Jun 26 2018

Meeting with the Chair of the Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon, 26 June

On Tuesday the 26th of June, the APPG for Education was addressed by the Chair of the Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon MP.

After being introduced by Andrea Jenkyns MP, Robert Halfon told the APPG about his role as Chair of the Education Committee, describing it as ‘the best job in Parliament’. He talked about his desire for the Committee to address all aspects of social justice so that all children have the opportunity to climb the ladder of opportunity. He said that the Committee’s other priority is to examine productivity. Having chaired around 50 meetings, he is increasingly convinced that many aspects of the Committee’s work are interrelated, with links between education, social justice and productivity.

Robert Halfon addresses the APPG for Education

He talked about how cross-party consensus can be facilitated through the Select Committee, citing in particular his work with the Shadow Education Secretary to extend the entitlement to 30 hours free childcare to foster children. This stemmed from the Committee’s inquiry into fostering and culminated in a backbench business debate led by Lisa Nandy.

Halfon talked about the failure of the Social Mobility Commission. He said that he wants the Commission to have ‘real teeth’. He believes that every piece of legislation should be assessed against its ability to improve social justice and the Social Mobility Commission should have a role in enforcing that.

On the Committee’s inquiry into alternative provision, Halfon said that the Committee’s aim is to speak up on behalf of children who have ended up in alternative provision because they have been let down by the school system. [stats]

Referring back to the idea that all aspects of the Committee’s work are interrelated, Halfon talked about the SEND and school and college funding inquiries, which were launched at the same time. On funding, Halfon said the Committee wants to look at whether the school funding model should change; in the same way that the NHS has a long-term funding plan, so too should education. He said that one of the tragedies of the current funding set-up is that funding for high needs is often lost, which in turn contributes to high exclusion rates for children with SEND and children ending up in alternative provision who do not need to be there. The Committee’s SEND inquiry aims to look at the implementation of the 2014 Children and Families Act, a piece of legislation that is based on good ideas, but seems to have suffered from being put into practice.

Halfon talked about how the Committee is getting a wider range of people involved in its work, citing for example inviting children with experience of care to question the children and families minister in Committee sessions on the subject. He intends to keep inviting the subjects of Committee inquiries to not only attend sessions, but to actively participate.

Andrea Jenkyns opened the floor to questions from the audience.

Tracy Brabin MP started with a tribute to Robert Halfon’s willingness to work in a cross-party manner, highlighting in particular the backbench business debate on foster care. She also praised the work Halfon has done on special educational needs and disabilities. On childcare, she warned that the underfunding of the 30 hours free entitlement was leading to childcare providers turning away children with SEND. Robert Halfon said that, on early years, the Committee has launched a short inquiry on life chances. He also said that it was his personal view (not necessarily that of the Committee) that the National Audit Office should run an inquiry into whether the government’s current childcare commitments are deliverable as currently formulated. He highlighted the social injustice that working parents can access the 30 hours free childcare, but children from workless homes were denied the opportunity. He suggested cutting the tax credit threshold at which childcare support becomes available.

Cara Bleiman warned that a potential danger of having social justice at the forefront of education is that it results in too much focus on the attainment gap, which results in a narrowing of the curriculum. Halfon said that was an important point but added that social justice in the context of the Committee’s work is not just about educational injustice, but also about building social capital.  When viewed in that way, narrowing the curriculum is also a social injustice. He asked whether GCSEs were really necessary and whether they resulted in a positive outcome for disadvantaged children.

Steve Hayes from the National Deaf Society said that the current school funding situation is resulting in a weakening of the application of the Equalities Act. He said that a third of Local Authorities have cut support for deaf children and asked Halfon to advocated for an increased focus on low incidence but high need children as part of the SEND inquiry. Halfon promised to look at the National Deaf Society’s submission to the inquiry.

Max Fishel from pdnet asked about the lack of consistency in the use of teaching assistants for SEND provision. Halfon said that he did not want to pre-judge the outcome of an open inquiry, but said that he would be cautious about having too prescriptive a policy on teaching assistants as different schools may find different uses for them that are more effective in their specific context.

Ji Li from Plum Innovations asked about apprenticeships. He said that many apprentices have followed the apprenticeship path because they have difficulty with exams. He asked why apprenticeships still involve sitting exams. Robert Halfon suggested that it might be a generalisation that all apprentices are bad at exams; the exams sat by apprentices are designed to be appropriate and achievable by the people with the right skills.

Tom Guy from GL Assessment said that the Committee is running a large number of open inquiries and asked what guarantee there was that the SEND inquiry in particular would have a real impact on government. Halfon outlined the process for what happens next now that the inquiry has received written evidence: the evidence will be sifted, the Committee will run evidence sessions designed to represent all views expressed in the written evidence (the first of which is Tuesday 3 July), the Committee will compile a report which will be debated in Parliament, and the Government will have to respond to the report.

Emma Skelton from the British Council asked whether the Committee was planning to revisit international education. Robert Halfon said that, as it had been the subject of a recent inquiry, the Committee had no immediate plans to revisit the topic.

Andrea Jenkyns concluded by inviting any participants who had not been able to raise a question to email the APPG for Education secretariat who would pass on the question.

Chair of BESA, Chris Ratcliffe, brought the meeting to a close with a vote of thanks.

Jun 13 2018

APPG for Education meeting with Clare Worsdale, Careers Policy Lead and Ifeyinwa Okoye, Informed Choice Policy Lead at the Department for Education

On 13 June 2018, the APPG for Education met two Department for Education officials involved with the implementation of the careers strategy. This meeting follows the APPG’s meeting with the Skills Minister Anne Milton in March and carries on the work of the APPG’s inquiry on preparing children for their future, which reported in May 2017.

Attendees

Adam Nice: Secretariat, APPG for Education

DfE:

Clare Worsdale: Careers Policy Lead – Responsible for the delivery of careers strategy commitments in schools and colleges

Ifeyinwa Okoye: Informed Choice Policy Lead – Responsible for the better use of data and information

Current priorities

The DfE’s current priorities on careers revolve mainly around implementation of the Government’s 2017 Careers Strategy, which is intended to be implemented across 2018-2020.

An initial priority is embedding the eight Gatsby benchmarks. The 2017 Careers Strategy expects schools and colleges to begin working towards the Benchmarks now and to meet all eight by the end of 2020. The DfE is working closely with The Careers & Enterprise Company to support schools and colleges so that they can deliver against the Benchmarks.

The DfE aims to replicate the successful pilot of the Gatsby Benchmarks in the North East. This demonstrated the importance of having an individual with strategic responsibility for careers in every school and college., The DfE is working to deliver its commitment to provide funding for the training of 500 Careers Leaders over 2018-19 and 2019-20.

To strengthen local community involvement and to build on the North East Pilot, The DfE is in the process of identifying and setting up 20 Careers Hubs supported by £5 million of government funding.

There have been some questions on exactly what the government’s promised 20 Careers Hubs are and how they will operate. The DfE’s representatives said that the North East pilot of the Gatsby Benchmarks is an example of how the new Careers Hub will operate. The locations of the 20 Careers Hubs should be announced in the summer and established by September.

There are some areas where the careers strategy sets out a need to investigate new approaches to careers provision and understand more about what works. This includes the importance of engaging young people with science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), targeted support for specific disadvantaged groups of young people (including those with SEND) and careers activities in primary schools.

The National Careers Service is currently being re-procured. The DfE expect to name the new provider(s) ahead of the delivery of a new area-based contract which starts on October 1 2018.

In terms of data availability, the DfE is aiming to better publicise the wealth of information which is already available. The National Careers Service website will be a part of this effort as it will eventually become the place for all Government careers information. The DfE is also looking to make destinations data more accessible to people and encourage greater use, but warns about some challenges regarding their use as an accountability tool. For example, it becomes more difficult to attribute causation to schools for longer term outcomes and increased data collections could worsen the workload burden on schools.

The Careers & Enterprise Company

The Careers and Enterprise Company has recently come under criticism from the Education Select Committee for being a ‘waste of public money’. They were criticised in particular for a research spend of £1m of their total £19m annual budget. The officials said that the CEC was doing some good work but there were some legitimate concerns expressed by the Committee, particularly around transparency. They gave some examples of effective research, including the Moments of Choice research conducted with the Behavioural Insights team and the What Works reports.

Patchy provision

A common criticism of careers provision heard by the APPG’s inquiry is that it is ‘patchy’. The DfE representatives said that all schools and colleges working towards the Gatsby Benchmarks will help to ensure a more even provision. The Careers & Enterprise Company’s compass tool (developed in partnership with the Gatsby Foundation) provides a means for schools and colleges to assess their own careers programme against the Benchmarks. The 20 new Careers Hubs will also target areas where provision is weaker and The Careers & Enterprise Company aims to be very active in ‘cold spots’ and as part of the Opportunity Areas initiative.

Meaningful encounters

Questioned on whether the phrase ‘meaningful encounters’ was too broad, the DfE’s representatives replied that they want to follow the Gatsby Benchmark framework to implement the Careers Strategy. They said that schools and colleges could draw on the What Works research to inform their interpretation of ‘meaningful’. They acknowledged that the types of encounters available may vary by region but said that emerging partnerships between businesses and schools demonstrate the potential for what is possible.

SEND

Provision for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities was another area of careers provision that was regularly identified as lacking in evidence to the APPG’s inquiry (prior to the 2017 Careers Strategy). The DfE is working to understand the area better, and the DfE’s representatives acknowledged that some aspects of the Gatsby benchmarks might not be particularly appropriate or achievable for special schools. Work is underway to review the benchmarks for special schools. They said that money has been set aside to trial new approaches for pupils with SEND and The Careers & Enterprise Company has produced research on what works for children with SEND.

Ofsted

One of the potential weaknesses of the 2017 careers strategy is ensuring compliance and guaranteeing that schools and colleges see its implementation as a priority, especially in the context of competing demands that are enforced by high-stakes accountability measures. The DfE’s representatives said that there is legislation in place that requires Ofsted report on careers provision in college inspection reports. However, they said that they do not believe that introducing an Ofsted grading of careers provision is realistic in the near future and that it is not the right route for compliance with the 2017 careers strategy.

Apr 12 2018

Meeting with the Skills Minister, Anne Milton

On Monday 26th March, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Education hosted the Minister of State for Apprenticeships and Skills, Anne Milton MP, who presented an overview of her work at the Department for Education, including a summary of the 2017 Careers Strategy.

Anne Milton addresses the APPG for Education

Nic Dakin MP, co-chair of the APPG, opened the floor, and introduced the Minister. Milton began by giving an impassioned defence of the importance of good careers advice and gave a brief background on the recently published Careers Strategy.

She argued that the poor quality of careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) has been ‘one of the biggest failures’ of successive governments. She highlighted that some schools still use internal staff members who are not qualified as professional careers advisers – to provide careers guidance or fail to provide guidance of a high enough quality.

She then said that the Careers Strategy, which sets out plans and ambitions to transform careers advice and guidance in England, was three years in the making and represents an opportunity to finally get CEIAG right. Echoing the APPG for Education’s inquiry into how well our schools are preparing young people for their future which focused on young people’s readiness for the workforce, Milton said that the Strategy reflects the importance of skills development given demographic shifts and technological advances including the ascent of artificial intelligence technologies.

She ran through the main headlines from the document. The Gatsby Foundation’s eight Benchmarks will be adopted in full and ‘run through the spine’ of the Strategy. Schools will be obliged to publish the name and contact details of their Careers Leader on their website. The government will provide funding for the development of new training programmes and will support 500 schools to train their own Careers Leaders.

The government will pilot careers activities in primary schools and will work to examine new approaches to employer engagement and early careers activities in primary schools. Milton said that a new website for the National Careers Service will be developed including an improved and interactive course directory that will explain routes to vocational and academic learning opportunities while Skills Advisory Panels will analyse local skills needs to help shape school careers provision.

Schools must give providers of technical education and apprenticeships the opportunity to speak to pupils and schools should offer every young person at least seven encounters with employers during their education, with at least one ‘meaningful interaction’ with business every year. According to Milton, this sends an ‘important signal’ that these educational pathways represent aspirational routes to fulfilling careers, while the emphasis on technical and employment-focused education is beneficial to adults looking to skill and reskill in an increasingly flexible labour market.

Milton highlighted the challenge of parent attitudes as a major influence in children’s career development and decision-making. However, she suggested that the Strategy will act as a blueprint to challenge perceptions and break the cycle of low expectations and aspirations. The Strategy will bring together the education, business, and public sectors and emphasise that the purpose of school is to prepare young people for a successful future. Finally, she spoke of the important role MPs should play in promoting good CEIAG in schools across England, for example, through school visits and engagement with local communities.

Nic Dakin then opened the floor to questions.

Politicians and external stakeholders hear from the Skills Minister, Anne Milton

In response to a question from Lord Storey on the process of teachers becoming qualified careers advisors, Milton said that the training of careers advisors was an important issue and that we need individuals with the right skillset. She argued that this emphasises the importance of young people obtaining meaningful interactions with employers to broaden their understanding of employment.

Dennis Hayes, Professor of Education at the University of Derby, asked whether going to Oxbridge or Russell Group universities should be encouraged as the highest aspiration for young people and warned of the danger of overemphasising skills at the expense of knowledge. Milton said that such a view could embed failure within the education system given the inability of large sections of the population to be admitted to such universities. She said that the consensus among employers is that formal knowledge is no longer enough to prepare young people for the workforce.

Responding to a question from Tracy Brabin MP on how to ensure young people are made aware of job opportunities that are not within their geographical area, Milton emphasised the importance of outreach employer engagement. Responding to a question from Peter Finegold of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on the possibility of teachers taking placements in industry, Milton agreed that such placements would enable teachers to experience alternative paths and opportunities and increase their knowledge of industry and broaden their network of contacts.

This was followed by a question from James Frith MP on the inability of ‘meaningful encounters’ to replace human interaction with quality careers guidance professionals. Milton agreed that human interaction is central and re-emphasised the importance of careers activities in primary schools. Responding to Lord Watson’s question on whether schools should be allocated an ‘outstanding’ rating from Ofsted if the coverage of CEIAG is not outstanding, Milton said that schools should seriously consider whether they are succeeding if they fail to provide quality CEIAG.

In response to a question from Cara Bleiman, Mandarin Primary Specialist Teacher & SLE for the Harris Federation, on whether the Strategy is short-termist in outlook, Milton highlighted the Strategy’s recognition of the changing nature of work, with higher numbers of people in more flexible, atypical jobs and more self-employment, longer working lives, and the impact of technology, all of which emphasise the importance of flexible skills within the workforce. Finally, responding to a question from Jenny Connick of Talentino on the attention given to children with special educational needs and disabilities, Milton admitted that this was challenging but would work to ensure CEIAG for these individuals will be aspirational, personalised and well-informed.

Nic thanked the speaker and the attendees. The meeting was concluded with a formal EGM in which Emma Hardy MP was voted in as co-chair of the APPG for Education and Nic returned as vice-chair. Andrea Jenkyns remains as co-chair and Lord Storey remains vice-chair. The Group members in attendance for the EGM were: Nic Dakin MP, Emma Hardy MP, James Frith MP, Tracy Brabin MP, Lord Storey and Lord Watson.

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