Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 08 March 2024

Budget stuff mostly this week of course but there have been others stories too

Let’s start with the Budget, billed as a crucial set piece moment for this government.

The reaction from education has generally been underwhelming.

‘A missed opportunity to invest in skills,’ according to the Association of Colleges (AoC,) ‘children and schools largely ignored,’ the verdict from the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT,) ‘downplayed the importance of research, innovation and skills for delivering growth,” the view from the Russell Group of universities, ‘a woefully inadequate Budget,’ in the words of the Sutton Trust and ‘‘the Chancellor spent more time name-checking film stars than he did on education,’ the rather more pointed response from the ASCL.

Wider reactions weren’t much better.

“What we saw today was a pre-election Budget from a Chancellor with quite limited room for manoeuvre," the view from the IfS’s Paul Johnson, “no major announcements to help shift the dial on conditions for business,” the verdict from the British Chambers of Commerce, and “at a time when our schools, hospitals and councils are on their knees, we needed a serious plan to rebuild Britain. All we got was wishful thinking on productivity and pre-election gimmicks,” the conclusion from the TUC. ‘All but blind to struggling families and the services they rely on,’ the take from the Child Poverty Action Group

This Budget had come with a big build-up, perhaps bigger than normal given its setting within an election year but apart from an overall sense of disappointment, was there anything for education to take on board?

Arguably four things.

First, confirmation of the 1% increase in public spending. There had been fears this might be cut to 0.75% but as the Chancellor explained “I am keeping the planned growth in day-to-day spending at 1% in real terms.” Policy commentator Jonathan Simons tweeted that this was the most important announcement of the day although it might not feel like it to non-protected sectors including FE.

That brings us on the second point because having announced the 1% increase for public spending, the Chancellor went on to say “but, we are going to spend it better.”

The money in other words has to come in future with an efficiency drive. The Chancellor explained how this would work. “So today I am announcing a landmark Public Sector Productivity Plan that restarts public service reform and changes the Treasury’s traditional approach to public spending.”

We’ve had lots of efficiency drives before but the attraction, according to the OBR, is that raising public sector productivity by just 5% would deliver £20bn of benefits a year. Also, efficiency always sounds good.

The NHS will ‘benefit’ first as the Chancellor explained, with extra funding for digital and technological transformation “to unlock greater productivity.” Other sectors will follow, with the Spending Review, when it comes, dishing out funding on the basis of improved public sector productivity.

Point number three, therefore, to take away from the Budget is the importance of the next Spending Review when it comes after the election. This will now be set within the context of what the Chancellor called “a robust and comprehensive strategy for improving public sector productivity.” Education take note.

And fourth, what about the few education announcements that were made? There some, generally set out in the accompanying hefty Treasury document.

These included an initial £105m investment for 15 special free schools, locations to be announced in May, an increase in the hourly rate for eligible childcare providers, the extension for a further year of the Additional Jobcentre Support pilot, further devolution powers including over adult ed to three county councils with a Level 4 trailblazer devolution deal with the NE, and some further funding for science and innovation. Hence the lack of excitement from across the education world.

As ever, the Resolution Foundation, Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfS) and many others have provided their customary excellent analysis of the Budget as a whole.

The Resolution Foundation, for instance, pointed to this “being the greatest tax-raising Parliament since the Second World War, with tax relative to GDP rising from 33.1 per cent in 2019/20 to 36.5 percent in 2024/25.” While for the IfS, Paul Johnson indicated that “day-to-day spending on a range of public services outside of health, defence and education, will fall by something like £20 billion.”

This is the financial context for the foreseeable future. As one MP put it: ‘it’s not very sexy.’

Away from the Budget and a quick run through other education-related news this week, starting with two interesting reports on aspects of post-Covid recovery for many learners.

In the first, the UPP Foundation, whose Student Futures Commission had set out a ‘recovery’ blueprint for higher ed students in 2022, looked at how students were faring two years on.

Survey evidence suggested a mixed picture. For many, the student experience had ‘bounced back,’ students were happy with their teaching and learning and over 70% of those surveyed welcomed the support they were receiving.

Yet focus groups also revealed what the report summarised as ‘alarming levels of loneliness, apathy and disengagement driven by a ‘cost of learning’ crisis and an increasingly transactional relationship between students and their university.’ As Commission Chair Mary Curnock Cook put it “too many students want to simply ‘get in to get out.”

Institutions had clearly worked hard to get things back on track with new forms of teaching and support but clearly some challenges remain.

This was also the case for some younger learners as a new report this week from the Education Policy Institute highlighted.

Using evidence from assessment provider Renaissance’s Star English and maths assessments to compare pupil performance before, during and after Covid, it showed a drop in maths performance post-pandemic at both primary and secondary levels, particularly among disadvantaged pupils. A widening of the disadvantage gap in primary, for instance, from 6.9 months to 8.7.

As report author Jon Andrews explained, “This latest analysis shines further light on the disproportionate impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on the outcomes of disadvantaged pupils, worsening already stark inequalities.”

In late news, Ofsted’s Chief inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver, used his speech to the ASCL Conference to launch the inspection body’s vaunted ‘Big Listen’ review. “Every voice will be heard, and nothing is off the table.”

In other school news this week, pay has been back in the headlines following the government’s recent submission to the Pay Body for a ‘sustainable’ award this year. Both the NAHT and NEU raised concerns this week. The former calling for ‘a double-digit award’ and the latter launching consultation on potential action.

FFT Education Datalab suggested some 20% of pupils could fall foul of the government’s new rules for fines for unauthorised absences with “Disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs are at greater risk than other pupils.” Ofsted reported on the teaching of English pointing to many positives but intriguingly calling on schools to ‘ensure that statutory tests and exams do not disproportionately influence decisions about curriculum and pedagogy.”  

The Careers and Enterprise Company reported on progress in careers provision in schools in England in 2022/23 using data from the DfE along with survey evidence from students and employers to suggest ‘Young people are becoming more career ready.’

The tutoring company, GoStudent, reckoned that “half of children across Europe are calling for more AI tools to support their leaning.” And the TES highlighted the growing issue of vexatious complaints, calling for a complete overhaul of what it saw as ‘the Wild West’ complaints system.

In FE this week, sector leaders expressed their disappointment with the latest Budget while the Youth Select Committee and Youth Employment UK continued to bang the drum for skills and support for young people. And the Institute for Apprenticeships heralded International Women’s Day by calling for a better balance between the genders in some sectors.

Over in HE, the HE Policy Institute (HEPI) added its thoughts on the hot topic of foundation courses in a new report, arguing that “it's time for everyone to wake up. Universities shouldn’t be running these courses unless they can be confident they can properly support every single student.” In essence they can be an important enabler of access but they need to be better managed and overseen.

And Universities UK issued its response to the Office for Students (OfS) consultation on regulating student unions on free speech, pointing to the fine line that needs to be observed in any regulations. For instance, “it is important that guidance does not inadvertently have a chilling effect on free speech by causing undue nervousness of students’ unions about breaching their duties.”

Finally, back to Westminster where the Education Committee questioned moneysavingexpert Martin Lewis among others about financial education in schools highlighting among other things, children not understanding the difference between real money and in-app money. 

Elsewhere MPs discussed the educational attainment of boys and World Book Day in Westminster Hall debates. ‘We need as a society to take better care of our boys,’ one MP argued in the debate about boys’ attainment.

And, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Liz Kendall used a speech to the Demos thinktank to set out Labour plans to help get more people back into work starting with a 5-point plan to help young people.

This included reform of the apprenticeship levy, more careers advisers in schools and employment advisers in Young Futures Hubs, support for disabled people and specialist mental health support in every schools with ‘walk in access in every community.’ But, and this was the warning ‘we’ll invest in you …but in return you’ll have a responsibility to take up the work or training that’s on offer.’

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