Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 19 April 2024

Pupil exclusions, school funding, skills system reform, the latest on the labour market and the economy, all have been making the news this week.

Here’s some detail behind the headlines.

Let’s start with pupil exclusions and a rare delve into primary school suspensions and exclusions this week from the charity Chance UK.

Building on evidence from data analysts FFT Education Datalab, the charity argued that “an expulsion or suspension at primary school can have a devastating long-term impact on a child’s life and their school journey.”

This would not come as a surprise to many people but the report went on to underline the fact with some significant figures. 69% of such pupils went on to receive further suspensions in secondary school while over 90% failed to achieve a pass in English and maths at GCSE. Permanent exclusions and suspensions were generally for disruptive behaviour or assault against an adult and were rare before Year 3.

Many such pupils were among the most vulnerable as the report highlighted and it went on to call for better early intervention to prevent what it called ‘a lifetime of struggle.’  

The findings came as the government released data on suspensions and permanent exclusions for the spring term 2022/23 showing an increase in both compared to the previous year. As ASCL commented, “this data unfortunately reflects what we are hearing from school leaders across the country.”

Next school funding and another interesting options paper to add to the continuing debate about school funding.

This one came from the Confederation of School Trusts (CST,) the body for school trusts in England.

Claiming that ‘funding is too unpredictable, not calculated against actual costs and has failed to keep up with changes in the school system,’ it called for a more coherent and fully implemented National Funding Formula, a new minimum-based funding approach for SEND and Alternative Provision, and an overall capital fund, although with a separate pot for school buildings.

Interestingly, it also called for a separate, criterion-based standing fund for what it termed ‘time-limited additional funds.’ In essence, a pot for specific and targeted costed needs that would avoid unbalancing formal funding streams. A Policy Premium Mechanism.

As CST chief executive Leora Cruddas summarised it: “we need to look at school funding as in investment in the society we want to live in, and we need to distribute it in a way that reflects actuals costs and ways of operating in schools and trusts today.”

On to skills system reform where having called for ‘a fairer, more efficient and more effective tertiary system’ last week, the AoC set out a comprehensive blueprint this week for how to get there.

It came in the form of a series policy papers covering pretty much every aspect of the FE and skills system from apprenticeships to the workforce, outlining the challenges in each case and a ‘to do’ list of recommendations to go with them.

As chief executive David Hughes explained “each one is a must-read for those with any oversight of the post-16 education and skills system.” That’s likely to include any incoming government this year.

And finally in this roundup, the labour force and the economy where the latest batch of data, generally covering the first quarter of this year, has been released this week.

On the labour market, the key phrase seems to have been ‘cooling off.’ As in this from the British Chambers of Commerce. “With the number of vacancies continuing to fall, and unemployment ticking up, there are further signs that the labour market is cooling.”

The Institute for Employment Studies described the latest figures on the labour market as “very poor all round.”

The big worry as the Resolution Foundation pointed out was the rise in the figures for economic inactivity. 22.2% of 16 – 64-year-olds neither in work nor looking for a job. The highest level since 2015. In their words, “tackling rising inactivity – and its impact on the public finances, the benefits system, and people’s wider health and wellbeing – is one of the biggest economic challenges facing both this government, and whoever wins the next election.”

As for the economy, two sets of figures stood out this week. First, 3.2%, the latest UK CPI inflation figure, down but not as much as had been hoped. ‘A bumpy descent’ as Bloomberg UK put it.

And second, 0.5%, the latest projected growth figure for the UK for this year from the International Monetary Fund (IMF.) Slightly down on earlier predictions but picking up a bit for next year.

In all, a continuing difficult climate for public services such as education.

On briefly to other news for the week.

MPs returned to Westminster this week and took part in a Westminster Hall debate on digital skills and careers.

As many acknowledged, while it’s important for schools and colleges to develop these skills in young people, it’s actually many of the older workforce that are struggling in this regard. As one MP put it “if my iPad breaks, I often ask my daughter, who is only 10, what to do, and she can fix it very quickly: she just does something and it works again.”

Closing the debate, Luke Hall, the new skills minister, ran through the work the government was doing in this area “to ensure that the UK has the digital skills to remain a science and technology superpower.”

For schools this week, Ofqual sent out its regular ‘pre-match’ letter to schools and colleges spelling out arrangements for this summer’s exams. Ofsted reported on the provision of RE in schools suggesting that too often “the RE curriculum is poorly constructed, poorly implemented and poorly learned.” It called for a more focused curriculum. And the government confirmed there would be no return to Progress 8 until 2026/27 following the data disruption during Covid but other accountability measures would remain.

Among various reports for schools this week, the Social Market Foundation pointed to low levels of numeracy in this country calling for financial literacy to be ‘embedded’ in schools from an early age. The NFER highlighted the challenges faced by many MATs when it comes to SEND provision. “The main challenges reported include inadequate funding for staffing, which is leading to recruitment and retention issues for SENCOs and support staff.”

The Education Policy Institute and partners continued their work looking into system performance across different school types, reporting on this occasion on the workforce and efficiencies. They called for a standard metric system to measure performance across all schools. That ‘would be really useful’ ASCL said. And Nuffield issued a ten-point response to the consultation on the Advanced British Standard with some concerns about ensuring viable routes for all.

And finally for schools a bleak report from Bristol University revealed that an increasing number are having to operate food banks.  “Research shows schools have increasingly stepped in as a fourth emergency service and are now the biggest source of charitable food and household aid for families struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.”

In FE this week, the big takeaway has been the launch of those system reform papers from the AoC but there’s also been an interesting report from Gatsby on staff recruitment.

For HE, the government confirmed the launch of the qualification gateway and personal accounts for the Lifelong Learning Account from next September. It leaves a phased rather than full scale launch of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) from September 2025 as originally envisaged. 2027/28 is now big bang.

Universities UK launched a campaign to highlight the positives of going to university by recounting the experiences of those who had been the first in their family to go. From Beth Mead to David Blunkett, many had faced fears about costs and imposter syndrome but for almost a third ‘it was the best decision they ever made.’

The NUS which has been in Conference this week, reported that nearly 90% of students were now registered to vote but nearly a third were not sure who to vote for. The cost-of-living, health, jobs, education were among their listed concerns. “The results of this survey send a clear message to politicians: students are ready to turn up at the next election, but they are desperate for politicians to offer them more.”

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