GENERAL

• Early Years Workforce. The government published a hefty survey report into the early years workforce, looking especially at recruitment, pay, hours and retention, with much depending n provider type but finding pay often low and hours often high, leading accordingly to issues with recruitment and retention.
• Jobs market. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfS) offered further thoughts on the current jobs market based on sample vacancy posting and survey data, suggesting a notable increase in vacancies among low-skilled occupations and some re-balancing in the mix of vacancies but no sense of any major upheaval for the labour market generally.
• Flexi working. The professional body for HR, CIPD, published an update on flexi and hybrid working suggesting that an increase in homeworking had led to an increase in productivity but noting that employers and employees often had different views about how they wanted flexi work to operate, calling as a result for both to work together to develop a system that worked for all.

SCHOOLS

• SATs Special Considerations. The Standards and Testing Agency set out the cases where special considerations might apply for this year’s SATs, listing five in all including family bereavement in the last year, a recent traumatic indent, a life-changing injury or cases of surgery to the pupil or family member.
• New 5-year strategy. Ofsted launched a new 5-year strategy built around eight major priorities that will include among other things a focus on early years to help with post-pandemic recovery, ensure all schools are inspected by July 2025, and assess how well colleges are meeting skill needs.
• Exodus of school leaders. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) highlighted concerns about the numbers of school leaders leaving their roles within five years as it submitted evidence to the School Teachers Review Body.

FE/SKILLS

• Skills and post-16 Act. The Skills Bill became one of the Bills to be passed as Parliament completed its current session, with the new Act enshrining many of the proposals in last year’s Skills for Jobs White Paper, granting employers a key role with the creation of local skills planning, government new intervention powers and FE providers new responsibilities in providing for the range of new qualifications permitted.
• Priorities for the year ahead. The government issued its annual strategic priorities for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education for 2022/23, highlighting the importance of the Institute’s work and setting out three core priorities around developing employer-owned standards, foresighting emerging skills, and revamping post-16 qualification provision.
• Skills report. WorldSkills UK’s Skills Taskforce published a new report calling for a big push on foreign investment in UK skills by piloting for example a ‘Rapid Response Fund’ to fund training that could help raise skill levels and attract foreign companies to this country.

HIGHER EDUCATION

• Freedom of Speech Bill. The universities minister addressed the Policy Exchange thinktank where she outlined the importance of the HE Freedom of Speech Bill and what it proposed, arguing that it set the ‘right balance’ and confirming that it will now be carried over to the next session of Parliament.
• Reflections on the minister’s speech. Nick Hillman, director of the HE Policy Institute (HEPI) reflected on the minister’s Freedom of Speech Bill address, suggesting that the grey area in between what’s illegal and what isn’t remained the key challenge for institutions.
• Impact of minimum eligibility requirements. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfS) examined the potential impact of applying minimum eligibility requirements for accessing student loans in future, concluding such a move would hit disadvantaged and ethnic minority students hardest.