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Category: Education

  • Bridget Phillipson – 2023 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    Bridget Phillipson – 2023 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    The speech made by Bridget Phillipson, the Shadow Education Secretary, in Liverpool on 11 October 2023.

    Thank you, Jayne, and thank you, Conference.

    Growing up in the North East in the 1990s, it was teachers and support staff like Jayne, who not only gave me an amazing education, but in doing so, taught me so much about why education matters.

    They saw the value and worth, in each and every one of us.

    And I never forget, that I am standing here today, above all, because I was lucky.

    Lucky, to have a family filled with love.

    Lucky, to have a school that cared.

    And today I have the amazing good fortune, to be Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, with a fantastic team of shadow ministers around me.

    Helen, Matt, Seema, Catherine, and in the Lords, Fiona, Debbie and Glenys.

    But Conference, it goes to the heart of all our values, that life should not come down to luck.

    That opportunity belongs to everyone.

    That the role of government is to extend opportunity – fundamentally to extend freedoms – to each of us, and to all of us.

    Freedom from fear, from ignorance, from illness.

    Freedom from insecurity, from injustice and from poverty.

    Freedom to achieve and to succeed, to learn and enjoy, to take part and to speak out.

    These are the opportunities which for 13 years, this government has ripped away.

    Those are the freedoms our children deserve, and it is the future which once again a Labour government will give them.

    Conference, I joined Labour not simply because I knew Britain could be better, not just because I shared Labour’s values. No.

    I joined Labour, 25 years ago this autumn, because I had seen what the Tories did to our country.

    Then as now, the public realm literally crumbling around the next generation.

    And because I saw with my own eyes, a Labour government making Britain better.

    Year by year, step by step. We did it then, and we will do it again.

    And just as life shouldn’t come down to luck, government cannot be left to chance.

    It’s why Keir has set out, the five missions we will take, from opposition into government.

    Because to be Labour is to believe, that the future is something we shape together, not face alone.

    Conference, our missions speak to that ambition, that determination, that faith in our collective strength.

    Rising growth. Falling crime. Healthier lives. Greener energy.

    And the greatest of all, a determination that for each of us, and for all of us, background will be no barrier to opportunity.

    And education is the key to that.

    Now, I don’t need to remind you, that we see every day, how 13 years of Conservative failure means children’s backgrounds aren’t just limiting their opportunities.

    It’s worse than that.

    Conference, for too many children, across too much of our country, their backgrounds are ravaging their opportunities, all their lives long.

    I tell you, it breaks my heart.

    It starts with our smallest children.

    The Tories have committed to slashing staffing and standards in early years childcare, and they have no plan for early education at all.

    And as children grow, when school begins, the gaps widen just as the curriculum narrows.

    Because for our children, the teachers aren’t there, aren’t qualified, or it isn’t their subject. The buildings are turning to dust.

    Just on Friday, we found out the Conservatives had botched next year’s schoolsbudget. By a staggering £370 million.

    The mess that the next Labour government is going to have to sort out in education simply beggars belief.

    Conference, every parent wants the best for their children. Every parent. Not just those who can afford it.

    Aspiration and ambition are for everyone, and so too must be excellence and opportunity.

    And I understand why parents worry about the education that the Tories are prepared to offer our children.

    Parents want their children to read and write, to master maths.

    But they want a lot more than that.

    They want their children to learn about the joy of life too: to delight in music, to enjoy sport, to experience the beauty of art, and to know the wonder of science.

    They want their children confident, ready to speak up and speak out.

    They want them to carry a love of learning, right throughout life, that sets them up to achieve and thrive.

    Conference, I want those standards, those expectations, those dreams, for every child.

    Because I worry that for too many children, the fire that education should kindle in every mind, it doesn’t start, or it doesn’t catch.

    The Prime Minister talks about extending maths to 18.

    But if young people hate maths at 16, it’s just too late.

    These problems need to be tackled early, not left to fester.

    Apprenticeships down. Qualification reforms, botched then junked. A levy on employers that doesn’t deliver for companies or communities, for individuals or for our economy. Other people’s children. Our children, not theirs.

    Again, with universities.

    Degrees are for their children, not ours: it’s never their kids’ choices or chances, that they’re keen to wind back.

    Student debt for nurses, for young people starting out, looking to buy a home and build a family – not their problem. Other people’s children.

    The Education Secretary has made their ethic her motto: “nothing to do with me”.

    Conference, I tell you, we will change every part of it, and we will change it for good.

    In every part of our system, in every year of children’s lives, in every corner of our country, Labour will be the party of high and rising standards.

    Conference, we know what the private schools lobby think of our ambition. They were arrogant enough to write it down. ‘Chippy’.

    And if they or anyone else doubt my determination to deliver on our dream, then I have a message for them.

    Chippy people make the change that matters. I will make the change that matters.

    Together we will make the change the matters.

    We will end the tax breaks that private schools enjoy to deliver high and rising standards, in every school for every child.

    Now, Conference, our ambition starts, as education starts, at the beginning of all our lives: our childcare system must be about life chances for children, as well as work choices for parents.

    That is why I am determined that new investment in childcare comes with ambitious reform, to ensure early education is available in every corner of our country for every family and every child.

    To drive up standards for our youngest children and lift up the amazing people who support and teach them.

    It’s why we’ll end restrictions on councils delivering childcare.

    It’s why today I’m announcing that Sir David Bell, former primary school teacher, and former Chief Inspector of Schools, will lead Labour’s work, to develop the Early Years Plan.

    The next generation deserve, to bring high and rising standards, for the workforce we need, for the qualifications they’ll have, for the settings where it’ll happen, for the education they’ll give, to deliver our ambition for a modernised childcare system, supporting families from the end of parental leave to the end of primary school.

    Conference, high and rising standards cannot just be for families who can afford them.

    I want them for my children. For your children. For all of our children.

    That’s why as children start at primary school, we’ll deliver breakfast clubs to start each day, funded by closing tax loopholes for the global super-rich.

    It’s why we’ll roll out early interventions to transform children’s speech and language skills, and tackle the attainment gap, in settings across our country.

    It’s why, we’ll bring in the School Support Staff Negotiating Body, because we know it’s support staff, as well as teachers, who will deliver the change our children need, and Labour will value and respect them just as much.

    And it’s why I’m proud to tell you today, that we’ll tackle our chronic cultural problem with maths, by making sure it’s better taught at six, never mind 16.

    The last Labour government began a revolution in reading standards, a revolution still unfolding in our schools.

    It’s past time, we brought that same focus to maths.

    One in four of our children leave primary school without the maths they need. That is a disaster.

    Maths is the language of the universe, the underpinning of our collective understanding.

    It cannot be left until the last years of school.

    I am determined that Labour will bring maths to life for the next generation.

    Better training for teachers to teach, with confidence and success.

    Better standards for our children, so they’re set up to succeed.

    Because be it budgeting or cooking, exchange rates or payslips, maths matters for success.

    And I want the numeracy all our young people need – for life and for work, to earn and to spend, to understand and to challenge, I want that to be part of their learning right from the start.

    Conference, high and rising standards.

    A richer curriculum woven through with speaking, listening and digital skills.

    Through every subject and year of school.

    It’s why we’ll invest in more teachers, in careers guidance, in mental health support, in work experience,

    For all our children, in all our schools.

    And we’ll deliver those standards not by ending inspection, but by improving it.

    With annual inspection for the issues that matter most.

    And we won’t stop there, because education doesn’t end there.

    We’ll change the way students pay for their time at university, so none of our young people, fear the price they’ll pay for the choice they’d like.

    And after 13 years of drift, Labour will create Skills England to bring leadership and ambition to England’s skills system.

    A Growth and Skills Levy driving opportunity in every workplace.

    Technical Excellence Colleges right across our country.

    Skills not just for each of us, but for all of us.

    Training the generation ahead, to build the greener, safer, healthier future we need.

    Ours will be a government with not just vision, but drive. Not just a dream, but a plan.

    Conference, the difference between us and the Conservatives, it isn’t just about values, competence, ideas.

    It’s simpler: it’s all about hope.

    Not just hope for each of us, but hope for all of us.

    Hope for our society, and our country, as well as ourselves, and our families.

    Hope that our greatest days are yet to come.

    Conference, Labour will again bring hope to a new generation.

    Labour is the party for the future we all deserve.

    Thank you.

  • Gillian Keegan – 2023 Speech at the Confederation of School Trusts

    Gillian Keegan – 2023 Speech at the Confederation of School Trusts

    The speech made by Gillian Keegan, the Secretary of State for Education, in Birmingham on 5 October 2023.

    To start, I want to say thank you. For your leadership, your resilience, your incredible work.

    I really mean this because I do see your work as incredible and achievements as outstanding. It has been difficult, especially as we continue to recover from the pandemic, nobody in this room thinks it’s anything but, and most recently as we have grappled with the RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) issue.

    I want to put on record my thank you to Baroness Barran for her brilliant leadership on RAAC. She’s done a really amazing job.

    I’m here today with a simple message. I promise that I will do everything I can to support all of you. I see that as my job; to minimise the disruption our kids face, and to keep them in the classroom and get a great education.

    But there is another reason it’s really great to be here today and that is because I look at the theme on your banner today we’ve spoken about it, about ‘belonging’, and how important that is.

    It’s not often that conference themes really hit the mark but for me, this one does.

    Because I can bet that at one moment, every one of us has felt that we don’t belong.

    I’ve felt it in the world of business where I spent 30 years. It is hardly dominated by people who started on the factory floor.

    That can be hard enough for an adult but when you’re young, if you don’t feel like you belong, everything becomes that bit harder.

    It’s thanks to you, your staff, your teachers, that kids feel not just that they are there to learn, but that schools are happy places, safe places, places for them to explore, to grow and places for them to flourish. That is the environment you create day in and day out.

    Belonging is not only fundamental within schools. Our entire education system needs to prepare young people to find their place and thrive in a complex and ever-changing world.

    A child starting school today at the age of five will join a labour market that will be unrecognisable to us.

    Their jobs will be shaped by artificial intelligence and quantum. They will need to have the skills to deliver the net zero transition that we have legislated for. They could be part of profound advances in life sciences or leading the way with advanced forms of manufacturing.

    Around the world, students need their options open, not narrowed. We must harness everything we know that drives high quality education for every young person up to the age of 18 and beyond.

    There is strength, not just in depth, but also in breadth.

    This means strengthening teaching and achievement in maths and English as well as science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects. It means offering breadth as well as rigour. It means achieving genuine parity between the academic and technical routes.

    That is why we have announced that we will introduce a new Advanced British Standard (ABS) for 16–19-year-olds. I’m sure you’ve got many questions around that and we can work together to answer those questions.

    This is the next chapter in our reforms.

    It builds on a journey that we started together. Between 2005 and 2010, Michael Gove and Nick Gibb did a lot of work to prepare for what we thought was going to make a massive different to our children’s education.

    You have all been instrumental in making huge strides over the last decade to drive up standards in our schools.

    88% of schools are now Good or Outstanding. Our 9 and 10 year olds are the best in the west at reading. You did that, our children did that.

    You have worked with us as we have introduced rigour and new standards to post 16 education in this country. We worked together to update and overhaul A Levels, introduce T Levels and build a world class apprenticeship system which you’ll know is very dear to my heart.

    But still we know that between 16 and 19 our young people study fewer subjects compared to their peers in other countries. And they have far fewer contact hours in which they can learn from the experts – their teachers. And still too many young people leave at 18 without the critical maths and English they need.

    We need to build on those reforms and we need to go further. Because the world is changing faster than we’ve ever known. We have to lift our sights. We have to be bold and even more ambitious about what our young people need, what will help them succeed.

    The new Advanced British Standard will expand the range of what our 16 to 19 year olds learn, increase the amount of time they spend with their teachers and finally end the artificial divide between academic and technical education – crucially, we will build on the strong foundations of A Levels, and on the high quality, employer-led occupational standards, underpinning T Levels.

    I am under no illusion about the scale of these changes. They are profound and they are long-term. I’ve only come here to do difficult things because difficult things make a difference.

    They will take time and care to implement well. We will need to work together to develop our plans with schools, colleges, further education providers, unions, employers and the high education sector. With all of you.

    But there are some things we need to start straight away to lay the groundwork for this plan. So we have announced that we are investing over £600 million, over the next 2 years, to improve the recruitment and retention of teachers of key shortage subjects in schools and colleges, strengthen support to those pupils who need to resit GCSE maths or English, and spread teaching excellence.

    To improve the recruitment and retention of teachers in key shortage subjects, this package includes investing around £100 million each year to double the rates of the Levelling Up Premium and expand this to include FE (further education) colleges. All teachers who are in the first five years of their career, teaching shortage subjects and working in disadvantaged schools, will be paid up to £6,000 per year tax-free.

    This package also includes £60 million over two years to improve maths education, including through expanding teaching for mastery approaches across the country, using our maths hubs and increasing access to core maths. All of which revolutionised maths and the teaching of maths.

    In developing this plan we will continue to build-upon the knowledge rich focus of our reforms so far. Because we know a knowledge rich curriculum is what builds understanding and unlocks the skills needed for problem solving, reasoning and critical thinking.

    We will continue to be evidence led. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), which was established in 2011 and didn’t exist before, sets the standard now across the world on better use of evidence to improve education. From them, we know what works to improve teaching and learning. That is why our funding package includes an additional £40m million for the EEF so they can create and share high quality evidence of what works at 16 to 19, particularly what works to close the gap for disadvantaged pupils at that age.

    Thanks to you and your trusts we have a tried and tested model of improvement for our schools. You have led the way in changing the landscape of the school system over the last decade – sometimes let’s be honest in the face of resistance.

    We were talking in the cabinet about new ABS and at that point we were reminded of the resistance that Michael Gove and Nick Gibb faced trying to reform our school standards and school system. It’s never easy. Change that is truly worth it is never easy but the results are worth it. But we are really confident having seen the results that you have delivered over the past decade and more that I can ask you once again to work with us to turn that same focus to our 16 to 19 year olds.

    I have heard those who say that now is not the time for long term ambitious reform. That we have plenty of challenges in the system today. Change is already here. We sometimes don’t get to set the agenda because it’s being shaped by everything around us and technological advances is definitely one of those.

    If we want an education system in 10, 20, 30 years’ time that ensures all young people leave education better prepared to find their place in the world then we can’t afford to wait.

    A functioning society and a growing economy relies on an education system that delivers for everyone. Even today in our country we have a massive skills gap that is slowing down our growth which is a lot faster than anyone predicted. But still it would be even faster if we had the skills and talent that we need.

    I agree we must work relentlessly on today’s challenges in our schools, which we will continue to respond to. But it would be wrong to ignore the future. These reforms will help pave the way. We always have to deal with the now while looking towards the future.

    The pandemic cast a long shadow. It changed everything. You worked tirelessly to support schools, teachers, pupils and parents throughout.

    I know we have not yet recovered. I look at the data all the time, I go into schools all the time.

    Particularly for the most disadvantaged kids. You made so much progress closing the disadvantage gap between 2011 and 2019 it narrowed by an outstanding 9% at secondary and by 13% at primary school. But it’s true the pandemic set us back and we need to rebuild.

    I believe in life that you don’t write anyone off. It’s a personal belief, and in this case it means one thing which is reducing the disadvantage gap. It is the only option.

    The kids who are struggling don’t have any less potential.

    As I hope I have demonstrated already, I will continue to argue the case for what schools need. I do understand. That’s one of the benefits of having a Knowsley comprehensive school education myself.

    I know that funding won’t fix everything, but I’ve made sure that from next year overall school funding will be more than £59.6 billion, the highest per-pupil figure in real terms ever.

    But that will only take us so far.

    It’s people who make belonging happen. Its people who make sure all children get the opportunities to succeed. And only with people, including every single person in this room, can we solve the challenges we face.

    Take one that we always talk about – workload. It’s a word, but what it really means is teachers feeling tired, unsupported, overworked. Doing tasks which they don’t feel are even that useful.

    We need to support teachers. They are our most vital assets. It’s not the buildings and it’s not even all the other things that we provide. It is teachers. They want to focus on what they do best which is teaching, changing lives.

    I was at a school in the Wirral yesterday and there were five of us in a room and we were all in our 40s and 50s and I said I strongly believe every single person in our whole country can talk about a teacher who changed their lives. We went around the room and every single one came up with one immediately, not even with a seconds hesitation. 40 or 50 years later.

    Mine is a teacher called Mr Ashcroft who stayed behind after hours in my comprehensive school so he could teach me technical drawing and engineering – unbelievably it was a subject that only boys were allowed to study.

    So I really believe in teachers.  I really believe that what they do with most of their time is change lives. Our Workload Reduction Taskforce which met for the first-time last month will get results. We’ve done it before.

    This isn’t one of those things where we kick the can down the road. They will report their interim findings to me shortly, and we’ve set a deadline of spring so that we can work out what is needed to further reduce working hours by 5 hours per week.

    I’ve asked for proper solutions. We did it before the pandemic, we can do it again now. Absolutely reason why not.

    Because no other profession is as important in shaping the lives of the next generation. In shaping the future.

    I pay tribute to every single teacher, and I mean every word I say – but I also know – thank you isn’t enough.

    We need to ensure teachers feel valued and supported when they join, and to stay in the profession. Indeed, we will need even more teachers in order to meet our longer-term ambitions for the Advanced British Standard.

    We are offering  new teacher starting salaries of at least £30,000. But we must and we will go further. The world has changed following the pandemic.

    Flexible working is an example. You can love it or hate it, there’s a great debate on the pros and cons, but you can’t deny that expectations are changing.

    Some of you are already adapting. You tell me that expanding and promoting flexible working opportunities for staff can help you get the right people and keep them.

    To support this, we are funding a programme to embed flexible working in more schools.

    But there is more we can do. Mental health is another area.

    I know the value that you in this room, and so many school and trust leaders across the country place on having a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing.

    You are already making a difference. Nearly 3,000 schools and colleges have already signed up to our wellbeing charter.

    You’ve told us that technology could have a potentially transformative effect on reducing workload and help on wellbeing and mental health. I hope to be able to say more shortly on how we will explore the potential impact of generative artificial intelligence on education, including reducing time spent by teachers on administrative tasks.

    We will bring all of this together by updating our teacher recruitment and retention strategy. I want to make sure this reflects the real context you face.

    I’ve not come into this job to write bits of paper that don’t make a difference to you. I want to make sure we can continue to recruit and retain the best teachers.

    But great teaching doesn’t matter unless the kids are in the classroom.

    People make a community, and children make a school.

    It’s so important that every child attends school every day. That they’re supported to feel that they belong.

    Too many children are missing school regularly, or are persistently absent. More children are missing school more often than before the pandemic.

    As I have said before, solving this is one of my top priorities. Because nothing would be worse than giving up on those children.

    I know that the challenge has grown since the pandemic and made your jobs more challenging. Thank you for the hard work you are doing to tackle the absence problem. It is slowly starting to make a difference but we know the size of the challenge.

    Only you will know how to best deal with the individual issues each child will face. But I am here to help you.

    Leora, through her membership of our attendance action alliance, rightly challenges me on what you need to support you.

    Attendance needs to be everyone’s business. So we have set out new stronger expectations to work together to improve attendance and a support-first approach.

    We’ve also expanded our attendance hub programme.  We have launched 14 hubs, supporting around 800 schools, and launched our attendance mentors pilot in Middlesbrough, Stoke, my home borough of Knowsley, Salford and Doncaster.

    We have to get this right. I believe that by working together and supporting families, we will build that sense of belonging and get children into school with the support and stability they deserve. But we do know it’s more challenging, we do know children have lost their confidence, they are more anxious and they need help to take that step back into school, to feel they belong.

    I truly believe that ability is spread evenly, but opportunity is not.

    I know that because I’ve lived it, it’s in my DNA. If you sat next to kids in a Knowsley comprehensive school every day and you see the outcomes of their lives 40 years later, you know that is true.

    That’s why a high-quality curriculum matters, because we just can’t just let ourselves have the soft leadership of low expectations for those children.

    That’s what we had. We were not deemed to have as much potential because of postcode. We had that in the past, we had that when I was at school. It will not happen on my watch, on Nick Gibbs’s watch or Diana Barran’s watch.

    It’s why sports and activities matter, because they offer an opportunity to get involved, to feel like you’re part of something bigger and find something you’re good at.

    These are the things that boost confidence, improve mental health, and grow friendships. They’re the things that mean you live a healthier and happier life in the future.

    It’s about making sure kids, including kids with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), get the support they need. There’s a lot of children now with children who have an additional need. I’m pleased that next year, high needs funding will rise to £10.5 billion. That’s 60% more than it was just five years ago.

    But it’s not just about funding – it’s also about how we use it to provide support in the right place at the right time.

    Tailoring our support matters, and it helps kids with special education needs and disabilities to access full-time education. That’s their right, and it’s what ensures they can fulfil their potential.

    Through our SEND change programme we’re testing our improvement plan reforms. This includes supporting mainstream schools to meet the needs of an increasing number of pupils.

    But we know we can go even further to create a sense of belonging for pupils with SEND. The professional community, the CST, has established on SEND and inclusion, alongside the five principles of inclusion are a fantastic place to start.

    For some pupils, timely access to local special schools will be the right approach. That is why we are building 7 new special free schools alongside 83 already committed to opening so that so that every child’s needs are met.

    These are some of the challenges I am focused on today.

    But I see opportunities too. I recently visited Exeter University to open their new Centre of Degree Partnerships.  A few years ago I opened one at Warwick University.

    Degree apprenticeships can be transformative. I know, I did one.  And it is excellent to see such a prestigious university showing such a strong commitment to apprenticeships by making it a strategic priority. Because working with employers is strategic. It will strengthen research, it will strengthen those bonds and improve the academic offer.

    Some may say it is unrealistic to reach into these new spaces when the day job is so full on. But I know that together we can face down the challenges we have today and build towards an ever stronger education system for our children in the future.

    We must do this. We must ensure our children can compete globally with the best education we can provide by providing them with the best opportunities. There is no other option.

    I will back you, and I will make sure that you and your staff have what you need to succeed.

    If the prize is a country where every child feels that they belong, they can build their confidence and be the very best they can be and they will succeed, then the challenge must be worth it.

    Thank you very much for all the work you’re doing. Let’s keep on going, together.

  • Gillian Keegan – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    Gillian Keegan – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference

    The speech made by Gillian Keegan, the Secretary of State for Education, in Manchester on 2 October 2023.

    Conference – it’s a real honour to address you today.

    40 years ago, less than 40 miles away from here, sat in a failing comprehensive school in Knowsley,

    I could never have imagined myself standing here today.

    Growing up in Huyton, the constituency of Harold Wilson – the influence of the Labour Party was everywhere around me, including my own family.

    My great grandma, a proud lifelong member of the Labour Party. My grandad a miner and member of the NUM.

    In my office on my desk sits my grandad’s miners’ lamp – a daily reminder of where I’m from, and why I became an MP.

    So being a working class girl from Liverpool, I often get asked:

    “Why on earth are you a Conservative?”

    Well, here’s why.

    The Conservative Party is the party that helped my grandparents buy their council houses.

    It is the party that stood up to the destructive force of the Unions in the 70s and the 80s.

    This party aspired, for me and my family to have a better future,

    and was willing to take the hard decisions to get us there.

    That’s because we are a party that believes in giving people a hand-up, not a hand-out.

    And as the Prime Minister says – education is our silver bullet.

    Now, it is often said that talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn’t.

    I know that’s true because I have lived it.

    92% of my classmates left my Knowsley Comprehensive school with less than the five O-Levels – many without a single qualification.

    Those kids that I sat next to every day for five years were as bright as anyone I’ve met ever since.

    It’s not that they couldn’t do it – they were let down.

    Education is the way we make sure that doesn’t happen.

    And every day my brilliant Ministerial team – Nick Gibb, Rob Halfon, David Johnston and Diana Barran – who are fantastic – are focused on making the choices that will lead to a brighter future for our children.

    There are so many places where this Conservative government is making the difference, so let’s start with childcare.

    In my business life, I’ve seen woman after woman have to choose between their career and having a family – and usually their career lost.

    These were women who were top of their class, got the highest grades, the best starting jobs – and then had to watch the opportunities that used to be there disappear, watch their careers end prematurely.

    And the impact on our economy, it’s massive.

    And Labour admired this problem for years. 13 years of Labour delivered only 12 and a half hours of free childcare for three and four-year-olds.

    Less than one hour per year of office.

    This Government has already massively expanded the offer but will go further by introducing 30 hours free of childcare for working parents from the end of maternity leave until their child goes to school.

    It is giving mums, and dads, back their choice.

    And to be clear this is the most comprehensive and generous childcare package in our country’s history.

    It’s the Conservative Party taking long-term decisions to support families.

    We have completely transformed our school standards, making sure all kids go to a good school.

    We’re determined to crush the soft bigotry that says people like me shouldn’t succeed.

    A single teacher can change your life. For me that teacher was Mr. Ashcroft who stayed behind after school to teach me engineering, when girls couldn’t study it.

    Every day, every teacher, every one of them is changing a life.

    And to them I say thank-you from the bottom of my heart.

    And I am particularly grateful to those who have worked night and day with us, to ensure that children are able to learn face-to-face, despite the challenges of RAAC.

    Even though the pandemic set us back, our education standards are recovering and they are rising.

    Our plan is working.

    We’ve reformed the school system, we’ve reformed teacher training, we’re reformed the curriculum.

    Our phonics checks are ensuring children leave school able to read properly.

    Our free schools are driving up choice and standards.

    Our academies are unleashing heads to run education in a way that works for children, not for bureaucrats.

    And the results speak for themselves – our children are now the best in the West for reading. It’s a phenomenal achievement and I’m determined that it’s Maths next.

    I’m so proud of our children for what they’ve achieved.

    And our reforms are working despite the opposition.

    Labour and the Lib Dems called our plans “dangerous and ideological.”

    They said our literacy drive was “dull.”

    Time and time again they chose short-term policies over long-term decision-making.

    And the results? Whilst we’re rising in the international league tables, Labour-run Wales and SNP-run Scotland are slipping behind.

    They play the same old politics.

    We make the decisions that improve things for our children.

    Today, one of the biggest issues facing children and teacher is grappling with is the impact of smartphones in our schools.

    The distraction, the disruption, the bullying.

    We know that teachers are struggling with their impact and need support.

    So today we’re recognising the amazing work that many schools have already done in banning mobile phones, and we’re announcing that we will change guidance so that all schools follow their lead.

    Because the focus should be on children learning. In. The. Classroom.

    Children need to be in school. Now, that shouldn’t be controversial, but during the strikes Labour could never bring themselves to say so.

    In fact, many of their MPs joined the picket lines.

    Perhaps because the unions fund their campaigns, fund their party.

    But it’s outrageous and I’ve seen first hand what happens when Labour puts politics ahead of people.

    Growing up in Liverpool under Derek Hatton, it has certainly left a scar.

    When Kinnock said that “you can’t play politics with people’s lives” he was talking about my family’s jobs, my friends’ houses, and everybody’s services around me.

    Not that Hatton cared.

    I actually met him once. It was at the opening of a wine bar when I was a teenager.

    There he was, larger than life, his Jag and driver outside, handing out glasses of champagne as we walked in.

    Yep, you heard it right Conference – I was given my first glass of champagne by a socialist.

    I was taking recently to a Labour MP about Delco, the car factory I had started worked in aged 16.

    She told me with pride she had visited it – as part of a flying picket.

    I looked at her and told her “you and your mates’ cost everybody their jobs.”

    Because that’s the problem– they thought you could strike your way to a better job, and I thought it’s common sense that we’d have better jobs if the factory remained open.

    And when the factory closed, they were off to their next demo whilst ordinary people were left to pick up the pieces.

    Now, common sense is what guides me.

    It’s common sense to say that parents should be able to see what their children are being taught in schools.

    It’s common sense that girls should have separate toilets from boys.

    And it’s common sense that earning and learning is a brilliant route into a career.

    It makes no sense to set an arbitrary target of 50% of kids going to university, when we need 100% of kids getting great opportunities.

    And University is not the only option.

    My apprenticeship changed my life and thanks to this Government, have changed five and a half million lives since 2010.

    Some people view them as second rate.

    But my mission is to change that – to make apprenticeships the way you become a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, even a space engineer.

    Many will still want go to university, and that will be the right choice for them.

    And if they do, they should get the education that they have paid for. That’s common sense, right?

    Apparently not – because over recent years we’ve seen constant strikes, we’ve seen students not getting the education they’ve paid for and some not even having their degrees marked.

    This is outrageous behaviour.

    So today, I am announcing that we will consult to introduce minimum service levels in universities, so that they have the tools to make sure that students get the teaching they deserve.

    So when I go home to Liverpool and they ask “why are you a Conservative” – well, here’s the answer.

    With the Conservatives, you get the childcare that allows you to have a family and a career.

    With the Conservatives, you get the schools where standards are relentlessly rising rather than going backwards under Labour.

    With the Conservatives, you get an apprenticeship that is a route to a great career, not a dead end with an enormous student debt.

    With the Conservatives you get the opportunity to go as far as you can.

    And we are the only party that will make the long-term decisions to give our children the bright future that they deserve.

    Conference, thank you very much.

  • Rishi Sunak – 2023 Interview on Failing Concrete in Schools

    Rishi Sunak – 2023 Interview on Failing Concrete in Schools

    The interview broadcast by Sky News with Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, on 4 September 2023.

    RISHI SUNAK

    New information came to light relatively recently and it’s important that once it had that, the Government acted on it as swiftly as possible. Of course, I know the timing is frustrating, but I want to give people a sense of the scale of what we’re grappling with here. There are around 22,000 schools in England and the important thing to know is we expect that 95% of those schools won’t be impacted by this. Around 50 schools have already been mitigated, another 100 are in the process of being so and our expectation is that in a matter of weeks the bulk of the remaining schools that will have this issue will be identified as well. Also, important context to know that in many cases, this could be limited to as a single classroom, for example, and so people should have a sense of the scale of what might be happening as well.

    INTERVIEWER

    The former Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education has said this morning that when they wanted to put more money into repairing schools, you as Chancellor didn’t allow that to go ahead and, in fact, cut that budget. Are you to blame for what’s happening now and you want to apologise to parents?

    RISHI SUNAK

    That is completely and utterly wrong. Actually one of the first things I did as Chancellor, in my first spending review in 2020, was to announce a new 10 year school rebuilding programme for 500 schools. Now that equates to about 50 schools a year that will be refurbished or rebuilt. If you look at what we’ve been doing over the previous decade, that’s completely in line with what we’ve always done, about 50 or so schools a year, refurbished or rebuilt. That’s what I announced as Chancellor in my first Spending Review. On top of that, I also invested 5 billion pounds to help our kids catch up with lost learning from COVID, the education recovery programme, that you’ll remember at the time, that was rightly a priority of the country to help our kids who’ve been disrupted by COVID with extra tutoring, for example, to help them catch up and that cost 5 billion pounds, which I invested in as Chancellor.

    INTERVIEWER

    But the former Permanent Secretary said 50 schools a year, yes, but they asked that they had funding initially for 100. They thought the total number that needed to be done per year was 300 to 400. Prime Minister, you talk a lot about trade offs, but isn’t this simply a trade off that if you choose to save money in this area and don’t put as much money into repairing schools as senior officials ask, then you run the risk of them having to shut down because of a risk of them falling down?

    RISHI SUNAK

    Well, if you look at what we’ve been doing over the past decade, we’ve been rebuilding or refurbishing about 50 schools a year. As Chancellor, I announced a new 10 year programme to refurbish and rebuild 500 schools over the decade, completely aligned with what historically we’ve done in this country. On top of that, I announced record funding for schools not just to help catch up our children with lost learning, 5 billion pounds it was an enormous amount invested in the largest ever tutoring programme that this country has seen, that was seen rightly at the time as the priority. Our kids’ learning had been hugely disrupted by COVID, it was important that we helped them catch up, particularly the most disadvantaged pupils were the ones that were impacted the most. So I thought it was right also to invest in that, as alongside just increasing the day to day schools budget back to the record levels that we had seen previously. Taken together there has been a very strong investment in schools and now we’re getting on with mitigating the issues that we’re seeing today in a way that will help children quickly get back into the classroom.

    INTERVIEWER

    And just finally on those mitigations. Can you promise that schools will get all the money they need on things like transport to new classrooms, or other costs to make sure that in the schools that are impacted, kids can go on learning in person and we won’t have a return to remote learning that we saw during the COVID pandemic?

    RISHI SUNAK

    The Chancellor has been crystal clear that schools will be given extra money for these mitigations, it won’t come from their existing school budget, there will be extra money to the school so the school budget won’t be impacted by this. They will be given the extra money to deal with the mitigations, and again, just for context is our expectation is 95% of schools won’t be impacted by this and then the 50 or so schools that have already been mitigated. What we’ve seen is in the majority of cases, children continue to go to school, they’re taught elsewhere on the school estate, and for those that do have to be home that on average, it’s been just for about six days or so. So hopefully people can get a sense that we can work through this relatively swiftly and we want to minimise disruption on kids’ learning.

  • Nick Gibb – 2023 Statement on School Funding: Provisional 2024-25 Allocations

    Nick Gibb – 2023 Statement on School Funding: Provisional 2024-25 Allocations

    The statement made by Nick Gibb, the Minister for Schools, in the House of Commons on 17 July 2023.

    Today I am confirming provisional funding allocations for 2024-25 through the schools, high needs and central school services national funding formulae (NFFs). Core schools funding includes funding for both mainstream schools and high needs. This is increasing by over £1.8 billion in 2024-25—from over £57.7 billion in 2023-24 to over £59.6 billion in 2024-25. This is on top of the over £3.9 billion increase in the core schools budget in 2023-24.

    The core schools funding increase for both this year and next year includes the additional funding for schools’ teacher pay costs, through the teachers’ pay additional grant (TPAG). On 13 July, we announced this funding to support schools with the September 2023 teachers’ pay award. The funding is being split between mainstream schools, special schools and alternative provision (AP), early years, and 16 to 19 provision. The part of the additional funding that goes to mainstream schools, special schools and alternative provision is worth £482.5 million in 2023-24 and £827.5 million in 2024-25. This funding will be paid on top of NFF funding in both 2023-24 and 2024- 25. Further information on the TPAG is published here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teachers-pay-additional-grant-2023-to-2024.

    Funding for mainstream schools through the schools NFF is increasing by 2.7% per pupil compared to 2023-24. Taken together with the funding increases seen in 2023-24, this means that funding through the schools NFF will be 8.5% higher per pupil in 2024-25, compared to 2022-23.

    The minimum per pupil funding levels (MPPLs) will increase by 2.4% compared to 2023-24. This will mean that, next year, every primary school will receive at least £4,655 per pupil, and every secondary school at least £6,050. Academy trusts continue to have flexibilities over how they allocate funding across academies in their trust. This means, in some cases, an individual academy could receive a lower or higher per-pupil funding amount than the MPPL value. This may reflect, for example, activities that are paid for by the trust centrally, rather than by individual academies.

    The NFF will distribute this funding based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and characteristics. The main features in 2024-25 are:

    We are introducing a formulaic approach to allocating split sites funding. This ensures that funding for schools which operate across more than one site will be provided on a consistent basis across the country.

    The core factors in the schools NFF—such as basic per-pupil funding, and the lump sum that all schools attract—will increase by 2.4%.

    The funding floor will ensure that every school attracts at least 0.5% more pupil-led funding per pupil compared to its 2023-24 allocation.

    The 2023-24 mainstream schools additional grant (MSAG) has been rolled into the schools NFF for 2024-25. This is to ensure that the additional funding schools attract through the NFF is as close as possible to the funding they would have received if the funding was continuing as a separate grant in 2024-25, without adding significant complexity to the formula. Adding the grant funding to the NFF provides reassurance to schools that this funding forms part of schools’ core budgets and will continue to be provided.

    For the first time, in 2024-25 we will allocate funding to local authorities on the basis of falling rolls, as well as growth. Local authorities can use this funding to support schools which see a short-term fall in the number of pupils on roll.

    The 2023-24 was the first year of transition to the direct schools NFF, with our end point being a system in which, to ensure full fairness and consistency in funding, every mainstream school in England is funded through a single national formula without adjustment through local funding formulae. Following a successful first year of transition, we will continue with the same approach to transition in 2024-25. As in 2023-24, local authorities will only be allowed to use NFF factors in their local formulae, and must use all NFF factors, except any locally determined premises factors. Local authorities will also be required to move their local formulae factors a further 10% closer to the NFF values, compared to where they were in 2023-24, unless they are classed as already “mirroring” the NFF.

    Today we are also publishing local authority funding formula data for 2023-24. Following the first year of transition, the number of local authorities that mirror the schools NFF increased significantly from just over half in 2022-23, to just over two-thirds in 2023-24. Of the 72 local authorities that were not mirroring the NFF in 2022-23, 61 chose to move their local formula closer to the NFF than required.

    In 2024-25, high needs funding through the NFF is increasing by a further £440 million, or 4.3%—following the £970 million increase in 2023-24 and £1 billion increase in 2022-23. This brings the total high needs budget to over £10.5 billion. All local authorities will receive at least a 3% increase per head of their age two to 18 population, compared to their 2023-24 allocations, with some authorities seeing gains of up to 5%.

    The £10.5 billion funding includes the continuation of the £400 million high needs funding allocated to local authorities following the 2022 autumn statement, and the £440 million increase is provided on top of that. All special and alternative provision schools will continue to receive their share of that funding in 2024-25.

    Central school services funding is provided to local authorities for the ongoing responsibilities they have for all schools. The total provisional funding for ongoing responsibilities is £304 million in 2024-25. In line with the process introduced for 2020-21, to withdraw funding over time for the historic commitments local authorities entered into before 2013-14, funding for historic commitments will decrease by a further 20% in 2024-25.

    Updated allocations of schools, high needs and central schools services funding for 2024-25 will be published in December, taking account of the latest pupil data at that point.

  • Nick Gibb – 2023 Statement on the Minimum School Week

    Nick Gibb – 2023 Statement on the Minimum School Week

    The statement made by Nick Gibb, the Minister for Schools, on 17 July 2023.

    In March 2022, the Government announced in the Schools White Paper ‘Opportunity for All’ that to give every pupil the opportunity to achieve their full academic potential, all mainstream, state-funded schools would be expected to deliver a minimum school week of 32.5 hours by September 2023.

    Most schools already have a school week of at least this length, and others will have plans in hand to meet the minimum expectation by September 2023. However, in recognition of the pressures currently facing schools, the Government have decided to defer the deadline to September 2024. The Government are encouraging schools that are planning to increase their hours from this September to continue to do so.

    The Government have today published guidance and case studies:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/length-of-the-school-week-minimum-expectation to support those schools that are not yet meeting the minimum expectation.

  • Peter Bottomley – 2023 Speech on Higher Education

    Peter Bottomley – 2023 Speech on Higher Education

    The speech made by Sir Peter Bottomley, the Father of the House, in the Commons on 17 July 2023.

    I thank the Secretary of State. Those of us with long memories know that we either ration places by number or we give people choice. If she is giving people the choice of being able to discriminate between the courses and universities on offer, I congratulate her, as I do especially on the lifetime learning and the degree apprenticeship expansion, which has already happened, with more to come.

    However, can I also speak up for those who either got fourth-class degrees or failed to take a degree at all, including two of the three Governors of the Bank of England who went to King’s and who came out without a degree? Rabi Tagore left university, and many other poets, painters, teachers or ministers of religion—whether rabbis, imams or ministers in the Christian Church—do not show up highly on the earnings scale, but they might show up highly in their contributions to society. Can my right hon. Friend please make sure that she does not let an algorithm rate colleges, courses or universities?

    Gillian Keegan

    I thank my hon. Friend for his remarks, and I very much agree that this is about choice—the lifelong loan entitlement, degree apprenticeships and all of the other choices—and about people understanding that there are many different routes to success in life. We have asked the Office for Students to look at earnings, because I realise that is difficult and that some jobs will not earn people more. However, for his information, five years after graduating from some courses, people are earning less than £18,000. That is less than the minimum wage, and it is not acceptable.

  • Bridget Phillipson – 2023 Speech on Higher Education

    Bridget Phillipson – 2023 Speech on Higher Education

    The speech made by Bridget Phillipson, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, in the House of Commons on 17 July 2023.

    I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of her statement.

    Today’s statement tells us several stories about this Government. It tells a story about their priorities: why universities, and why now? It tells a story about their analysis: what they think is wrong and what they think is not. It tells a story about their competence: why these changes, when their own regulator has used a different approach for so long? It tells a story about their prejudice, about why they continue to reinforce a binary choice for young people: either academic or vocational, university or apprenticeship. Above all, it tells a story about values—about the choice to put caps on the aspirations and ambitions of our young people; about Ministers for whom opportunity is for their children, but not for other people’s children; about a Government whose only big idea for our world-leading universities is to put up fresh barriers to opportunity, anxious to keep young people in their place. It tells you everything you need to know about the Tories that this is their priority for our young people.

    This is the Tories’ priority when we are in the middle of an urgent crisis in this country; when families are struggling to make ends meet; when patients are facing the biggest waiting lists in NHS history; when children are going to school in buildings that Ministers themselves acknowledge are “very likely” to collapse; and when a spiral of low productivity, low growth, and low wages under the Tories is holding Britain back. It is because the Prime Minister is weak and he is in hock to his Back Benchers that we are not seeing action on those important priorities. Instead, after more than 13 years in power, the Government have shown what they really think of our universities, which are famous across the world, are core to so many of our regional economies and were essential to our pandemic response: that they are not a public good, but a political battleground.

    The Government’s concept of a successful university course, based on earnings, is not just narrow but limiting. I ask the Secretary of State briefly to consider the case of the right hon. Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Rishi Sunak). The Prime Minister has a degree in politics from one of our leading universities, yet his Government lost control of almost 50 councils this year, he was the second choice of his own party, and now he is on track to fail to deliver on the pledges he set himself publicly. Does the Secretary of State believe that the Prime Minister’s degree was in any sense a high-value course?

    Let us be clear what today’s announcement is really about. Many of our most successful newer universities—the fruits of the determination of successive Governments, Labour and Conservative, to spread opportunity in this country—often draw more students from their local communities. Many of those areas are far from London, far from existing concentrations of graduate jobs. Many of those students come from backgrounds where few in their family, if any, will have had the chance to go to university. Many of those young people benefit from extra support when they arrive at university to ensure they succeed. We on the Labour Benches welcome the success of those universities in widening participation and welcoming more young people into higher education, yet today, the Secretary of State is telling those young people—including those excited to be finishing their studies this year—that this Government believe their hard work counts for nothing. Can the Secretary of State be absolutely clear with the House, and tell us which of those universities’ courses she considers to be of low value?

    The Secretary of State is keen to trumpet her party’s record on apprenticeships, but let me set out what this Government’s record really is. Since 2015-16, apprenticeship starts among under-19s have dropped by 41%, and apprentice achievements in that age group are down by 57%. Since the Secretary of State entered this place, the number of young people achieving an apprenticeship at any level has more than halved, failing a generation of young people desperate to take on an apprenticeship.

    Lastly and most importantly, the values that this Government have set out today are clear: the Conservatives are saying to England’s young people that opportunity is not for them and that choice is not for them. The bizarre irony of a Conservative Government seeking to restrict freedom and restrict choices seems entirely lost on them. Labour will shatter the class ceiling. We will ensure that young people believe that opportunity is for them. Labour is the party of opportunity, aspiration and freedom. Let us be clear, too, that young people want to go to university not merely to get on financially, but for the chance to join the pursuit of learning, to explore ideas and undertake research that benefits us all. That chance and that opportunity matter too. Our children deserve better. They deserve a Government whose most important mission will be to break down the barriers to opportunity and to build a country where background is no barrier. They deserve a Labour Government.

    Gillian Keegan

    As usual, the hon. Lady has more words than actions. None of those actions was put in place either in Wales, where Labour is running the education system, or in the UK when it was running it in England. We have always made the deliberate choice of quality over quantity, and this is a story of a consistent drive for quality, whether that is through my right hon. Friend the Schools Minister having driven up school standards, so that we are the best in the west for reading and fourth best in the world, or through childcare, revolutionising the apprenticeship system—none of that existed before we put it in place—and technical education and higher education.

    I was an other people’s child: I was that kid who left school at 16, who went to a failing comprehensive school in Knowsley. I relied on the business, and the college and the university that I went to. I did not know their brand images and I knew absolutely nobody who had ever been there. I put my trust in that company, and luckily it did me very well. Not all universities and not all courses have the trusted brand image of Oxford and Cambridge, which I think is where the hon. Lady went, along with my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister. I have worked with many leaders all over the world in my many years in business, and the Prime Minister is a world-class leader.

    On apprenticeships, it is a case of quality always over quantity. What we found, and this is why I introduced the quality standards, is that, yes, the numbers were higher, but many of the people did not realise they were on an apprenticeship, many of the apprenticeships lasted less than 12 months and for many of them there was zero off-the-job training. They were apprenticeships in name only, which is what the Labour party will be when it comes to standards for education.

  • Gillian Keegan – 2023 Statement on Higher Education

    Gillian Keegan – 2023 Statement on Higher Education

    The statement made by Gillian Keegan, the Secretary of State for Education, in the House of Commons on 17 July 2023.

    With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to announce the publication of the Government’s higher education reform consultation response. This country is one of the best in the world for studying in higher education, boasting four of the world’s top 10 universities. For most, higher education is a sound investment, with graduates expected to earn on average £100,000 more over their lifetime than those who do not go to university.

    However, there are still pockets of higher education provision where the promise that university education will be worthwhile does not hold true and where an unacceptable number of students do not finish their studies or find a good job after graduating. That cannot continue. It is not fair to taxpayers who subsidise that education, but most of all it is not fair to those students who are being sold a promise of a better tomorrow, only to be disappointed and end up paying far into the future for a degree that did not offer them good value.

    We want to make sure that students are charged a fair price for their studies and that a university education offers a good return. Our reforms are aimed at achieving that objective. That is why the Government launched the consultation in 2022, to seek views on policies based on recommendations made by Sir Philip Augar and his independent panel. The consultation ended in May 2022, and the Department for Education has been considering the responses received. I am now able to set out the programme of reforms that we are taking forward.

    I believe that the traditional degree continues to hold great value, but it is not the only higher education pathway. Over the past 13 years, we have made substantial reforms to ensure that the traditional route is not the only pathway to a good career. Higher technical qualifications massively enhance students’ skills and career prospects, and deserve parity of esteem with undergraduate degrees. We have seen a growth in degree-level apprenticeships, with over 188,000 students enrolling since their introduction in 2014. I have asked the Office for Students to establish a £40 million competitive degree apprenticeships fund to drive forward capacity-building projects to broaden access to degree apprenticeships over the next two years.

    That drive to encourage skills is why we are also investing up to £115 million to help providers deliver higher technical education. In March, we set out detailed information on how the lifelong learning entitlement will transform the way in which individuals can undertake post-18 education, and we continue to support that transformation through the Lifelong Learning (Higher Education Fee Limits) Bill, which is currently passing through the other place. We anticipate that that funding, coupled with the introduction of the LLE from 2025, will help to incentivise the take-up of higher technical education, filling vital skills gaps across the country.

    Each of those reforms has had one simple premise: that we are educating people with the skills that will enable them to have a long and fulfilling career. I believe that we should have the same expectation for higher education: it should prepare students for life by giving them the right skills and knowledge to get well-paid jobs. With the advent of the LLE, it is neither fair nor right for students to use potentially three quarters of their lifelong loan entitlement for a university degree that does not offer them good returns. That would constrain their future ability to learn, earn and retrain. We must shrink the parts of the sector that do not deliver value, and ensure that students and taxpayers are getting value for money given their considerable investment.

    Data shows that there were 66 providers from which fewer than 60% of graduates progressed to high-skilled employment or further study fifteen months after graduating. That is not acceptable. I will therefore issue statutory guidance to the OfS setting out that it should impose recruitment limits on provision that does not meet its rigorous quality requirements for positive student outcomes, to help to constrain the size and growth of courses that do not deliver for students. We will also ask the OfS to consider how it can incorporate graduate earnings into its quality regime. We recognise that many factors can influence graduate earnings, but students have a right to expect that their investment in higher education will improve their career prospects, and we should rightly scrutinise courses that appear to offer limited added value to students on the metric that matters most to many.

    We will work with the OfS to consider franchising arrangements in the sector. All organisations that deliver higher education must be held to robust standards. I am concerned about some indications that franchising is acting as a potential route for low quality to seep into the higher education system, and I am absolutely clear that lead providers have a responsibility to ensure that franchised provision is of the same quality as directly delivered provision. If we find examples of undesirable practices, we will not hesitate to act further on franchising.

    As I have said, we will ensure that students are charged a fair price for their studies. That is why we are also reducing to £5,760 the fees for classroom-based foundation year courses such as business studies and social sciences, in line with the highest standard funding rate for access to HE diplomas. Recently we have seen an explosion in the growth of many such courses, but limited evidence that they are in the best interests of students. We are not reducing the fee limits for high-cost, strategically important subjects such as veterinary sciences and medicine, but we want to ensure that foundation years are not used to add to the bottom line of institutions at the expense of those who study them. We will continue to monitor closely the growth of foundation year provision, and we will not hesitate to introduce further restrictions or reductions. I want providers to consider whether those courses add value for students, and to phase out that provision in favour of a broad range of tertiary options with the advent of the LLE.

    Our aim is that everyone who wants to benefit from higher education has the opportunity to do so. That is why we will not proceed at this time with a minimum requirement of academic attainment to access student finance—although we will keep that option under review. I am confident that the sector will respond with the ambition and focused collaboration required to deliver this package of reforms. I extend my wholehearted thanks to those in the sector for their responses to the consultation.

    This package of reforms represents the next step in tackling low-quality higher education, but it will not be the last step. The Government will not shy away from further action if required, and will consider all levers available to us if these quality reforms do not result in the improvements we seek. Our higher education system is admired across many countries, and these measures will ensure that it continues to be. I commend this statement to the House.

  • Claire Coutinho – 2023 Speech to Policy Exchange

    Claire Coutinho – 2023 Speech to Policy Exchange

    The speech made by Claire Coutinho, the Minister for Children, Wellbeing and Families, on 5 July 2023.

    As a former Senior Fellow of Policy Exchange, I am delighted to be here to speak on a topic for which you have been such strong champions in recent years.

    It was your report on ‘Academic Freedom in the UK’, that planted the seeds for our Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill – and I stand here, three years after the Bill was introduced, with the Act having received Royal Assent.

    At a time when many were closing their eyes to the problem and saying there was nothing to see, Policy Exchange’s research shone a light on why we needed to act.

    The quest for truth has long provided us with the moral coordinates for social and scientific progress.

    Where debate has been suppressed, it has only set us back.

    We now give thanks to the Galileos, the Darwins, the Keplers, the Newtons, for pushing forwards the frontiers of our knowledge.

    Our understanding of astronomy, mathematics, natural history or biology, wouldn’t be the same if those visionaries did not believe in freedom of speech and the pursuit of truth.

    And yet, today, we see free speech under threat in the very places where the most controversial debates should be taking place – on campus.

    The very purpose of a university is to create independent thinkers who are equipped with the tools to think about the world critically.

    They are important training grounds for the business, political and cultural leaders of tomorrow.

    And this generation will need the skills of critical thought more than ever.

    The pace of change we face is transforming the world at a speed not seen before.

    Take the onset of artificial intelligence (AI). The next generation of leaders will face even thornier questions than the ones we face today.

    What role should Large Language Models play in education?

    How do we integrate AI into the workforce without displacing human workers?

    And how do we navigate copyright disputes between human artists and AI?

    These are all challenging ethical and practical dilemmas with no immediate answer.

    The next generation will have to approach these, and so many other problems, with an open mind. A desire to hear other opinions, not silence them.

    We’re doing students a disservice if we shelter them from other points of view, and withhold the opportunity to develop their critical thinking.

    And we’re setting them up for failure if we let them think they can go through life shouting down people with different views.

    As J.S. Mill famously said, depriving ourselves of the chance to debate also denies us “the clearer perception of truth, produced by its collision with error”.

    And yet vigilance is needed as there are those who seek to stifle debate in our universities.

    Curious students are being deprived of attending events, visiting speakers are intimidated by aggressive protests, and in the worst cases, academics are losing their livelihoods – and their reputations – for the crime of expressing an opinion.

    All of this is driven by a small groups of activists who shout the loudest.

    Activists who can fire off a lot of tweets and draft open letters – not simply to express their own opinion, but to close down a wider debate – and by now, we’ve seen the dangers of how this manifests itself on campus.

    If you’re Tony Sewell, you’ll have your honorary degree rescinded because the university doesn’t like the conclusion of a report you wrote for the government.

    If you’re Kathleen Stock, you’ll be hounded out of your job by a toxic, organised campaign to get you fired.

    We’ve even heard of examples of research projects on the culture of censorship in universities being censored because they’re deemed ‘too dangerous’.

    In other words, we may be at the stage where research into censorship is itself being censored.

    It’s even spread to disciplines as far from politics as you can imagine, such as maths.

    I met with a group of mathematicians who were being pressured into ‘decolonising’ their maths curriculum by downplaying or magnifying the work of mathematicians depending on their race.

    They were deeply concerned but also fearful of speaking out, because of the potential for a backlash that could put their jobs at risk.

    However, when I studied maths, I used an Indian decimal system, Arabian-born algebra and imaginary numbers forged in Europe.

    At this meeting I thought of the words of the 20th Century mathematician David Hilbert, who said:

    “Mathematics knows no race or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.”

    And yet some people see even this discipline – the purest of all sciences and one which has developed across borders for more than a millennium – as an outlet for their activism instead of being motivated by a love of their subject and the pursuit of truth.

    The experience of those mathematicians is one shared by many in academia. An insidious censorship bubbling away under the surface, where students and academics with mainstream views don’t say what they think because they’re scared of the consequences for their studies or their career.

    They’re censored by activists who dress up their oppression in the language of tolerance and emotional safety.

    I sympathise with those who worry about the effects of toxic, hate-filled debates. I don’t want to see freedom of speech used as an excuse to abuse.

    But a tolerant society isn’t one where everyone must conform to a narrow, ideological vision of moral virtue – where only those who take a certain point of view are allowed to speak their mind – a tolerant society is one which allows us to understand people we disagree with, and where minority and majority views are protected.

    It should be a university’s duty to stay neutral, to facilitate debate and to protect those who put minority views forward in good faith.

    Universities fail in that duty when they themselves take sides on these contested issues. They risk losing the trust of their staff and students when certain groups are made to feel that their views are not welcome.

    I have no doubt in my mind that there are many leaders at the top of universities who are personally committed to academic freedom. I have heard about this commitment first-hand.

    But Vice Chancellors and Leadership Boards must make sure they are not being undermined by well-intentioned internal processes that stand in the way of freedom of speech.

    This pressure to conform to a progressive monoculture – both from activists and internal processes – has a material effect.

    Research shows that a third of all academics in the UK self-censor.

    A third.

    Often, it’s academics approaching the end of their careers who are more likely to feel they can speak openly than their junior colleagues.

    Your right to free speech in academia shouldn’t rely on your years of experience. It should be a right for all.

    And from Policy Exchange’s own research we know that this is not just an issue for those on the political right.

    While those on the right are more likely to self-censor, 42% of left-leaning academics in the social sciences report that they don’t express their views due to a fear of backlash from their colleagues.

    This will have wider effects than those faced by the individuals involved. For example, there is even evidence that shows that academic freedom boosts innovation. When academic freedom rises, the number of patents filed two years later grows.

    This creep of self-censorship matters.

    If we don’t bring an end to this culture of intimidation, we’re allowing an intellectual sedative to be injected into the University experience.

    And that’s why we chose to take action.

    We legislated, as we promised in the manifesto, to defend and promote that centuries-old principle – the principle of free speech – that has been at the centre of so much of our progress as a nation.

    Our Freedom of Speech Act will hold universities accountable for the state of free speech on their campuses. It will protect staff, students, and visiting speakers who advocate viewpoints of all kinds.

    We’ve created a powerful new Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom at the Office for Students. They will be able to investigate – and take action against – providers who are found to have breached their duties to uphold free speech.

    Our new complaints mechanism, along with the introduction of the right to go to court, means that anyone who feels their free speech rights have been wrongly infringed will have a clear path to redress.

    And for the first time, we’re requiring student unions to protect free speech.

    Freedom of speech is not an optional extra at university. It is central to the university experience.

    Our measures are designed to give people studying and working in universities the confidence and security to speak their mind.

    At every stage of this process, they have been at the forefront of our thinking.

    And I can think of no one better to fight their corner than the new Director of Free Speech and Academic Freedom, Professor Arif Ahmed.

    Arif is a professor of philosophy who has written passionately in the  defence of free speech in the media. He’s stood firm in the face of attempts to shut down his own speaking events, and campaigned to reform the free speech policy at his own university – with an astounding result in his favour.

    He has defended views on the left and on the right, and I have no doubt he will provide strong leadership in championing a culture of tolerance and open debate within our universities.

    As Arif has written himself: “Words are not a form of violence. They are an alternative to violence. Without that distinction we are lost.”

    Now this Act by itself is not enough, I don’t believe that any legislation by itself can change culture, however it’s already starting to have an effect.

    I’ve spoken to Vice Chancellors who are making plans to embed a culture of free speech at the beginning of a student’s academic journey.

    The Provost of University College London, Michael Spence, took the right approach when he made clear that ‘[a university] is not a participant in the public debate, but a forum in which that debate takes place.’

    We have already seen an emboldened approach from university leaders who are fighting back where cancel culture raises its head.

    I am delighted that Kathleen Stock – despite the best attempts of some – did in fact speak to curious and respectful students at Oxford University recently, backed by strong action from their Vice Chancellor.

    I am also pleased that students who disagreed were allowed to protest outside.

    Both are important.

    And that’s because a healthy society is one where people who disagree can do so whilst living alongside each other.

    If you think about how we used to get to know each other, it was often in congregations.

    In churches, local community events, even that bastion of British culture – the pub – where the young, old, conservative, liberal, could all rub alongside each other.

    Now, social media has made it easier than ever for us to become entrenched in our own tribes, surrounded by people who think just like us.

    It’s a vicious cycle. The more and more we use social media, the more its algorithms will feed us what we like to hear, from who we like to hear it from.

    We get hooked on the drip of dopamine hits from people agreeing with us. Those who disagree with us become the enemy.

    But the fundamental wellbeing of our society rests on our ability to tolerate each other. On an individual level, our ability to connect to each other is what makes us happy and well.

    And when we think about the next generation, the leaders of tomorrow, what do we want for them?

    To teach them that they should shut down every person they encounter who has a different view? Or to teach them to be able to understand, to connect, to persuade, to find common ground.

    But common ground only exists where discussion and debate are embraced.

    Free speech at university is an antidote to the toxic effects of social media. By instilling the next generation with a new appreciation for freedom of speech, we can make sure this attitude doesn’t define our society in the years to come.

    The Act will give students and academics the practical framework to put the exchange of ideas over ideology, discussion over division.

    But I will end on the words of the late, great, Sir Roger Scruton, another Policy Exchange alumnus and one of the lecturers I was lucky to have during my own university experience.

    “Free speech is not the cause of the tensions growing around us, but the only possible solution to them…”

    Thank you.