Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 12 December 2025

What's happened this week?

Important stories across the board:

Young people have been top of the news grid this week with announcements about apprenticeships, Youth Hubs, a youth guarantee and a National Youth Strategy.

They came as the Youth Endowment Fund and the Centre for Social Justice issued reports on social media and boys respectively.

In all, a buzz of activity suggesting widespread concern about many aspects of young people’s lives at present

The government claimed that “this marks the start of a decade of sustained investment in young people.”

Not all the details are clear but hopes are high.

In other news, the exams regulator set out plans for a ‘controlled’ step forward in on-screen assessment, the government accepted most of the Education Committee’s Report into FE and Skills but not the recommendation on creating a pay review body for colleges. And UCAS reported growing numbers of young people in the UK looking to live at home while studying.

More on these stories as we run through the news of the week’

In schools, the big news this week has been the launch by Ofqual of a consultation on on-screen assessment for GCSEs, AS and A levels in England.

The emphasis is very much on a ‘controlled’ approach. It was a word used by both Ofqual and the Education Secretary in her ‘directions’ letter.

“We are proposing a controlled introduction of on-screen assessment, with pen-and-paper remaining central to most exams,” as Ofqual explained in its consultation.

Broadly, it’s proposing exam boards put forward a couple of lower volume subjects for consideration for on-screen assessment in the context of a number of guiding principles and published research.

Its keen to hear views through its 12-week consultation about both the guiding principles its proposing, such as ‘maintaining or enhancing the quality of assessment’ as well as the so-called ‘guardrails’ its considering, such as ‘no use of students’ personal devices.’

It will also look at how these all apply to vocational and vocational qualifications.

As the Education Secretary put it in her letter, “we must acknowledge the challenges, manage the risks, and maintain public confidence in our world-class qualifications.”

Responses so far have been supportive.

Pearson welcomed it. OCR pointed to the need for support over any digital divide. AQA said “digital exams are part of the future.” The NAHT reckoned “Ofqual’s carefully managed approach to on screen assessments in GCSE and A levels seems a sensible one.” And the Confederation of School Trusts added, “the proposed approach shows the right balance between innovation and protecting standards.”

Ofqual also published its delivery report covering the delivery of Ofqual regulated qualifications by awarding organisations for the Sept 2024-August 2025 year.

In summary: 7.5m results across all qualifications, ‘fewer errors in assessment materials,’ further development of new qualifications, continuing vigilance over possible cyber-attacks and careful monitoring of AI impact.

Reassuringly, “there were no issues which caused significant disruption to the secure and timely delivery of qualifications and the 2025 series was delivered successfully overall.”

The Centre for Social Justice called in a new blog for the triple lock to be scrapped and funds re-directed to supporting white working-class boys.

“This transfer is a necessary social realignment to give both economic and political re-enfranchisement and support to children and young families, on whom our nation ultimately depends,” they argued.

They plan follow up reports next year on older boys, secondary school and the transition from school to work.

In FE, as indicated, the big talking points have been youth unemployment and training.

The groundwork for this was laid by Keir Starmer in his autumn Conference speech where he set a new target on apprenticeships and youth training, claiming it as one of his moral missions.

“This is a defining cause for this government and a key step towards our ambition to get two-thirds of young people in higher-level learning or apprenticeships.”

The context for this latest burst of activity is the high numbers of young people not in training or employment amid attendant concerns about young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

The Chancellor recently pledged funding in her latest Budget, “guaranteeing every young person a place in college, an apprenticeship or personalised job support.”

And this week the government spelled out some of the details of how that money will be spent.

It includes confirmation of more foundation apprenticeships, funded apprenticeships in SMEs and pilot schemes at a local level ‘where Mayors will be able to connect young people with thousands of apprenticeship opportunities at a local level.’

Also support for helping young people gain the skills they need to get a job along with coaching and support from work coaches to help ‘the 900,00 young people on Universal Credit’ find an opportunity. It includes the promise of a guaranteed job in some regions of the country starting next spring.

There’s a lot covered in the various announcements this week with the DWP and Skills England now very much in the driving seat.

“Over the coming months, DWP and Skills England will work intensively with business on the right balance to further boost apprenticeship starts for young people while delivering the right flexibilities for business.”

Key players such as the AoC and the Youth Futures Foundation have welcomed it all guardedly as ‘an important step in the right direction.’

But as previous governments have found out, youth unemployment can be a difficult nut to crack, not least for example because it’s employers not government that create apprenticeships and other job opportunities and business confidence is low at the moment. As the NFER wrote, ‘the devil is in the detail.’

Concerns have also been raised about how far it all adds up and whether it is as ambitious as it all sounds.

As former government adviser Tom Richmond explained in his latest podcast, “when you've got almost one million young people not in education, employment or training, yesterday's announcement by the Government fell well short on ambition.”

Much of the activity including the Milburn NEET Review takes place in the coming months and will be closely monitored.

Elsewhere, the Education Committee reported that the government had accepted many of the recommendations in its recent Report into FE and Skills including notably around retaining funding for BTECs and other related qualifications, at least “until V levels and new T levels are introduced.”

In all, the government rejected nine recommendations including proposals to set up statutory pay review body for colleges, exempting them from VAT, extending the remit of UCAS and bringing back levy funding for L7 apprenticeships.

A further five recommendations were put on hold for review including on ‘more comprehensive’ skills devolution, expanding mental health support teams across post-16 and on sustainable funding levels.

In HE, there was plenty of reference to crackdowns and rogue providers as the government reported on plans to tackle issues around franchised courses.

“Rapid growth and inconsistent oversight that this government inherited have left parts of the system open to abuse,” the Education Secretary claimed as she reported on government plans around franchised provision following recent consultation.

As set out in a 5-page letter to providers, those with 300 or more such students will be required to register with the OfS from 2028/29 and the sector as a whole expected to take compliance and standards seriously.

“Leaders across the higher education sector have a responsibility to uphold high standards, ensure quality provision, and demonstrate strong governance,” the letter ended firmly.

In other news, UCAS published its round up of this year’s HE applications and admissions pointing to a record high in the number of accepted applicants but also, interestingly, a record high in the number of UK 18 yr olds intending to live at home while they are studying.

Cost seems to be a key factor but as the Chief Exec of UCAS said, they need to keep an eye on it all in terms of any wider implications.

“We need to remain alert to these challenges and more research is needed to fully understand the impact on student choice and progression, so we can ensure students have all the information available to them when making their decision.”

Elsewhere, Universities UK published its response to the OfS’s consultation on the future approach to quality.

REF 2029 reported on some changes to weightings and the ‘reframing of ‘People, Culture and Environment’ as ‘Strategy, People and Research Environment.’

Former OfS CEO Nicola Dandridge argued for a more strategic approach to evaluations of HE regulations in a blog for the SMF think tank.

Too many, she argued, “tend to look narrowly at individual regulations rather than to the concerns of students, government or the public.”

She called for wider commissioning.

And the NIESR returned to the case for a graduate tax which they calculated would be much fairer than the current loan system.

They reckoned that the introduction of Plan 5 had made ‘an unfair system’ even worse but didn’t sense any enthusiasm from government to tackle some of the challenges that could come from a shift to a graduate tax.

“Lower-earning graduates are thus likely to continue to bear the brunt of the repayment system,” they concluded.

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

The top headlines of the week:

• ’50,000 new apprenticeships promised in youth employment push’ (Monday)
• ‘Some schools disrupted amid rise in flu cases’ (Tuesday)
• ‘Hundreds of youth centres planned to reach ‘isolated’ generation’ (Wednesday)
• ‘Some GCSEs and A levels in England could be taken on laptops by 2030, says Ofqual’ (Thursday)
• ‘Free school projects in England to be scrapped to fund special needs education’ (Friday)

General:

• Youth Strategy. The government announced a new National Youth Strategy pledging funding to transform youth provision with upgraded facilities, new Young Futures Hubs, increased support in some schools and strengthened youth services generally.
• Digital skills. The government announced the launch of some 80 local projects designed to support communities in providing training, access and support in digital skills for those in danger of being left behind. 
• Child Protection. The government called for views on the creation of a Child Protection Authority, asking for comments on the potential scope, structure and powers of a body it hopes will strengthen and unify the child protection system.
• Social mobility. The Social Mobility Commission published a survey Report looking into how people viewed social mobility, finding people fairly pessimistic about social mobility generally, valuing health, wellbeing, education and family relationships more highly than professional occupations and income, and tending to describe themselves as working class overall.
• HAF response. The Local Government Association (LGA) highlighted the importance of the government’s Holiday and Activities Food (HAF) programme as it issued its response to the government’s latest extension of the programme, calling among other things for increased flexibility in its application.

HE:

• Franchising. The government announced new rules for large franchise providers following recent consultation, requiring them to register with the OfS from 2028/29 in order to secure student finance for such courses, with new legislative powers promised to enable the regulator to clamp down on poor quality provision and misuse of funds.
• University admissions. UCAS published its End of Cycle Report on HE applications and admissions this year, showing accepted applicants at a record high along with a notable increase in the number of UK 18 yr olds intending to live at home.
• Maintenance support. The House of Commons Library Service reported on student maintenance support, running through the changes from the late 1990s and the variations by household, by student type and by place of study, including the levels of loans from parents and other relatives, concluding with details on the promised targeted maintenance grants in 2028/29.
• University finances. The Times Higher reported on the continuing financial challenges facing a number of universities, particularly non-Russell Group research universities who have been hit by falls in student income but who are battling hard to control costs and manage deficits.
• Graduate tax. The NIESR highlighted some of the unfairness around the current system of tuition fees, including the introduction a couple of years ago of the Plan 5 model, arguing in a new blog for replacing the loan system with ‘an explicit graduate tax’ despite some of the obstacles around this.
• Evaluating regulation. Nicola Dandridge called in a blog for the Social Market Foundation (SMF) for a more strategic approach to evaluating regulation in HE, arguing that too much of it is focused on individual components rather than wider concerns, themes and interested parties.

Tweets and posts of note:

• “From legal challenges to lesser-known apps, the teenagers of Australia are already preparing to push back against a law that will see under 16s banned from social media” -@newscientist.
• “I really dislike 100% attendance awards. I dislike any attendance awards to be honest. Well done for not being well this term! Well done for you mum and dad sending you in even though you were ill and you infected 1/2 your class. Well done for your holiday starting after you got your mark on Friday PM before they took you out early to go to Centre Parks” -@redgierob.
• “Almost 60% of pupils accidentally stumble on unverified Holocaust content on social media” -@FEontap.
• “For anyone wondering, no, the government will not be providing any additional investment for digital exams” -@cerysturner7.
• “Begging school leaders to stop saying things are "statutory" or "a legal requirement" when they're not. It is possible to get buy-in without lying to your staff” -@MBDscience.

A selection of quotes that merit attention:

• “University is a good thing to do, I'm not going to knock it, that's what I did, but being an apprentice is an equally good thing to do, that's what my dad did and he was a highly skilled engineer and tool-maker"- tool maker’s son Keir Starmer confirms government commitment to youth training.
• “Young people have been crystal clear in speaking up in our consultation: they need support for their mental health, spaces to meet with people in their communities and real opportunities to thrive. We will give them what they want” – Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announces a new National Youth Strategy.
• “We are tightening the regulatory net” – the Minister announces new registration rules for franchised provision in HE.
• “While there are currently no plans to establish a dedicated pay review body for FE, we will remain in dialogue with the sector to understand their views on pay arrangements” – the government rejects Education Committee recommendations for a statutory pay review body for colleges.
• “I would therefore like any transition to more exams being delivered on-screen to be phased and controlled” – the Education Secretary sets the tone for consultation on on-screen assessment in an open letter to Ofqual.
• “The budget announcement was the latest in a series of opaque and disjointed government interventions on SEND – from locking in major funding decisions at the spending review before having a reform plan, to extending the statutory override before deciding what would happen once it expired” – the Institute for Government reflects on the recent Budget decision about SEND funding.
• “As Founder, Anne will continue to play an active role at the Centre and will remain closely involved as we grow and strengthen our organisation” – the Centre for Young Lives announces Haroon Chowdry as its new CEO with Anne Longfield continuing to play ‘an active role’ in the Centre as she undertakes the chairing of the National Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs.
• “Start a new sport, new instrument, or read that book that has been sitting there for some time on your shelf,"- the Australian PM encourages young people in the country to take up a new activity as the social media ban for under 16 yr olds comes in.

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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.