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  • John Hayes – 2011 Speech on Recidivism

    John Hayes – 2011 Speech on Recidivism

    The speech made by John Hayes, the then Education Minister, at Prospero House in London on 18 May 2011.

    This speech is about recidivism. It’s about the frightening fact that 39 per cent of offenders re-offend. Countless extra crimes in every part of Britain. It’s about the £13 billion a year that costs the community. It’s about the broken lives of the parents, wives and children of those who go on breaking the law. And it’s about all the extra victims of those crimes. For all of them, things must change.

    The poet of the Parisian underclass, Victor Hugo, wrote that “He who opens a school door, closes a prison”.

    Perhaps that’s as true literally as he meant it metaphorically.

    Education can certainly save people from ignorance, from want, from frustration and from a whole host of other obstacles that would otherwise stop them leading a truly fulfilled life. But there are also countless examples, of how education can rehabilitate those whose lives have already taken the wrong turning.

    Just as in Hugo’s time, skills like those people can learn by taking an Apprenticeship can make the difference between a life on the right side of the law and a life trapped in the damaging cycle of reoffending and reimprisonment.

    Of course, however hard we try, we will never manage to rehabilitate all prisoners successfully. But we are nonetheless entitled to ask why, despite all the money and effort that we put into prisoner education and other forms of rehabilitation, reconviction rates remain so high.

    Like many of you, I watched the BBC’s recent documentary about The Clink prison restaurant. I was struck not only by what a great initiative this is, training young offenders – very much on the Apprenticeships model – for careers in the catering industry on release, but also by how well it exemplified some of the problems that bedevil our efforts to rehabilitate.

    For every youngster who seized the second chance they were being offered, there were several who could not seem to bring themselves to do so.

    If there were awards for most inspiring and most depressing television programme of the year, the story of The Clink would stand a good chance of winning both.

    But those of us who believe in the power of learning to accomplish social and personal good are surely duty-bound to ensure that prisoner education contributes as much as it possibly can to helping those who come out of prison to stay out of prison. That, most think, means delivering what’s needed to get and keep a job.

    Ensuring that even prisoners with very low skills, including the basics of literacy and numeracy needs, are shown a clear ladder of achievement to attain the skills they will need after release to hold down a job in the outside world.

    That’s in their interest, in their potential victims’ interest; it’s in all our interest.

    It also means ensuring that the skills towards which prisoners are guided are those employers need, especially in the localities into which they will be released.

    In essence, this is what the strategy we are publishing today seeks to do. It emerges from a lengthy review process and I want to take this chance to thank everyone who has contributed to it, including many of you.

    When you read it, you’ll see that some parts of the strategy address issues that are specific to prisoner education, such as the problems with disruption to learning that can occur when someone moves between prisons during their sentence. Others are familiar outside as well as in prisons.

    These include the disillusionment and demotivation that learners can often feel if they work hard to acquire new skills which do not, in the end, help them to find a job.

    I’ve no doubt that all of you will welcome some parts of the strategy. I’m equally certain that some of you will find others very challenging. But the thing that matters most is that we emerge with a system that fills those prisoners who are ready to be rehabilitated with enthusiasm for what learning and skills can do to help them. This is about changing lives by changing beliefs. What thousands of Britons who get on the wrong side of the law believe about themselves, their responsibilities, their duties, their futures.

    Many of today’s prisoners are behind bars because they think, for them, only crime pays. No-one amongst the many people they have come across in their chaotic lives has set their feet on the ladder that climbs from basic and foundation skills upwards to the skills that could make them employable and bring them a decent life by lawful means.

    That ignorance – that fear of failure – is the ultimate form of captivity.

    In future, I want everyone who is released from prison to come out with the realistic opportunity to find a job that leads to an honest and productive life. This matters to all of us: because of the costs involved; because of the number of victims created; because of the number of lives ruined if we don’t do better. There is an ongoing tragedy of lost souls within those parts of our communities at the bedrock of Broken Britain. The cohesive societies which we all want to see can only be built by individuals, families and social networks enriched by purposeful pride.

    Achieving what society deserves will take a lot more than money. But the first principle of our reform programme must be to ensure that what money we have goes where it is most needed and will do most good.

    Which means finding new ways in which to organise how we deliver offender learning so that it has greatest effect and to ensure that this is mirrored more closely by the way we allocate resources.

    For example, we will be trialling outcome incentive payments to give colleges and other providers a greater stake not just in delivering learning successfully, but that the learning goes on to have a positive impact on the prisoner.

    We will also be prioritising forms of training like preparation for Apprenticeships that are known to deliver the best results for individual and are attractive to employers.

    To help with that, we’re going to base the new structure on the clusters of prisons within which prisoners routinely move. That will go a long way towards addressing the problem of interrupted courses that I mentioned, as well as bringing more coherence to the system overall.

    This reorganisation will make it necessary to re-procure offender learning contracts. I understand that this is a worrying development for some of you, and I can assure you that we gave it very careful thought.

    The retendering process will allow us to strengthen the arrangements to assess prisoners’ prior attainment at the start of their sentences, ensuring that learning needs are met by the right training programmes. Our aim will be put in place arrangements that mean all prisoners are assessed using robust and consistent methods.

    Equally importantly, this will ensure that prisoners with learning difficulties and disabilities are identified. That will allow their needs to be met by drawing together the dispersed funding that currently supports them to produce a fund that offers support to learners in a way that more closely matches what their peers in FE colleges would receive.

    As a general rule, we will shift learning delivery towards the end of prisoners’ sentences, linking it firmly to the demand for skills in the labour markets into which prisoners will be released. At the same time, we will strengthen links with employers – again, the shared investment that employers and the Government make in training an apprentice can help here – as will employment support and the Department of Work and Pensions’ Work Programme.

    Making all that work will need a lot of effort, a more intensive focus for training on labour market needs and closer relationships with prospective employers. We will need in particular to build stronger relationships between the Probation Service, Jobcentre Plus, colleges and independent training providers to ensure that the needs of offenders in the community are considered as business plans are developed.

    I know that many British employers are every bit as far-sighted as the American Malcolm Forbes, who famously said that he cared not what an applicant to his company had done in the past, whether in Sing Sing prison or at Harvard, but what they could do in the future. The challenge is to make sure not only that released prisoners have something to offer prospective employers that shows that they could have a future with their businesses, but also, wherever possible, that a relationship with those employers has been established before release.

    To complement these links, it will be important to make sure that the advice and guidance that prisoners approaching release receive is both realistic and relevant. So we will use the planned merger of the prison careers information and advice service into the National Careers Service to join up advice arrangements in and out of custody.

    To increase the range and relevance of learning, we will also provide the skills training needed to support work opportunities in prison; And we will continue to provide an informal adult and community learning offer, including the arts, to support those who will be in prison for a long time, or for whom an immediate focus on work is unrealistic.

    The primary focus of learning provision must be on quality, with those responsible for delivering the service and for its outcomes accountable to their local partners. The role of Heads of Learning and Skills in prisons will need to change to support this.

    Clearly, prison Governors must also have a decisive role in shaping the skills offer in their establishments. In making these changes, we will encourage the engagement of charities, the private and voluntary sectors and social enterprises to make sure their capacity and expertise is utilised.

    At present, our prisons are full to overflowing. And part of the reason for that is that for far too many offenders, the prison gates are a revolving door.

    It may be that part of coming to terms with malevolence – a signpost of the journey back to virtue – is “to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments”. But there comes a point in almost any sentence when retribution must be tempered by rehabilitation.

    Crime is not an ill to be treated, but the result of decisions to be lamented. Nevertheless, lamentation is fuelled by regret and regret feeds hope; the promise of something better. Release must hold a prospect that is sufficiently bright to make reoffending unattractive. For most prisoners, that means gaining the skills and support necessary to find and hold down a decent job.

    Our strategy, some details of which I’ve described briefly this morning, is designed to accomplish that difference in outlook and expectation, leading to a determination to change life for the better … and to ensure that, for as many ex-offenders as possible, release is followed not by re-arrest, but by re-employment and reintegration into normal, law-abiding society.

    I said at the start that this speech was about recidivism, about the costs of crime in terms of money and in terms of the damage to society. The changes we will introduce are tough and far-reaching. They are honest in intent and central to the battle against reoffending.

    The plain, robust view that prisons should be workshops – and that, through the acquisition of skills, those there will become good citizens, should imbue all that we do.

    With your help and support, I believe that ambition is within our grasp.

    Thank you.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Adult Learners Week [May 2011]

    PRESS RELEASE : Adult Learners Week [May 2011]

    The press release issued by the Department for Education on 16 May 2011.

    A speech by John Hayes.

    Good afternoon everyone.

    I want to start by thanking Alan Tuckett both for his kind words of introduction and for the many other things he has done since he arrived at NIACE in 1988.

    As I’m sure you all know, Adult Learners Week 2011 will be Alan’s last as Chief Executive.

    And I think that today, as we celebrate the 20th Adult Learners Week in NIACE’s 90th anniversary year, it’s a good time for me to acknowledge publicly the scale of Alan’s contribution to adult learning.

    His example continues to inspire and challenge all of us who believe, like Henry Ford, that “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty”. And long may it continue to do so.

    I know that Alan recalls clearly, as will some of you, just how bleak the prospects for adult learning looked back in 1991, when the first Adult Learners Week was held.

    Funding changes were in the offing and it seemed unlikely that they would be for the better.

    When policy-makers spoke about it at all, the term of art for informal learning was often “flower-arranging classes”.

    And even where qualifications-bearing courses were concerned, people sought to distinguish between those which were economically useful and those which were economically useless.

    Altogether, further education lagged far behind a higher education sector gearing up for its huge post-1992 expansion.

    Contrast that picture with the position today.

    Of course, not everything is perfect, but twenty years on, our movement is in a position of genuine strength.

    For example, the changes that I have been able to announce in the last year alone give a proven, professional further education sector an unprecedented level of control over its own affairs and the incentive to engage more closely than ever before with local people, employers and community groups.

    Moreover, the social, economic and cultural importance of adult learning and the part that those who provide it play in ensuring our national wellbeing have been lauded by virtually everyone in Government, from the Prime Minister down.

    Of course, some people will sniff that Governments show what they really care about with money rather than words. But even if so, they cannot have failed to notice that in the tightest Budget of modern times, funding for informal learning has been protected by George Osborne and funding for Apprenticeships substantially increased.

    But perhaps best of all, the insidious old idea that further education can be regarded as a less good version of higher education has been consigned to the dustbin of history, where it belongs.

    As you will already be aware, it is the turn of the UK to host the prestigious international WorldSkills competition this year. I feel honoured and proud to be the Skills Minister overseeing this event for the UK and very much hope that you will join me in participating in the event in October. The WorldSkills London 2011 event will help us enormously in our shared task of raising the prestige of vocational skills and sharing expertise with 52 visiting countries.

    In the run up to WorldSkills London 2011, a year-long programme of competitions and events has been organised to encourage people across the UK and internationally to ‘have a go’ at a skill that shapes our world- there are some “have a go” opportunities here today. This has already created a remarkable level of energy with a many schools, colleges and employers engaged across the UK as we enter the five month countdown to the event. And I know that NIACE is playing its part in promoting the value of adult and community learning through a range of activities connected to WorldSkills London 2011.

    NIACE’s work and the annual showcase of Adult Learners Week have helped to teach Britain that no learning is wasted and that no form of knowledge or skill can be considered a luxury.

    They have shown that the most important question is not whether one sort of learning is intrinsically more valuable than another, but whether the learning that a person is offered takes them closer to who they want to become, whether that person is more self-aware, more dexterous, more rounded, or simply better-paid.

    Just as ambitions vary from one learner to another, so, too, do the ways in which they learn best, because learning is for everyone.

    Winston Churchill once said “I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught”.

    In that, his view was not unlike that of many of the people coming out of our schools system today, especially those who find themselves labelled as “NEETs”.

    We must give them the opportunity to find out that there is more than one way to make learning their route towards a happier, more secure future.

    For example, everyone knows that formal learning enables people to develop skills and achieve qualifications that get them employment. But, as hundreds of thousands of youngsters are finding out for themselves, that doesn’t necessarily mean sitting in a classroom. It could just as easily mean learning on the job by doing an Apprenticeship.

    And other kinds of learning are important too. The kind of learning that happens through community volunteering, personal projects, reading groups, the University of the Third Age, or informal adult learning.

    Learning like this inspires people today as it did in the heyday of bodies like the Workers’ Educational Association, when NIACE was first founded.

    It has taken those who used to talk disparagingly about flower-arranging a surprisingly long time to realise that learning for its own sake develops the personal skills and self-esteem that can help people onto first step on the ladder towards structured learning and sustainable employment.

    And learning that starts informally often leads to other things – friends, a new leisure interest, getting involved in community action, a hobby that becomes a successful small business or a volunteering experience that turns into a job opportunity. Learning opens doors – into people’s inner selves as well as to the outside world.

    While I’m on that subject, some of you will know that we are reviewing our approach to informal adult learning to ensure that we are making the most of its potential.

    This summer, we will launch a formal consultation on proposals emerging from the review process. And I’d like to ask all of you to encourage all your networks and contacts to contribute. The outcomes of the review will be published in late autumn 2011, to enable implementation to begin in August 2012.

    The things I have been talking about so far are only the backdrop to why I am here today.

    I’m absolutely delighted to have been invited to give awards to people engaged in two fields that I’m particularly passionate about: craft skills and community activism.

    Let me say a little more about each:

    I am especially excited to be awarding the Learning through Craft Award. The celebration of craft skills is of great social and cultural importance and we don’t yet do it enough in this country.

    The more we recognise the skills of master-craftsmen and -women, the more people will admire their achievements, look up to them and in due course emulate them.

    That’s why my Department is working with a wide range of bodies, including NIACE, to develop an exciting action plan that will help to reinvigorate demand for craft skills and raise their prestige.

    Lydia Wall, the recipient of the Learning through Craft Award, is certainly someone to admire. She has shown enormous tenacity to overcome barriers, including homelessness that would have daunted most of us to start her own millinery business.

    Another group of people that I personally admire greatly are the Community Learning Champions. They promote and support learning wherever they go – among friends, relatives, neighbours or the people they meet at the school gates and in local shops.

    To be absolutely frank, I didn’t know much about them until I went to their conference a few months ago. They are a grassroots movement whose effect for the better on people’s lives is out of all proportion to their visibility, and their achievements certainly deserve to be much more widely known.

    At their conference, I heard inspirational stories from learning champions and saw for myself just how they’re turning round their own lives and the lives of people around them.

    Now you can hear their stories too.

    In a moment we’ll look at a short film about this year’s Community Learning Champions award-winners. They have had a major impact by reaching out to disadvantaged communities in Norwich, using their own experience to inspire and support others.

    For many of these champions, the remarkable achievement is that they have gone on to actually take part in informal learning, often for the first time since leaving school.

    Theirs, and all the awards presented today, show what can be achieved with determination and the right kind of help and support at the right time. They reflect the fact that learning, in all its guises, enables people to achieve their dreams, change their own lives and support others to make the most of themselves.

    So I hope you’ll join me now in applauding all our award-winners.

    Thank you.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Michael Gove welcomes independent schools’ contribution to academies [May 2011]

    PRESS RELEASE : Michael Gove welcomes independent schools’ contribution to academies [May 2011]

    The press release issued by the Department for Education on 13 May 2011.

    Michael Gove today welcomed the contribution that independent schools can play in supporting or sponsoring academies. Speaking at the Wellington Academy, he also said that academies offer high quality training and professional development for their teachers.

    658 schools are now academies. A third of all secondary schools are either already an academy, or on the way to becoming one. More than 40,000 teachers now work in academies.

    Speaking about the role of independent schools he said:

    Independence has made Britain’s private schools the best in the world. Greater independence will ensure more of Britain’s state schools become world class as well. That’s why it makes sense for private and public to work together.

    Commenting on the benefits to teachers he will say:

    There are still those who continue to criticise our policy of letting schools choose to become academies. They claim that academy status is a threat to staff pay and conditions. This is nonsense.

    Academies, more than others, know how important it is to attract and keep good teachers. That is why they place a high premium on providing excellent development opportunities for staff.

    It is time that the opponents of academies recognised that the landscape has changed. Every month more and more great professionals are teaching in academies, and despite scare stories, those teachers are getting a great deal.

    Some of the benefits to teachers include:

    • Average pay for full-time classroom teachers in academies is higher than that for maintained schools. £35,700 compared to £34,700. Teachers in academies also tend to be younger.
    • Teachers in academies have more freedom over how they teach – as academies have freedom over the curriculum.
    • Academies place a high premium on good training and development for their staff. Including:
      • training days at Oxbridge and other top universities
      • giving them access to MAs both in the UK and at Harvard
      • opportunities to work with successful businesses
      • learning from classroom observation, often in specially fitted classrooms designed to help observation
      • bonus awards, private medical cover, interest free loans for season tickets and bicycle purchase
      • working with teachers in other schools to share skills

    He will say that unions in particular should welcome these opportunities. For years they have demanded better opportunities for staff development, and better pay. Academies are providing just that.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Lord Hill responds to ‘The Independent’ on free schools [May 2011]

    PRESS RELEASE : Lord Hill responds to ‘The Independent’ on free schools [May 2011]

    The press release issued by the Department for Education on 13 May 2011.

    Sir,

    It is true that we are only selecting the very best applications from groups who want to run new, taxpayer-funded free schools (‘Most applicants to run free schools are turned down’, 11 May 2011).

    The fact that we have had such a strong response to free schools and academies shows a clear demand for more good local schools, where heads have control – not bureaucrats or ministers. Figures released this week show that more than 1,000 schools have applied to become academies, and nearly a fifth of all secondary schools now enjoy academy freedoms.

    Children from the poorest backgrounds have been let down the most by inequalities in our schools system. So I am delighted that excellent new free schools will be set up in disadvantaged areas like inner-city Bradford and Edmonton, London.

    Our reforms are about creating a generation of brilliant schools, free from meddling and prescription, that provide more children with the type of education previously reserved for the rich.

    Lord Hill of Oareford

    Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools

  • Michael Gove – 2011 Article in Times Education Supplement

    Michael Gove – 2011 Article in Times Education Supplement

    The article written by Michael Gove, the then Education Secretary, for the Times Education Supplement. The article was published as a press release by the Department for Education on 13 May 2011.

    The coalition trusts teachers. You’re the experts on the frontline. But for too long you’ve been stifled by bureaucracy and not had the tools you need to deliver. Over the past year we’ve tried to reverse that.

    We have stopped the weekly bombardment of schools with unnecessary directives and guidance from central government. We’ve scrapped the pointless form-filling that was the self-evaluation form and the financial management standard in schools. We’ve set up a curriculum review that will reduce prescription and ensure you have the freedom to teach the subjects you are passionate about in the way you think best. We’re restoring adult authority to the classroom by giving you the powers you need to keep discipline. And we’re ensuring that the law is on your side against malicious pupils.

    We’ve given all schools the opportunity to break free from local and central bureaucracy with more money for the poorest pupils. Schools want the freedom to decide what is best for pupils. They want to be free to innovate in the classroom, inspiring pupils to learn. There are now hundreds more academies and many more will follow. This is a decisive shift in the education landscape. A shift of power from bureaucrats to professionals. It is a shift for the better.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Ukraine appreciates Croatia’s support for our country’s movement towards membership in the European Union – Ihor Zhovkva [September 2022]

    PRESS RELEASE : Ukraine appreciates Croatia’s support for our country’s movement towards membership in the European Union – Ihor Zhovkva [September 2022]

    The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 14 September 2022.

    Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva held a video conversation with the newly appointed Diplomatic Adviser to the Prime Minister of Croatia Dino Mihanović.

    Ihor Zhovkva expressed gratitude to the Croatian government for its firm political support to Ukraine, significant assistance to our country, in particular humanitarian aid provided to overcome the consequences of Russian military aggression.

    “Ukraine highly appreciates the aid from our Croatian partners and the personal efforts of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on comprehensive support for our country,” he emphasized.

    The Deputy Head of the Office of the President informed the interlocutor about the current security situation in Ukraine, in particular, taking into account the results of the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces, as well as in the context of the threats to the region and the whole of Europe still remaining due to the presence of Russian occupiers in the territory of the temporarily seized Zaporizhzhia NPP.

    During the conversation, the main attention was paid to the interaction between Ukraine and Croatia in the context of the implementation of our country’s strategic course for membership in the European Union. Ihor Zhovkva and Dino Mihanović coordinated positions on further cooperation in the process of Ukraine’s implementation of the recommendations of the European Commission.

    “We are determined to ensure the proper dynamics of the implementation of the recommendations of the European Commission and count on the expert assistance of our Croatian partners who have modern experience in conducting the negotiation process on joining the EU,” Ihor Zhovkva said.

    Separately, the parties discussed preparations for the first parliamentary summit of the Crimea Platform, which will be hosted by Croatia in October of this year. This event is designed to activate the parliamentary dimension of the work that Ukraine is doing together with international partners in the context of efforts to de-occupy Crimea.

  • PRESS RELEASE : President held a meeting on the energy security of the Kharkiv region [September 2022]

    PRESS RELEASE : President held a meeting on the energy security of the Kharkiv region [September 2022]

    The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 15 September 2022.

    During a working trip to the Kharkiv region, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting on energy security issues in the region.

    Head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration Oleg Syniehubov informed the President that 16 communities were fully de-occupied in the region, and 7 communities were partially de-occupied. About 6% of the region’s territory remains under occupation, while 32% of the Kharkiv region was occupied before the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian military.

    According to Oleg Syniehubov, works are being carried out in the region to restore damaged infrastructure facilities, in particular in liberated settlements. Electricity supply lines, mobile communications and the work of medical institutions are being restored in the de-occupied territories.

    The President emphasized the importance of restoring electricity supply as soon as possible in the territories liberated from the enemy.

    “The de-occupation is ongoing, so we need to prepare a clear plan of action so that it is applicable in other areas that will be liberated,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

    Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko, who participated in the meeting via video conference, noted that the work of repair crews largely depends on the pace of demining the territories.

    In view of this, the President called to ensure the work of a greater number of crews of energy workers and employees of the State Emergency Service in order to speed up the recovery process.

    During the meeting, attention was also focused on the issue of the operation of CHPP and TPP in the Kharkiv region. Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that today, in the conditions of war, it is necessary to develop a plan of measures to ensure reserve capacities of the energy supply system.

    In addition, the Head of State got himself acquainted with the progress of restoration of a residential building in Kharkiv, which was damaged as a result of Russian shelling. The roof, walls and balconies are being repaired there, windows are being installed.

    Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky of the III degree to Head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration Oleg Syniehubov and the Order “For Courage” of the II degree to Mayor of Kharkiv Ihor Terekhov.

    Oleg Syniehubov and Ihor Terekhov were awarded in accordance with the President’s decree of March 6 for a significant personal contribution to the protection of state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, courage and selfless actions shown during the organization of the defense of settlements from Russian invaders.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Ceremonial and events guidance following the death of Her Majesty The Queen For Thursday 15 September 2022

    PRESS RELEASE : Ceremonial and events guidance following the death of Her Majesty The Queen For Thursday 15 September 2022

    The press release issued by the Cabinet Office on 14 September 2022.

    London

    Her Majesty’s Lying-in-State at the Palace of Westminster is now formally open. You can view guidance on the event here. Details of accessibility arrangements are available here.

    International

    15:00

    The UN General Assembly will convene a special session in New York paying tribute to The Queen. You can view the proceedings here.

    Other Events

    The following public events are taking place in towns and cities across the UK during the period of National Mourning. For more information about local events in your area please check you local authority’s website.

    Bedford

    Bedford Borough Council will be holding a public screening of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral on Monday 19 September at Bedford Corn Exchange. Residents must book their place to watch the proceedings in advance. For further information visit the council’s website.

    Birmingham

    The state funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be shown on a big screen in Centenary Square on Monday 19 September. For further information visit the council’s website.

    Bradford

    There will be a Civic Service at Bradford Cathedral on Sunday 18 September. The Cathedral will also be screening the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Monday 19 September. Further details are available on Bradford Cathedral’s website.

    Chester

    Church services will take place on various dates across Chester, including at Chester Cathedral, Neston Parish, St Thomas Ellesmere Port and St Chad’s Winsford. For further information visit the council’s website.

    Coventry

    The state funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be screened live in Coventry city centre on Monday 19 September. A large screen is to be set up in University Square – between the Cathedral steps and Coventry University – to help people watch the 11am service and pay their respects. For further information visit the council’s website.

    Exeter

    The funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Monday 19 September is being screened at Northernhay Gardens and Sandy Park at the Exeter City Football Club. Further details are available at Exeter City Council’s website.

    Leeds

    Live coverage of the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be shown on Leeds Big Screen in Millennium Square on Monday 19 September between 10am – 6pm (times subject to confirmation of TV broadcast schedules). Further details are available on the Leeds City Council website.

    Newcastle on Tyne

    Live coverage of the state funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be shown on a screen in Old Eldon Square, Newcastle on Monday 19 September. Further information on the screening can be found on the council’s website. A Service of Commemoration and Thanksgiving for the life of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will take place at 4pm the same day. Further information on the service can be found on Newcastle Cathedral’s website.

    North Tyneside

    North Tyneside Council will hold a service a service of remembrance to commemorate the distinguished service of Her Majesty The Queen at 6pm on Sunday 18 September at the Christ Church in North Shields. For further information visit the council’s website.

    Stoke-on-Trent

    The City of Stoke-on-Trent Council will be holding a service of commemoration (with procession) for Her Majesty The Queen at 6.30pm on Sunday 18 September at Stoke Minster. For further information visit the council’s website.

    West Northamptonshire

    West Northamptonshire Council will be holding a remembrance service for Her Majesty The Queen at 11am on Sunday 18 September at All Saints Church, Northampton. For further information visit the council’s website.

    A service of commemoration for Her Majesty The Queen at 3.30pm on Sunday 18 September at St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Market Place, Kettering. For further information visit the council’s website.

    York

    The City of York Council will hold a service a service of commemoration for Her Majesty The Queen (with a respectful procession of City of York Council members and the civic party, between York Mansion House and York Minster) at 4pm on Sunday 18 September at York Minster. For further information visit the council’s website.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Government publishes response to the Wolf Review of Vocational Education [May 2011]

    PRESS RELEASE : Government publishes response to the Wolf Review of Vocational Education [May 2011]

    The press release issued by the Department for Education on 12 May 2011.

    The government today announced plans to ensure that more young people leave school or college with a good grasp of English and maths.

    It means that those who have failed to get a C or better in GCSE English or maths will study the subjects until they get good qualifications.

    The move will address concerns that standards of literacy and numeracy among young people are not good enough.

    This year’s annual skills survey from the CBI found that more than two-fifths of firms are not satisfied with the basic literacy of school and college leavers. More than a third are unhappy with levels of numeracy. In 2010 only 55% of young people managed a C or better in GCSE English and maths.

    The recommendation was among those proposed by Professor Alison Wolf when she published her review of vocational education in March.

    All her recommendations were today accepted by Education Secretary Michael Gove as the government published its response to the review. Professor Wolf has agreed to take a formal role within the government to help implement them.

    In her report Professor Wolf proposed a package of radical reforms designed to overhaul the current flawed system. She said that:

    • thousands of 14- to 16-year-olds are on vocational courses which the league table system encourages but which do not help children progress
    • more than 300,000 16- to 19-year-olds are on courses which do not lead to higher education or good jobs
    • high-quality apprenticeships are rare and an increasing proportion are not offered to those aged 16 to 18
    • the current funding system should be revamped because it offers perverse incentives that work against young people’s best interests
    • too many young people leave school or college without good English and maths

    Education Secretary Michael Gove said today that the Government will:

    • ensure all young people study maths and English to age 18 until they get a good qualification in those subjects. Ideally this will be a C or better at GCSE but high-quality alternatives will be identified following a consultation this summer
    • reform league tables and funding rules to remove the perverse incentives that have devalued vocational education. This will mean more young people take the high-quality qualifications that lead to university and good jobs
    • consult with employers, schools, colleges, universities and Ofqual this summer to define the criteria that the best vocational qualifications must meet
    • introduce a new measure to assess the performance of both higher- and lower-attaining pupils. This will ensure schools and college do not focus only on students on the C/D grade borderline
    • consider paying businesses which take young people on to high-quality apprenticeships. Apprenticeships will also be simplified and made easier to offer
    • support 14- to 16-year-olds enrolling in colleges so they can benefit from the excellent vocational training available there
    • offer training to maths teachers so they continue improving and learning once qualified. This will be in place by this autumn.

    When Prof Wolf published her review, the government immediately accepted 4 recommendations:

    • to allow qualified further education lecturers to teach in school classrooms on the same basis as qualified school teachers. This requires a change in the law
    • to clarify the rules on allowing industry professionals to teach in schools. This will be ready for the coming academic year
    • to allow any vocational qualification offered by a regulated awarding body to be taken by 14- to 19-year-olds
    • to allow established high-quality vocational qualifications that have not been accredited to be offered in schools and colleges in September 2011.

    Michael Gove said:

    The weaknesses in our current system were laid bare by Professor Wolf’s incisive and far-reaching review. The changes we will implement as a result of her report will take time but will transform the lives of young people. I am pleased Professor Wolf has agreed to work with us to implement them.

    For too long the vocational education system has been devalued by attempts to pretend that all qualifications are intrinsically the same. Young people have taken courses that have led nowhere.

    Good qualifications in English and maths are what employers demand before all others. Young people must be able to demonstrate their understanding of these subjects.

    We will reform league tables, the funding system and regulation so children are given honest information and take the right courses. We will make sure that employers are more involved in the system. We will encourage them to offer more high-quality apprenticeships.

    Our reforms will ensure that vocational education is again given the high status it deserves.

    Professor Alison Wolf said:

    For 20 years we have toyed around with vocational education but succeeded only in creating a bureaucratic and expensive system that limits the life chances of too many young people.

    There are many excellent vocational qualifications, teachers and institutions – they are the examples that should be the norm. They prove that vocational education is a great choice for many young people.

    I am delighted that the government has agreed to implement the changes I have proposed. They must be made if vocational education is to be a great choice for all young people, as it is in so many other countries, and I look forward to working with the government in taking them forward.

    Skills Minister John Hayes said:

    Vocational education matters because it enriches lives, inspires ambition and builds economic prosperity. But, as Alison Wolf has detailed, many qualifications offered to young people fail to provide progression to higher learning or employment.

    Today we have outlined how we will take forward key recommendations in her report; spreading opportunity by encouraging and supporting all that is excellent in vocational education, including apprenticeships, helping us produce a new generation of craftsmen and women capable of building Britain’s future.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Accessibility arrangements for Her Majesty The Queen’s Lying-in-State [September 2022]

    PRESS RELEASE : Accessibility arrangements for Her Majesty The Queen’s Lying-in-State [September 2022]

    The press release issued by the Department for Work and Pensions on 14 September 2022.

    • Accessible queueing scheme for disabled, D/deaf and neurodiverse people and people with long-term health conditions and mobility issues
    • Step-free access and British Sign Language interpreters to help ensure people who need accessibility arrangements can pay their respects

    Accessibility arrangements include:

    • Step-free access along the whole route;
    • Arrangements and facilities signposted along the length of the route;
    • Guidance and information available in alternate formats including HTML compatible with screenreaders and with the ability to increase text size;
    • A separate accessible route for people unable to stand for long periods, or who have specific accessibility requirements (either visible or non-visible disabilities) – more detail below;
    • Assistance dogs permitted throughout the route, including in Westminster Hall;
    • British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters available at the accessible queue kiosk;
    • TfL have worked with organisers to integrate accessible and step-free stations into route planning;
    • Portable toilets and accessible portable toilets available throughout the route;
    • All marshals and volunteers have received disability awareness training to signpost to nearest facilities, including nearby changing places toilets in Victoria Station and Guy’s Hospital;
    • Queue marshals monitoring the queue to identify guests with accessibility needs or those otherwise experiencing difficulty, to provide additional support.

    Separate accessible route

    An accessible queue will be open to people who have specific accessibility requirements or who are unable to stand for long periods of time. The scheme will enable people with specific needs to be admitted in the next available entry slot for the Lying-in-State. When it is time for your visit, you can join the accessible queue.

    Disabled people who need to join the separate, accessible queue, should travel to a kiosk located outside Tate Britain, where accessible facilities – including accessible toilets, a water point, and BSL interpreters – will be available.

    Capacity for each time slot will be capped. People can use the space in the Tate Britain which has seating, toilets and ‘quiet space’ areas while waiting for the next slot to open. We cannot guarantee everyone seeking a place in the accessible queue will be given access to the Lying-in-State because of overall capacity limits.

    The route from the kiosk to Westminster Hall is approximately 800 metres and is step-free for people with mobility needs. Accessible toilets will also be provided on the route from the Tate Britain to Westminster Hall in Victoria Park South. Changing places toilets are available within Westminster Palace. Trained marshals and volunteers will be on hand to provide support to people travelling to the Lying-in-State.

    Further information

    • Time slots cannot be booked in advance.