The Labour Party, under Sir Keir Starmer, achieved a whopping majority in the House of Commons – but, almost a month on, what has this meant for the education sector?
In a previous article, we looked at what Labour said about education in their manifesto. Now that they have won a landslide number of seats and are quickly capitalising on their victory, new plans for the education system - including early years, primar,y secondary, and higher education - are already underway, and being spearheaded by the new Education Secretary.
Bridget Phillipson's personal back story is remarkable. Having been brought up on benefits and bullied for being poor, she went on to study at Oxford before returning to her hometown in the North East to work in local government and a women's refuge. Her humble background is in stark contrast to recent Education Secretaries - it will be interesting to see if it affects the direction of policy and/ or the way the educaton community feels towards the DfE and the Government.
She is already beginning her drive to fulfil a key manifesto pledge of recruiting 6,500 new teachers. This is being achieved by relaunching two recruitment campaigns – the Department for Education’s flagship teacher recruitment campaign, Every Lesson Shapes a Life, as well as restarting its further education recruitment campaign, Share Your Skills.
Additionally, the education secretary has reached out to the education sector directly via an open letter.
This government will expand our early years education system, drive high and rising standards and reform curriculum and assessment. Work to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers for our schools and colleges starts now, and we will bring forward a comprehensive strategy for post‐16 education, work with local government to provide loving, secure homes for children in care, provide support for children with SEND and their families, and create higher-quality training and employment paths by empowering local communities to develop the skills people need. We will secure the future of our world class universities as engines of growth, ambition, and opportunity for all.
The complete letter can be read here.
Skills England – What Exactly is It?
Skills England is a new initiative that was announced during the election campaign, with a key desire to ‘bring together key partners to meet the skills needs of the next decade across all regions’. It wil involve transferring functions from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) to Skills England - the implementation of which will take between 9 to 12 months.
Our skills system is in a mess, which is why we are transforming our approach to meet skills needs over the coming decades. They will help to deliver our number one mission as a government, to kickstart economic growth by opening up new opportunities for young people and enabling British businesses to recruit more home-grown talent. From construction to IT, healthcare to engineering, our success as a country depends on delivering highly skilled workforces for the long-term. Skills England will put in place the framework needed to achieve that goal while reducing our reliance on workers from overseas.
Employers want to invest in their workers but for too long have been held back from accessing the training they need. Skills England will jumpstart young people’s careers and galvanise local economies. It will bring businesses together with trade unions, mayors, universities, colleges, and training providers to give us a complete picture of skills gaps nationwide, boost growth in all corners of the country, and give people the opportunity to get on in life.
Teacher's Pay
After a long-running dispute with the former Goverment, which resulted in numerous strikes, teaching unions have welcomed Labour's offer of a 5.5% pay rise from September 2024 - which looks likely to hold off any further strike action.
Many schools in England had already budgeted for pay increases of about 3% from September. The £1.2bn being promised by the government is intended to top that up to the 5.5% offer.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, says the "fully funded" pay award signals a "change in direction". While it is not a "correction" in pay, he says it is "one step on the road" towards it.
A report by the independent pay review body said a 5.5% pay rise for teachers would “represent taxpayer value for money”, saying there are now shortages of teachers in all but three secondary school subjects.
It is still early days, and with Skills England and other initiatives set to be finalized over the school holidays, it may be a little while until we see concrete change being introduced within the education system. But, if this is just the first few weeks, we're looking forward to seeing what else is in store.
