Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 28 February 2025

What's happened this week?

Important stories across the board:

A pretty mixed set of education stories this week.

Let’s start In Westminster where with members back after the half-term break, there’s been plenty of discussion around education.

For example, this week saw the Second Reading of the IfATE Bill, Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill to give it its full mouthful. It prompted considerable discussion about the nature of the skills system and its importance to the economy and to individuals.

A key issue for many was how far the new skills body would bring order and efficiency to what many felt was a confusing system with the education secretary boldly claiming that “Skills England will be ready to give employers the fast and flexible support they need.”

On the vexed issue of how independent the new body will be, she said to mixed noises, “as with any new arm’s length body, in the next 18 to 24 months we will review how Skills England is functioning, to consider whether it still exists within the best model.”

The Opposition remained less enamoured. “Simply creating a new agency will not address any of the issues that we need to address within the skills system,” the shadow education secretary retorted.

The Bill now heads to the more detailed Committee Stage having seen off a Lords amendment to delay the introduction of the new agency for a year.

MPs also discussed an e-petition on setting a minimum age (16) for social media, with members from all sides highlighting familiar issues about the spread of social platforms, not all negative, but with concerns that more needs to be done to protect children.

As the MP leading the debate concluded: “putting the onus on social media companies to prove that social media is safe, rather than on the regulator to prove that it is not, seems to be common sense, and I was grateful to hear the Minister agree.”

Talking of social media, the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee tackled representatives from social media platforms with some of their concerns this week.

One Committee member read out some pretty gruesome responses to an inoffensive social media post she had put out.

The representatives of social media companies acknowledged the issue but their responses left the Chair of the Committee Chair digging in her nails.

“Unfortunately, we were left frustrated by the platforms’ failure to give a clear and unambiguous response to questions,” she said.

The other big education-related topic in Westminster this week has once again been SEND with MPs holding a debate on it and the Education Committee continuing its Inquiry as it seeks to ‘find solutions to the crisis in SEND.’

They might find it helpful to look at a useful set of principles for a reformed approach to SEND, set out by the Confederation of School Trusts (CfST) this week.

 “We need a new approach, and a new concept of what a good outcome looks like for all involved,” it argued.

Its ten principles for a reformed system included moving beyond seeing the system as a demand-led problem and rethinking it around key levers such as accountability and teacher development, to ensure better support for those who need it.

It could prove to be a useful framework for the future.

Elsewhere on the theme this week, the NFER looked into the workforce of special schools in England pointing to high levels of teacher shortages especially among alternative provision as well as the higher numbers of teachers in such settings without qualified status.

‘Work should be done to understand why around 10 per cent of teachers in special schools do not have QTS, compared to the national average of three per cent.’

In other news for schools this week, Ofsted announced that it would undertake a range of ‘voluntary’ visits to check out how its proposed new inspection regime might operate.

“These visits will also provide an early opportunity for our inspectors to become familiar with the main features of the new approach. Of course, they will do this without pre-judging further changes, which may follow the consultation.”

The government announced the first 750 schools in England that will trial its promised free breakfast scheme, offering ‘healthy, varied and nutritious breakfasts,’ with in many cases additional art, craft and other activities alongside.

The education secretary argued that it was not only a way of helping children from poorer backgrounds but also helping families with the cost of living.

Unfortunately a few days later a small primary school in Lancashire had to pull out of the scheme citing costs. “It's not enough to cover the cost in terms of staffing, the food, resources, et cetera.”

It was a point made by ASCL among others who, while welcoming the scheme, said ‘that the funding was far too low with a basic daily rate of just 60p per pupil.’

In FE, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfS) published the results of a funded research report into the system of Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) introduced by the last Labour government at the turn of the century.

It struggled to find much that was positive.

‘The EMA, which cost billions through the 2000s, did not have the hoped-for positive effects on educational outcomes and later employment. Indeed, it looks like it may have had negative consequences by discouraging disadvantaged young people from getting work experience.”

Some lessons to be learnt there.

On a more positive note, the CITB launched its 2025-2029 Strategic Plan with a big focus on training and skills as it beefs up its workforce and associated skills to help the government deliver its housebuilding aspirations.

As the CEO of CITB explained: “everything we do at CITB is about meeting the skills and training needs of the industry, and this Strategic Plan provides the framework with which we aim to achieve this over the next four years.” 

Elsewhere the Skills Commission and partners launched a new cross-party inquiry into NEETs aiming for the UK to have the lowest percentage in such a category in the OECD by 2050. The latest figures saw an increase over the past year from 11.9% to 14.8%.

And the London Mayor promised a new fund to reduce skills gaps, a dedicated London Youth Guarantee and an Inclusive Talent Strategy “to grow the skilled workforce” as part of his 10-year Growth Plan for the capital released this week.

Over in HE, the HEPI and Kortext pointed to “a surge” over the past year in student use of AI tools.

According to their latest commissioned survey undertaken last December, “almost all students (92%) now use AI in some form, up from 66% in 2024 with some 88% having used GenAI for assessments, up from 53% in 2024.”

Most appear to use it to save time and improve the quality of the work, “explaining concepts, summarising articles and suggesting research ideas but a significant number (18%) have included AI-generated directly in their work.”

The report calls for institutions to increase their staff training and ‘keep assessment practices under review.’

Many may find the ‘reverse scaffolding’ model outlined at QAA’s Quality Insights Conference this week a good starting point. In a word, “this is a rule whereby students can only use AI to help them do things when they have already demonstrated that they can do those things without it.”

In other news, the OfS published an evaluation report into the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) exercise 2023, concluding that “the outcomes broadly range from relatively modest or minimal through to much larger and more important, rather than beginning at the negative end. Impacts are still unfolding but overall look positive.”

The government announced Sir Ian Chapman, currently CEO at the UK Atomic Energy Authority, as the next boss of UKRI with a clear remit to develop research and innovation that can support the government’s growth agenda.

“Research and innovation must be central to the prosperity of our society and our economy, so UKRI can shape the future of the country.”

And the education secretary announced Professor Edward Peck as her preferred candidate for the position as Chair of the Office for Students (OfS.)

“He will play,” she said, “a vital part in supporting higher education providers’ financial sustainability and breaking down barriers to opportunity.”

Good luck, as they say, with that.

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

General:

• Digital Inclusion. The government set out a number of initial steps and key focus areas as it launched a Call for Evidence under its Digital Inclusion Action Plan with the emphasis over the next 12 months on developing skills, enhancing local support, making government digital services more accessible and identifying where the need is greatest.
• More SWAPs. The government announced a further expansion from next year of its Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) aimed at helping more unemployed benefit claimants with support, placements and a guaranteed interview as a way back into work.
• Living Wage. The Living Wage Foundation published new research showing that last year saw the largest annual rise in the number and proportion of low-paid jobs ever recorded with retail, hospitality, and health and social work the hardest hit sectors and the N.E. and E. Midlands the hardest hit regions.
• Benefit Trap. The Learning and Work Institute argued in a new report that reforming the benefit system with better support, a more realistic safety net and a new Benefit Passport could help an extra 500,000 people into work over ten years.
• Child Poverty. The Resolution Foundation called for the scrapping of the two-child limit and for an extension of the free school meal entitlement to all families on universal credit, a package that could cost around £8.5bn but which could be an effective way to tackle child poverty.
• Youth custody. The children’s commissioner called for ‘urgent reform’ of the youth custody system as she published a new report showing that children who end up in trouble have often been failed by multiple services and their time in the justice system tends ‘to worsen their disadvantage.’
• No time to play. The Raising the National Play Commission called for a National Play Strategy, ringfenced time for play, and Ofsted monitoring of ‘play sufficiency’ as it published its interim report on school playtime, showing its importance to childhood development but equally a growing number of restrictions from a ‘No Ball Games’ culture to increasing encroachments on such time.

HE:

• AI survey. HEPI and Kortext published the results of their commissioned survey into student use of generative AI tools, showing a massive leap over the past year in the proportion of students using such tools, often for assessment purposes, with few receiving guidance from their institution on such usage and the report calling for institutions to review their approach and undertake more training as a result.
• AI and assessment. The QAA reported on the keynote speech by the AI expert Dr Phillip Dawson at its Quality Insights Conference this week where he argued that assessment will need to change in the light of AI, arguing for ‘a reverse scaffolding’ approach of students only using it when they’ve shown they can do things without it first.
• Medical school. The Sutton Trust called for a fair access review across higher education taking in access to medical schools, as it published research showing that admissions processes across such schools vary and applicants from a poorer socio-economic background often miss out.
• TEF 2023. The OfS published an independent evaluation report into the 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) exercise concluding that it had been received ‘relatively well’ and met most of its objectives, although its impact at this early stage appeared somewhat limited.
• UKRI. The government announced the appointment of Sir Ian Chapman as the CEO of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) from this summer, with a focus on developing its role in supporting the government’s growth agenda through its industrial strategy, Horizon Europe research and R/D funding generally.
• Youth Mobility Scheme. The Best for Britain Group published the results of its commissioned survey into attitudes towards a UK/EU Scheme that would allow 18-30-year-olds to move between the UK and EU for work and study, finding considerable support for either a 2- or 4-year model.

Tweets and posts of note:

• “Is anyone else completely baffled as to where exactly the hundreds of children would go in their school if they suddenly had to offer free breakfast clubs to them all? Not to mention who would staff it? How long feeding them all would take etc?” -@thatteacherguy_.
• “Have you ever been praised and insulted by a student at the same time? Today a kid angrily asked me: ‘Sir, why do you always have to do everything properly?!’ Thank you? I’m sorry? What’s the correct response?” -@UnofficialOA.
• “I truly believe that reading to your class should be set on your timetable every day. I sometimes hear people say they don’t have time. It’s one of the most important things. No time for other things: yes. No time for reading to your class: No” -@DeputyGrocott.
• “Is it a universal thing that English teachers always hold the desire to give it all up and open a bookshop cafe in the back of their minds at all times or is it just me?” -@af_english123.
• “When you live with your grown-up offspring, there are times when you drift past each other at 2 or 3 in the morning, on the stairs or the landing, one of you is holding a bowl of spaghetti, the other a paracetamol pill. You nod to each other and fade into the shadows” -@MichaelRosenYes.
• “Engineers have just made a car that can run on parsley… Now they're hoping to make buses & trains that run on thyme!” -@BigBearF1.

A selection of quotes that merit attention:

• “The skills system that we have right now is too fragmented, too confusing and too tangled up across too many organisations. There is no single source of truth, no single organisation able to zoom out and see the big problems and no single authority able to bring the sector together to solve them” -the education secretary opens the Second Reading debate on the IfATE Bill.
• “To monitor our progress, we are creating a Digital Inclusion Action Committee, an expert advisory group made up of industry, charities, local authorities and academics” – the government sets out the first steps in its Digital Inclusion Action Plan.
• “The message to government is clear: the great copyright heist cannot go unchallenged. Big Tech needs to pay for the creative and research content they hoover up to train AI, just as they pay for their electricity and other normal costs of running a legally compliant business” – the Publishers Association responds to the government’s consultation on copyright and AI.
• “Students like AI because it saves them time and they feel it improves their work, but many are put off by the risk of being accused of cheating” – one of the conclusions from HEPI/Kortext’s latest survey of student use of AI.
• “I learned so much at university: how to keep myself alive (just about), how to cohabit with people other than my family, never to mix red wine with vodka” – journalist Emily Watkins on the joys of university life.
• “The EMA, which cost billions through the 2000s, did not have the hoped-for positive effects on educational outcomes and later employment” – the IfS find little to praise in EMAs as it published new research into the scheme that ran at the start of this century.
• “We should also accept that it is getting easier to learn vocational skills – and to survive in life more generally – without literacy and numeracy. It hurts me to write those words, but I think they are true” – Tim Leunig writes for FE Week on the scrapping of functional skills for adult apprentices.
• “Inspectors will visit around 240 providers across the country” – Ofsted prepares to check out the validity and scalability of its new inspection regime.
• “Breakfast clubs can have a transformative impact on the lives of children, feeding hungry tummies and fuelling hungry minds, so every child begins the day ready to learn” – the education secretary announces the list of schools hosting the first free breakfast clubs.
• “The report shows how the youngest school children in England lost 23 minutes breaktime a day on average compared to their counterparts in 1995” – the Raising the National Play Commission reports on the decline of children’s playtime.

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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.