Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 22 March 2024

Teaching numbers, apprenticeships, childcare, the economy.

All key issues ahead of a general election and all in the news again this week as we head to an Easter break.

Teachers first, where NFER’s latest annual labour market report sparked BBC headline news about good old PE teachers having to be drafted in ‘to plug gaps in secondary maths.’  It’s one of 10 subject areas out of 17 likely to fall short of secondary teachers according to the report.

There’s been ‘a slight improvement’ in recruitment in some subject areas but the report starts its conclusion by saying that “teacher supply in England is in a critical state.” So why and what to do?

In terms of why, the reports points to three things: ever increasing working hours and workloads; the lack of the sorts of flexi working options enjoyed by other professions; and poor pay prospects.

As for what to do, the report calls for an independent review of workloads, a minimum 3.1% pay award for this year with ‘a long-term strategy to improve the competitiveness of teacher pay, and a Frontline Workers Pay Premium, potentially of 1.8%, to compensate for the lack of hybrid working opportunities.

Interim reporting from number crunchers SchoolDash suggests things have picked up a bit in some areas but many agree with ASCL’s Geoff Barton that “it’s high time the government gave this crisis the attention it warrants.”

On to apprenticeships where the Prime Minister outlined a number of reforms in a speech to small business leaders at the start of the week.

These included fully funding apprenticeship training for those aged under 21 from this April, a doubling of the levy transfer cap and more funding next year. “Taken together,” he claimed, “these measures will unlock a tidal wave of opportunity and make a real difference to businesses and entrepreneurs across the country.”

The sector welcomed some of the reforms. “In particular, it’s good to see the end of co-investment for young people,” according to the training providers body AELP.

But others felt that the reforms wouldn’t touch the sides. “Today’s announcements are not the concerted reform of apprenticeships required,” explained the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. The colleges sector agreed. “The targeted funding for all apprenticeships under the age of 21 will make a modest difference, but it is not enough,” the AoC said. It called for a wider review.

Childcare next where just ahead of the rollout of the government’s much vaunted childcare scheme, continuing concerns about the availability of places and provision for the most disadvantaged have been highlighted in a report this week.

It came from the children’s charity Coram, whose latest annual Family and Childcare survey painted what it called “a bleak picture for families, with dramatic drops in the availability of childcare places and above-inflation rises in childcare costs.”

On the plus side, over 60% of English councils reckon they’ll have enough places to meet the initial expansion of free places next month, but they’re not so sure when it comes to the wider rollout in September.

The Early Years Alliance said the report raised ‘serious questions’ with staffing one of the most pressing. Over 90% of councils in the report raised it as a worry. Other concerns included the provision of places for those with special needs, let alone rising costs generally. The report points to a part-time nursery place for a child under two now costing on average £158 a week. Up 7% just on last year.

The report concluded with a number of recommendations around future funding, the workforce and provision generally.

On to the economy where there have been two developments of note this week.

First the release of the latest CPI inflation figures which were better than many commentators had predicted with a drop to 3.4% for February. With food inflation down 2% and overall inflation figures expected to be around or just over 2% at year-end depending on which commentator you read, it was a welcome boost at last. In the words of the CBI, ‘inflation is heading in the right direction.’

And second, an important speech this week by shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, particularly for those anxiously seeking a sense of how a future Labour government’s economic policy might shape up.

Her Mais Lecture argued that like the 1970s, ‘we are in a moment of flux,’ calling as a result for ‘a reshaping of the institutional architecture’ with the aim of restoring economic growth.

This would be built around three pillars: stability, investment and reform. Each with implications for education and skills.

Under stability, for instance, Labour would retain the 2% inflation target, place net zero at the heart of economic growth, stick to one Budget a year and get the OBR to report on the long-term impact of capital spending decisions. Under investment, Labour would revive and strengthen the Industrial Strategy Council, deliver a Green Prosperity Plan and support university spinouts. And under reform, Labour would overhaul the infrastructure regime, devolve economic powers to the regions, establish a New Deal for Working People and create a new Growth and Skills Levy.

Moving on to other general news this week, the Education Committee tackled minister Rob Halfon among others about the impact of industrial action on university students. He hoped lessons had been learned and that it wouldn’t happen again.

And Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson led a Westminster Hall debate on extending funding for the national tutoring programme. “I urge the Minister to please go away and talk to the Treasury about whether money can be found to continue this important intervention, because our children really do deserve the very best start in life.”

Funding is due to cease at the end of this academic year with the minister arguing that more funding has been put into schools and that it should be left to headteachers ‘to decide how to invest their funding.’ Adding rather lamely, “I anticipate many schools continuing to make tutoring opportunities available.”

To finish this week, a roundup of sector news.

For schools, the Education Policy Institute and Renaissance completed their series of reports into pupil catchup post-pandemic, looking this time at performance by gender, SEND status and ethnicity.

The findings reinforced the broad view that “the effects of the pandemic have not been felt evenly.” Girls, pupils with English as a second language and pupils in some regions, for instance, seem to have been affected the most.

Elsewhere the Adam Smith Institute became the latest body to question the viability of plans to apply VAT to private schools. “This is not a good tax,” it surmised.  ‘It runs the risk of being ineffective and could generate a loss of £1.58bn.’

Data analysts, FFT Education Datalab showed how absences worsened as pupils transitioned through the years. Ofsted extended its ‘Big Listen’ to children and young people up to the age of 18. And teaching unions called on the Pay Review Body to ‘act without constraint from government’ and consider an above inflation pay rise this year.

Over in FE this week, the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) published its promised overarching College Financial Handbook, soon to adorn every accounting officer’s shelf. The British Chambers of Commerce and the New Economics Foundation published new reports on skills, and the skills minister welcomed the latest data on apprenticeship achievements but acknowledged that there was still some way to go to hit the 67% target for 2024/25.   

And in HE this week, reverberations continued around the latest Sunday Times article about international student recruitment. “There are no shortcuts to admission and completing an International Foundation programme does not guarantee entry on to a degree course,” the Russell Group said sharply in its response.

The QAA published the latest in its policy series on quality looking here at the relationship with funding. It called on policy makers and sector leaders to work more closely on funding sustainability.

And the Sutton Trust called for the re-introduction of maintenance grants within a more progressive repayment system which, they argued, could help poorer students while remaining cost neutral. “The current student finance system does not work for students from the poorest families, and risks locking many out of higher education.”

But to round things off this week, consultation closed this week on the government’s proposals for a Bacc-style framework of qualifications for 16–19-year-olds in England known as the Advanced British Standard (ABS.) It’s hard to detect wild enthusiasm among the various responses.

The Headteachers body (NAHT) labelled the whole thing as ‘unimaginative,’ while School and College Leaders (ASCL) said the approach being taken is ‘fundamentally flawed.’ In similar tone, the Sixth Form Colleges Association said “a narrowly-focused consultation on a new qualification framework (the main elements of which have already been agreed) is not the right starting point” and the Association of Colleges (AoC) said ‘the proposals need to better reflect the fact that young people face a rapidly changing complex world and will need to embrace learning throughout their lives.’ While Universities UK said ‘it wasn’t clear that it would actually increase breadth of study and could have negative consequences on progression.’

Links to most of these stories below starting with the headlines.