofsted issues new guidance on inspectors speaking to pupils.
• “My son’s banned me from social media. I’d be cancelled after one gin and tonic” – actress Felicity Kendall speaks perhaps for many.

Other stories

• Working from home. Three days in the office, two at home. That seems to be the optimal for better employee engagement and workplace cultures according to new research from Ipsos. Debate and research rumbles on about the whole concept but this research, based on 1,400 full-time UK office workers, seems to strike a popular balance. The report suggests that only two in five respondents are working the full set of five days in the office but also that just over half of younger employees reckon they’re missing out on the social side if they work less than three days in the office. A link to the survey is here

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Steve Besley

Disclaimer: Education Eye is intended to help colleagues keep up to date with national developments in the education sector. Information is correct at the time of writing and is offered in good faith. No liability is accepted by Steve Besley or EdCentral for decisions made on the basis of any information provided.