Steve Besley's Education Eye: week ending 19 September 2025

What's happened this week?

Important stories across the board:

Another big week in the build up to SEND reforms,

Its included two new parliamentary reports, a debate inside parliament, a protest outside and survey of preferred reform options.

The expectation, let alone the tension, is building.

“Get this wrong and you’re out,” Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey warned the government as he addressed campaigners outside parliament.

More on this in a moment.

In other news, the Covid-19 Inquiry reported on the pandemic experiences of young people ahead of its wider Inquiry, the Chief Regulator wrote to schools to round off this summer’s exams and prepare for next summer’s, the Prime Minister confirmed the split in skills responsibilities following the recent machinery of government changes and a new survey highlighted the financial pressures facing many university students.

Back briefly to SEND and the buzz of activity there this week.

The issues are fairly well known but were neatly summed up by the Chair of the Education Committee in a debate at the start of the week. “For too many children and their parents and carers, the system is slow, adversarial and fundamentally failing to meet children’s needs.”

So, what to do?

“A full system overhaul,” with a focus on funding, the workforce and clarity over accountability. That was the view from the All-Party Parliamentary Group in their report this week.

“Change is not optional - it is urgent and essential,” said the Education Committee as it released its detailed report a few days later.

Offering a vision of an inclusive system, it called among other things for a national standards-based framework of support “without delay,” the continuation of Education Health Care (EHC) plans, a ‘comprehensive’ review of the national funding formula, more special schools, and front-line staff to be equipped with “the training, resources, and support they need.”

Plenty therefore for the dept to take on board as it prepares its much-anticipated report in the coming weeks.

And if it needs any further help, Teacher Tapp had an interesting list this week of SEND reform options in most and least preferred order, culled from a teacher survey.

More state special school places and trained TAs were among the most popular, while asking schools to write EHC plans themselves and replacing EHC funding with block grants were among the least popular.

The (new) minister has said she’s listening. The noise is getting louder.

On to a roundup of other news this week.

In schools, with Budget rumours continuing to swirl, the Stop School Cuts group highlighted the financial challenges facing many schools.

Pointing to new research it argued that potential cuts in funding “will see overall per pupil funding drop to the lowest levels in England in real terms for at least 15 years.”

Elsewhere, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry published views from young people on how the pandemic had affected them as it prepared to hold public hearings into the matter.

It was obviously a difficult time for many with evidence of family tensions, loneliness, disruption to learning and cases of tragic loss but as the report acknowledged “for some, it brought a renewed appreciation for life or offered time for self-reflection and discovery.”

The hearing into the effects on children and young people begins on 29 September.

In other news, the boss of Ofqual reinforced the successful delivery of this summer’s set of exams and called on schools to be vigilant about AI and cyber security ahead of next year’s exams.

The dept clarified the funding rules around early adopter breakfast clubs. It also spelt out arrangements for the sharing of daily schools’ attendance data with Ofsted. The aim they said was ‘to give inspectors access to more up-to-date data and help them make better judgements about attendance and behaviour.’

Debate about the new inspection framework rumbled on with the Alternative Big Consultation, run by a couple of ex HMIs, highlighting issues it found, including concerns about more high-stakes inspection and the lack of an independent complaints procedure.  

And Parentkind reported on its recent annual survey of parents and family views with SEND reforms, smartphones, the costs of laptops and keeping children safe the main concerns.

They also called for “an urgent review of the school holiday calendar” around a shorter summer and longer half-term and Christmas breaks.

In FE, the Prime Minister confirmed in a Statement to MPs that responsibility for apprenticeships and skills training would shift over to the DWP.

“I am today confirming that responsibility for apprenticeships, adult further education, skills, training and careers, and Skills England, will move from the Department for Education to the Department for Work and Pensions.”

Keeping up with skills dept changes takes stamina. The Guardian, like many, pointed to it “bouncing around Whitehall” over the last ten years or so.

So will the latest move, this time to DWP as part of an overarching push on skills-led growth, help?

Experts in the field appear positive.

Former FAB chief Tom Bewick thought so. “Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to move adult skills policy out of DfE and into a new “super ministry” focused on workforce productivity and growth is a golden opportunity for the FE sector and the country.” Alison Morris at the Skills Federation was equally supportive arguing, “bringing skills and employment under one departmental roof offers real potential.”

The Secretary of State was out visiting a college, Waltham Forest, last week, so let’s hope so. Much depends on Skills England being able to give it all some oomph.

In other news, the Learning and Work Institute highlighted issues around the development of occupational standards in a report commissioned by Pearson.

Too time-consuming, too complex, too unwieldy, too slow, these were some of the concerns raised in the report about the current system.

“We need fewer, broader occupational stands that equip workers for whole occupations, not just jobs, and the process for developing and updating these standards also needs a serious overhaul,” according to the Chief Exec of the Institute.

Another job for Skills England.

Rounding off for FE, the Education Committee entered the GCSE resit debate recommending in its report on SEND that some students should have an option to take functional skills.

The dept ran through the latest guidelines for T level funding incorporating the latest subject changes and recent rate increases.

And the government published important guidance for education and training providers on preventing fraud following the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 which came into force this month with a sharp reminder that “Organisations in scope of the act can be prosecuted for failing to prevent fraud.”

In HE, the Office for Students (OfS) proposed bringing its existing assessment activity into the TEF to create a more integrated system. “The proposed system would see the TEF assess the level of quality delivered by all higher education providers, and whether they meet or exceed our minimum quality requirements.”

The Student Loans Co (SLC) published its Business Plan for the year ahead with the Chief Exec pledging to “build a better SLC’ for customers, shareholders and colleagues.”

The Guardian published its 2026 ranking of universities based on a range of metrics including student satisfaction, spending and career prospects. The top ten was largely the same as last year with only the University of the Arts coming in at No 9 as Loughborough slipped a place.

And the Save the Student site published its latest annual survey of student finances this week with many students (57%) still rating the university experience as good value for money but with concerns about the cost of living and finding a job afterwards. “The growth of AI, as well as perceptions of a stagnant economy, are likely to be factors in their thinking.”

The key issue remains, however that the maintenance loan doesn’t sufficiently cover living costs. It leaves a shortfall of ‘£502 per month.’

“First and foremost, Maintenance Loans must increase to catch up with inflation and reverse years of real-terms cuts,” the report concludes.

And whisper it quietly but according to the Times Higher, someone mentioned PQA again this week.

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

The top headlines of the week:

• ‘Headteachers in England doubling up as caretakers as funding reaches rock bottom’ (Monday)
• ‘SEND crisis: Full system overhaul needed, says report’ (Tuesday)
• ‘Ofsted’s proposals still need significant work’ (Wednesday)
• ‘DfE should establish national standards for SEND provision, MPs’ (Thursday)
• ‘Ofsted’s months of ‘tinkering’ fall flat with teachers’ (Friday)

General:

• Tech Prosperity Deal. The government announced, as part of the President’s State Visit, an MoU and major £30bn+ deal for US and UK tech companies to work together on AI, research, quantum technologies and nuclear power with a range of data centres, AI start-ups and tech developments lined up for across the UK.
• Workers’ rights. The Employment Rights Bill, a key but contentious part of the government’s Plan for Change with proposals including ending zero hours contracts and granting workers greater rights from day one, returned to the House of Commons with MPs pledging to overturn Lords amendments that would have watered measures down.
• Employer pressures. The CBI pointed to concerns around labour costs, employment rights and skills training as it published its latest Employment Trends Survey with Pertemps.
• Labour market. The ONS published the latest figures on the UK labour market showing a fall in jobs and a slowing of wage growth and levels of economic inactivity as most commentators pointed to a labour market now ‘cooling.’
• Two-child limit. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) published new testimony on the impact of the two-child limit as it indicated that the number of children in working families hit by the limit would hit one million next month.

HE:

• Quality regulation. The Office for Students (OfS) launched consultation on some changes to its current system of quality regulation that would see existing assessment activity brought into the REF to create a more integrated system and modifications made to minimum requirements for student outcomes.
• Business Plan. The Student Loans Co published its Business Plan for the coming year with priorities based around customers, colleagues and shareholders underscored by key performance targets in each case including a 92%+ customer satisfaction rating on quality outcomes.
• Student Money. The Save the Student advice site published its latest annual National Student Money Survey indicating continuing cost of living pressures for many as parental contributions drop and the maintenance loan falls short of living costs by around £500.
• Top ranking. The Guardian published its 2026 University Rankings based on factors such as student satisfaction, value added and career progression, with Oxford, St Andrews and Cambridge again filling the top three places.
• Turning things round. The vice-chancellor of Leicester University explained in a blog on the HEPI site how the University had turned things round and moved from ‘pariah to exemplar’ by among other things not being afraid to do the right thing, being bold, and showing relevance to the government’s five missions.

Tweets and posts of note:

• “Snap poll by the National Association of Headteachers, of nearly 2,000 members, finds 89 per cent believe the union should explore options around industrial action against the new Ofsted proposals” -@warwickmansell.
• “After his first day at school, my friend's son was asked if he was going again the next day. "No, you told me I was going to school one day, and that day was today" -@ARadgick
• “Tip for you all… Forget threatening to keep them in at break on Monday, just threaten that they’ll have to watch a replay of England v Andorra. That’ll stop them” -@secretHT1.
• “It was her first full day in Reception today. Precisely ten minutes ago she told me she's not tired and it was well easy. She's currently fast asleep and snoring on the sofa” -@LeeBraganza.
• “There we have it, the 9th September, a new record! This is the earliest ever time in a year that someone has told me that there is snow on the way, and that it is going to be a really bad winter” -@llewelyn20.
• “The CEO of IKEA was just elected Prime Minister in Sweden. He should have his cabinet together by the end of the weekend” -@mariana057.

A selection of quotes that merit attention:

• “This Government is delivering the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation” – the PM talks up the Employment Rights Bill as it returns to the Commons.
• “Labour market showing signs of calming after a bruising period for job losses” – the Resolution Foundation offers its thoughts on the latest UK labour market data.
• “The two-child limit has parents dancing on a pin” – the CEO of the Child Poverty Action Group ramps up the pressure on the two-child limit.
• “Our upcoming white paper on schools will chart our path forward. And at the centre will be parents – and their engagement in their child’s learning” – the Education Secretary suggests her forthcoming white paper will focus on the role of parents.
• “The evidence is clear: the current model is unsustainable, inequitable, and failing to deliver the outcomes our children deserve” – the Education Committee issues its verdict on SEND reform.
• “If the Government wants to head in a direction that’s away from EHCPs and special schools, and towards mainstream inclusion and less specialised planning, then they will need to be ready to robustly defend and explain those policies to even begin to win people over,” – Laura McInerenry reports on Teacher Tapp’s recent survey on SEND reforms.
• “Building time for in-person relationships into the school day, offering opportunities outside the classroom, and fostering trust between young people and teachers are all pathways to respond to today’s attendance crisis” – the CEO of Impetus offers some initial thoughts on school attendance.
• “Some of those interviewed focused on moments of closeness and joy with family and friends while for others the pandemic meant having to deal with difficult, potentially new, life circumstances” – the UK Covid Inquiry reports on the impact of the pandemic on young people.
• “Grading standards in 2026 will be maintained from summer 2025” – the boss of Ofqual sets the scene for next year’s exams.
• “From the next school year, starting in autumn 2026, it will be compulsory for all schools and after-school clubs to collect students’ phones and hold them until the end of the day” – Sweden bans mobile phones in schools.

Education Eye is taking a short break and will next appear on Friday 3 October.

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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.