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  • John Hayes – 2010 Speech to the Association of Learning Providers Summer Conference

    John Hayes – 2010 Speech to the Association of Learning Providers Summer Conference

    The speech made by John Hayes, the then Education Minister, on 14 July 2010.

    Good morning everyone.

    It often strikes me how well the people who work in all parts of adult education satisfy Aristotle’s criteria for true friends – “The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds”.

    That’s true of private as well as public providers, and true of all those who offer training in the workplace as well as in the classroom. It’s certainly true of ALP’s membership.

    I know that your members also include some further education colleges and voluntary organisations, but I think of ALP as the voice of learning in the workplace.

    I’ve enjoyed a very positive relationship with you in Opposition, and you serve as a constant reminder to us all that a person’s learning should not – and in fact, must not – stop with their first paypacket.

    Indeed, a commitment to the principle of lifelong learning is the natural consequence if you believe, as I do, that everyone deserves a fair chance to get on in life and that learning can help give it to them.

    It’s hard to ignore if you hear, as I have heard since long before I became a Minister, learners and trainers, employers and trade unionists alike, all telling you that skills delivered in the workplace are essential for economic growth and personal progression.

    And it’s inescapable if you see, as this Government saw on the day it came to office, people out of work and increasingly out of hope because they had low skills or just the wrong skills, businesses struggling because of an inadequate supply of skilled labour, and jobs going abroad as a result.

    We need to enliven the British people to get on and progress in their jobs. I see the business of Government very much as a consultative process, and you are our eyes and ears out in the workplace. You are the experts who know how it should be done and how it can be done.

    A lifelong learning system

    Today, I want to talk to you about some of the ways in which the coalition government will try to build a truly lifelong learning system which may be of particular interest to ALP and its members. And I want to set these in the context of the financial challenges that we currently face.

    The easiest way for politicians to show that they care about a particular area of policy is to throw money at it – some think the larger the payout, the deeper the commitment. And, in recent years, some aspects of publicly-funded adult learning have certainly seen their coffers swell as a result of that approach.

    If this Government means to show, as we do, that we in our turn have a genuine commitment to further education, then just splashing out is no longer an option. Like the Archbishop of Canterbury in Henry V, we have to realise that “miracles are ceased/ And therefore we must needs admit the means/ How things are perfected”.

    To judge by the number of invitations I receive, there is a fashion at the moment for conferences and seminars with titles like “How to do more with less” in the context of ensuring cost-effectiveness. And we all know it’s true that, while public spending is under pressure more severe than it has known for a generation, the demands on public services continue to grow rather than shrink.

    I can’t pretend that we are not going to have to take some hard decisions about where our priorities lie, stopping some activities so that others may not just continue, but grow, and may indeed carry on growing.

    As we seek to develop a new strategy for skills, as we will be doing over the next few months, we’ll be trying to do something similar, sorting the show from the substance and seeking to distinguish activities that look good but achieve little from those that have real impact on the lives of real people.

    Over a period of years in Opposition and in government, I’ve stressed the importance of the social and cultural, as well as economic impact that continuing to educate adults brings to individuals and whole communities. And my determination to see learning for its own sake flourish as never before in this country remains undiminished.

    But especially when we speak of training in the workplace, economic considerations are clearly hard to ignore.

    For example, as the Government works to promote renewed growth, it’s obviously more important than ever that the full influence of further education is felt on the transformation of local economies. You must all know from your own experiences that this influence is potentially incredibly great.

    That is why the Government recently invited proposals for local enterprise partnerships that will work in close cooperation with colleges and training organisations.

    You have extensive knowledge of employer skills demand, and are therefore well placed to help the partnerships to develop their economic priorities. The measures that my colleagues and I are already putting in place to cut the bureaucratic burdens on training providers and free them to use their own initiative will help in that, and we will add to those measures freedom to innovate by cutting bureaucratic burdens on training providers.

    And since, as Macaulay said, “the object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion”, there are a number of things that I would like to try to persuade you to do in that context.

    For example, I would like you to develop effective networks that will enable you to offer your local enterprise partnership a coordinated view of the economic priorities for the area, and to agree how you can help them to respond to those priorities.

    The foundation-stone of your economic contribution is the teaching of practical skills. Not just random skills, but the skills needed to get local jobs with good prospects. And not just teaching skills, but teaching them well, so that every working day gives people the right to take pride in their own achievements.

    Apprenticeships

    And this Government believes that the best way to teach the practical skills that employers need to the required quality is through Apprenticeships. We need to look at the length, content and quality of Apprenticeships as we seek to inspire learners.

    ALP members provide more Apprenticeship training than anyone else and it follows that you are central to the success or failure of our efforts.

    Of course, it’s easy for those of us with a more sentimental cast of mind to be seduced by, as it were, the imprint of the potter’s thumb. We forget at our peril that while, at least at some level, all art is craft, not all craft is art. Indeed, what right have they who spend their lives sitting in offices to idealise physical labour and manual dexterity.

    Apprenticeships are often thought of as old, but they are also about new and future ideas. And I still firmly believe that there is no less nobility in mastering a skill than there is, say, in learning to understand why space is curved.

    Skills and those who master them deserve to be celebrated no less than the French subjunctive and those who learn to use it properly.

    The coalition Government has already shown in its actions that it views Apprenticeships as the central pillar of its approach to vocational skills. You’ll know that we are redirecting £150 million of funding this year to create 50,000 new high-quality Apprenticeship places. And we see ALP members as vital to the delivery of these extra places.

    In particular, we want to expand Apprenticeships at Level 3 and there are good reasons to do so. Evidence shows that people who gain an Apprenticeship at Level 3 are likely to receive, on average, nearly a fifth higher again than those qualified up to Level 2.

    The key challenge continues to be to get employers on board in offering Apprenticeship places.

    I know that you see some obstacles in the way of that, and that one of the most important is the impending removal of Key Skills from Apprenticeships and their replacement with Functional Skills. I have always been clear that this is a consultative process and we must take your views seriously.

    I have listened to your views on this and I find some of them very persuasive. It is important that we get this right, and I want to take the time over the summer to consider the issues you’ve raised. So I am pleased to be able to announce this morning that, as a result, the use of Key Skills in Apprenticeship Frameworks will be extended until March next year. This will allow providers the choice of offering either Functional Skills or Key Skills in the interim.

    I should stress that this is a temporary measure to allow more flexibility for providers and more time for us to work together to get the implementation right. I know that many providers will be finalising their preparations for delivery of Functional Skills from April 2011. They should still identify and access the support they need to develop their capacity to deliver Functional Skills, with which the Learning and Skills Improvement Service can help.

    The message is clear: it must be a priority for us to work together to build capacity and to decide what is best for the future.

    I would also strongly encourage those of you who are ready to deliver Functional Skills from September 2010 to go ahead and do so, as this will give apprentices the opportunity to develop these highly-valued skills.

    Of course, the need for reform goes much wider than Apprenticeships. There is much important work to do on other types of workplace training. For example, while Train to Gain needs to be dismantled, workplace learning must continue to be nurtured – for example, to ensure that businesses have the skilled workforces they need to grow and employees have the opportunity to progress.

    We must also help to integrate further education more closely into its local environment – social as well as economic. We can make it more efficient and less bureaucratic. We can offer adults more, better and more relevant learning opportunities.

    We can do much more. And we will.

    Empowering people

    Skills are a priority for my department and for my Government. But ultimately whether to learn and what learning to choose will remain a matter of individual choice. And all of these things I’ve been talking about this morning will fail to deliver fully on their promise unless we make sure people have the information they need to make the right choices for them.

    Because by informing people, we simultaneously empower them. And that’s something from which everyone – providers and employers as well as learners – benefits.

    That’s the thinking behind the Next Step service, which will be launched in August. It will aim to give everyone access to the best information, advice and resources to make more effective choices about skills, careers, work and life.

    Individual providers also have an important role to play in empowering learners. They can do their bit as well to ensure that learners and employers to still get good quality, comparable information about exactly what’s on offer.

    We don’t need huge bureaucracies to make this happen. Indeed, most providers already gather this type of information for their own purposes, and many publish it already. We must build on that.

    I’m particularly happy that Graham Hoyle, through his position as Chair of the National Improvement Partnership Board, is taking forward the UKCES proposal to introduce a course and provider labelling system.

    Having a labelling system will ensure that every provider publishes reliable information about their institution and the opportunities they provide.

    Comparatively few providers have anything to fear from this approach, since more than four out of five already deliver satisfactory or better results.

    For the Government’s part, we will maintain and continue to build a light-touch approach. But I have asked the Skills Funding Agency to ensure they take swift action where they identify any unsatisfactory provision.

    Either prompt improvement will follow, or public funding will be removed and reinvested in providers who can deliver to the standards learners and employers expect and deserve.

    Nevertheless, and even though today is Bastille Day, I don’t want to end my remarks, as it were, in the shadow of the guillotine.

    So instead, as we mark the anniversary of one revolution, I’ll end by reminding you all that we stand on the threshold of another.

    The areas on which I’ve concentrated this morning will clearly figure prominently in the new skills strategy to which I’ve already referred, but so will others that will be of particular interest to ALP members.

    For example, we need to think about the right form of public support for non-Apprenticeship workplace training after Train to Gain. I would welcome more thoughts on this subject, and on how to encourage progression and interchange between the different styles of formal and informal learning.

    It will make it much easier to get the right answers to some difficult questions if bodies like ALP are prepared to share their opinions, experience and expertise. And that is something for which I’ll be asking sooner rather than later.

    And now if you have any questions I’ll do my best to answer them.

    Thank you.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Gibb – ‘It’s time to free up teachers so they can maintain good behaviour’

    PRESS RELEASE : Gibb – ‘It’s time to free up teachers so they can maintain good behaviour’

    The press release issued by the Department for Education on 7 July 2010.

    Ministers today put headteachers and teachers back in control of the classroom by stripping away bureaucracy that far too often prevents them from maintaining good behaviour.

    The government will cut red tape and simplify guidance and legislation so that teachers can ensure better behaviour.

    Nick Gibb MP, Minister for Schools, announced today that the government would:

    • end the rule requiring schools to give 24 hours written notice for detentions
    • allow heads and school staff to search pupils for mobile phones, pornography and cigarettes
    • strengthen guidance and legislation if necessary surrounding use of force in the classroom
    • give anonymity to teachers accused by pupils and take other measures to protect against false accusations

    Nick Gibb said today:

    All pupils should show respect and courtesy towards teachers, towards other staff and towards each other. Headteachers help to create that culture of respect by supporting their staff’s authority to discipline pupils. The role of the government is to give schools the freedom and support they need to provide a safe and structured environment in which teachers can teach and children can learn.

    We know that the majority of pupils are well behaved and want others to behave well too. Heads and teachers know best how to improve behaviour but are too often constrained by regulations which inhibit them from maintaining control of the classroom. Today we are removing red tape so that teachers can ensure discipline in the classroom and promote good behaviour.

    Teachers should feel confident in exercising their authority, and pupils should not have to suffer disruption to their learning caused by the poor behaviour of others.

    The government is removing the ban on same-day detentions, giving heads and teachers a stronger deterrent against poor behaviour. Currently, the law gives teachers the power to put pupils in detention, but only if the school gives their parents 24 hours’ notice in writing. In future each school will be able to decide what notice to give and how to inform parents.

    Currently headteachers and authorised school staff only have the statutory power to search without consent anyone who is suspected of carrying a knife or other weapon. Alcohol, controlled drugs, and stolen property will be added from 1 September 2010. Under the changes announced today we plan to extend the list this autumn to include:

    • personal electronic devices such as mobile phones, MP3 players and cameras
    • legal highs
    • pornography
    • cigarettes
    • fireworks

    We will introduce further legislation to allow teachers to search for any item which could cause disorder or pose a threat to safety.

    The government will also issue simplified guidance about the use of force for safety or restraint. Schools should not have ‘no touch’ policies and teachers should feel able to use force when they need to.

    Reporting restrictions will be placed on allegations made about teachers. Ministers wish to put an end to rumours and malicious gossip about innocent teachers which can ruin careers.

    Improving behaviour in schools is a major priority for the government. Further measures, including on tackling bullying, exclusions, and reforming alternative provision will be announced soon. The government will consult teachers and schools representatives on the best way to implement these changes, to ensure that legislation gives teachers the powers they need.

    Nick Gibb added:

    Same-day detentions will give immediacy to pupil discipline and will strengthen the impact detention can have. It is also profoundly wrong that teachers feel they cannot search pupils for items that put pupils and their peers at risk such as drugs, alcohol or fireworks – so we will expand search powers for teachers to put an end to this nonsense.

    It cannot be right that teachers are afraid to use force to constrain out-of-control and disruptive pupils for fear of retribution and malicious allegations. We will strengthen the guidance and legislate if necessary to make it plain when and how teachers might need to use force to control pupils. We want to put an end to rumours and malicious gossip about innocent teachers which can ruin careers and even lives.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Review of early years foundation stage

    PRESS RELEASE : Review of early years foundation stage

    The press release issued by the Department for Education on 6 July 2010.

    Children’s Minister Sarah Teather today asked Dame Clare Tickell, Chief Executive of Action for Children, to carry out a review of the early years foundation stage (EYFS) so that it is less bureaucratic and more focused on young children’s learning and development.

    Ministers are concerned that the EYFS framework is currently too rigid and puts too many burdens on the early years workforce, which has led to some of the workforce saying they are spending less time with children, and more time ticking boxes.

    The government has asked Dame Clare, a children and families expert, to make sure the standards that support young children’s learning are based on the best and latest research on children’s development. They want to shift the focus to getting children ready for education and to increasing the attainment of children from deprived backgrounds.

    The review will cover four main areas:

    • scope of regulation – whether there should be 1 single framework for all early years providers
    • learning and development – looking at the latest evidence about children’s development and what is needed to give them the best start at school
    • assessment – whether young children’s development should be formally assessed at a certain age, and what this should cover
    • welfare – the minimum standards to keep children safe and support their healthy development

    Children’s Minister Sarah Teather said:

    I am always impressed by the dedication of professionals who are working hard to give young children the best start in life. They play a vital role in helping children from all backgrounds to have a good start in school and reach their full potential. Professionals deserve to have the freedom to do their jobs and not have to deal with unnecessary bureaucracy.

    It is not right or fair that children from deprived backgrounds that do really well in their early years are overtaken by lower achieving children from advantaged backgrounds by age five. We need good quality early learning for all children and a framework that raises standards, as well as keeping children safe.

    Through this review we want to hear about what is and isn’t working well in the EYFS. We also need to create a fairer and more flexible childcare market that is responsive to parents and the rising numbers of children in childcare settings.

    I am delighted that Clare has agreed to lead this important review. Her knowledge of the needs of children and families, especially those from more disadvantaged areas, as well as the importance of early intervention, means she is well placed to assess the best way to support young children, and free up the system so that it works for both childcare workers and parents.

    Dame Clare Tickell, Chief executive of Action for Children, said:

    There has been a lot of debate in recent years about what young children should be learning before they reach school, and the pressure and burdens this puts on the early years sector.

    It is important that professionals in the early years sector have the time to tackle the important issues – helping children from poorer backgrounds, and those with special needs, as well as giving all children a fun and stimulating learning experience.

    I look forward to conducting this review and to listening to professionals, parents, carers and early years experts. I hope to find a way forward that supports the different approaches to learning and development, so that we have some of the best early years standards in the world.

    The coalition government is committed to investing in the early years, and recently announced the extension of free childcare for all 3- and 4-year-olds to 15 hours a week. The review of the EYFS will ensure that good quality early learning benefits all children, as the government believes this can make a real difference to success in later life. It also has a more significant impact for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

    Dame Clare will provide a final report in spring 2011. The government will then consult on any proposed changes before they take effect from September 2012.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Next steps on special educational needs and disabilities

    PRESS RELEASE : Next steps on special educational needs and disabilities

    The press release issued by the Department for Education on 6 July 2010.

    Speaking at an Every Disabled Child Matters event yesterday, Children’s Minister Sarah Teather, said:

    We want to make sure that the most vulnerable children get the best quality of support and care. Children with special educational needs and disabilities should have the same opportunities as their peers. The system needs to be more family friendly so that parents don’t feel they have to battle to get the support their child needs.

    That is why I will launch a green paper in the autumn to look at a wide range of issues for children with SEN and disabilities. Before then I will be looking at the results of the Ofsted review of SEN we are expecting later this summer, in addition to the many reviews of SEN policy in recent years. I’ll also be listening to the views of parents, teachers and organisations with an interest in this area.

    The system needs to be far more transparent. We need to give parents more choice and involve them in the decision-making process. The green paper will also look at how to manage the transition beyond school so that young people over 16 can get the support they need.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Overhaul to England’s school building programme

    PRESS RELEASE : Overhaul to England’s school building programme

    The press release issued by the Department for Education on 5 July 2010.

    Education Secretary Michael Gove today set out a complete overhaul of capital investment in England’s schools.

    Mr Gove said he was making tough, immediate decisions to help get the best value for money.

    Bringing an end to Building Schools for the Future programme (BSF), he said in the light of the public finances, it would have been irresponsible to carry on regardless with an inflexible, and needlessly complex programme.

    And he said it was right to set out a clear way forward for prudent future capital investment in education up to 2015, to flexibly target schools in the worst condition, cut red tape, and tackle urgent demand from rising birth-rates.

    The Chancellor made clear in last month’s budget that existing overall public capital investment plans, put in place by the previous government, would remain with no further cuts.

    The key elements of today’s announcement are that:

    • the government is launching a comprehensive review of all capital investment in schools, early years, colleges and sixth forms. Led by Sebastian James (Group Operations Director of DSG international plc), the review team includes Kevin Grace (Tesco Director of Property Services), Barry Quirk (Chief Executive of Lewisham), John Hood (former Vice-Chancellor of University of Oxford) and Sir John Egan (former Chief Executive of Jaguar and BAA)
    • the review will guide future spending decisions over the next spending review period (from the financial year 2011 to 2012 to the financial year 2014 to 2015). It will look at how best to meet parental demand, make current design and procurement cost-effective and efficient, and overhaul how capital is allocated and targeted.
    • the Department for Education is reducing its end-year flexibility (EYF) requirements by £1 billion to help ensure no additional borrowing this year. This is in line with the government’s plan to reduce the deficit, and the Treasury’s announcement today that departments have agreed to address unrealistic inherited spending commitments for the financial year 2010 to 2011, where funding was reliant on underspends through the EYF system or additional funding from the government’s reserve. The department expects to be able to manage most of this through better financial management and tighter controls. Because of the size of the reduction, however, the department will have to make £156.5 million savings from capital budgets where commitments are no longer affordable.

    The Secretary of State is also announcing today that he will be ending the £972,000 annual funding for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) design advice service associated with the BSF programme.

    Sebastian James, Group Operations Director of DSG International plc and chair of the review, said:

    I am delighted to be involved in this vital project and feel very passionately that we can build a schools infrastructure in Britain that is truly world class, while significantly reducing our spending. In my view, success in this review means that we will have found a way to have great schools for our children against a more measured investment backdrop.

    This has also been welcomed by educational organisations with experience of working through the current BSF process.

    Sir Bruce Liddington, Director General of E-Act said:

    The current BSF programme is very bureaucratic, slow and unwieldy and I would welcome a review.

    Aredi Pitsiaeli, Director of Business and Strategic Development at Oasis Community Learning said:

    We welcome the review of the BSF programme as to learn lessons from past experience in order to find a better way of working for the future can only be a good thing.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Gove – New grant to double the number of top teachers in challenging schools

    PRESS RELEASE : Gove – New grant to double the number of top teachers in challenging schools

    The press release issued by the Department for Education on 4 July 2010.

    The Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, has authorised the expansion of Teach First into secondary schools across the whole country and a new Teach First Primary programme so that children of all ages can benefit from the expertise of our best graduates.

    The £4 million grant to Teach First – a highly successful charity which recruits top graduates from the best universities to work in our most challenging schools – will benefit tens of thousands of children by enabling the charity to double the number of top graduates recruited to the most challenging schools and by expanding the charity’s activities across the whole country.

    The expansion will also enable Teach First to carry out research on how to attract more top maths and science graduates going into teaching. They will also pioneer innovative approaches to developing the leadership skills of undergraduates, in partnership with business, as a way to attract more badly-needed science and stem graduates to join Teach First.

    Teach First plans to expand its Teach On programme to accelerate the progression of its fast growing community of teachers to become senior leaders and head teachers within challenging schools. These alumni – known as ambassadors – will work to bring about systemic change in the life chances of pupils by taking key leadership roles in challenging schools, helping turn around failing schools or starting new ones.

    The Secretary of State Michael Gove said:

    It is unacceptable that just 45 pupils out of 80,000 on free school meals made it into Oxbridge last year. Opportunity has to become more equal, and we are absolutely committed to spending more on the education of the poorest children.

    The countries which give their children the best education in the world are those which value their teachers most highly and where the profession attracts the brightest graduates. Our priority is to deliver robust standards and high quality teaching to all, whatever their background. To do this we must attract highly talented people into education, because the quality of teachers has a greater influence on children’s achievement than any other aspect of their education.

    Teach First has already been successful in attracting some of this country’s most impressive graduates into teaching. Supporting the charity to go further by recruiting even more high quality teachers, and expanding to other areas will help thousands more children across the country.

    Brett Wigdortz, Teach First founder and Chief Executive said:

    Over the last 8 years Teach First has worked with many partners – including schools, universities and businesses – to place more great teachers in the most challenging schools and increase their impact.

    We are very excited that this new support from the government will enable us to extend our reach to every region of England over time, and to begin placing our highly-motivated and qualified teachers for the first time in those primary schools who need them most in areas of highest deprivation.

    In time this investment will allow us to place teachers in 1 in 3 of the most challenging secondary schools and support those teachers towards leadership positions where they can make the most possible difference to the lives of children from poorer backgrounds.

    Since launching in 2002, Teach First has placed increasing numbers of participants in schools each year – 560 entered the programme in June 2010, more than double the 265 in 2005 – and has developed an ambassador community of over 1,200, working to change educational, and life, outcomes for hundreds of thousands of children today.

    Before Teach First, in 2002, only 4 graduates from Oxford University chose a career teaching in a challenging school; in the 2009 to 2010 academic year, 8% of finalists applied to teach in a challenging school through Teach First.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Gibb – ‘Further freedoms for schools and colleges’

    PRESS RELEASE : Gibb – ‘Further freedoms for schools and colleges’

    The press release issued by the Department for Education on 24 June 2010.

    The government today announced further moves to free up colleges and schools and remove bureaucracy from the education system.

    School and college leaders welcomed the decisions made by Schools Minister Nick Gibb, who said:

    • schools and colleges would be allowed to choose how many, and which, diploma lines of learning they offered
    • the development of the extended diploma would be stopped
    • routine Ofsted inspections of sixth-form colleges rated outstanding would end – meaning 40% of colleges would be exempt
    • sixth-form colleges would no longer be forced to do surveys of learner views
    • plans to introduce in-year adjustments to 16 to 19 budgets would be dropped, giving greater certainty to institutions.

    On diplomas, Nick Gibb said:

    We want schools and colleges to have greater choice over the qualifications they offer – they know what’s best for their students.

    We want students to be able to sit the qualification that is right for them, whether diplomas, the International Baccalaureate, A levels and GCSEs, or iGCSEs, not to be told by government what they can and cannot take.

    That is why we are removing the unnecessary bureaucracy and cost associated with the requirement that every school offers access to every diploma line, and why we are stopping development of the extended diploma.

    That does not mean young people presently studying for a diploma, or who plan to start one in the future, should think again, and I want to reassure them. We want to see how diplomas work, and learn from them to improve the quality of vocational education in this country.

    It is not the role of government to make sweeping assumptions from the centre about what is best for them, and to introduce unnecessary bureaucracy.

    He added:

    The diploma entitlement forces schools and colleges to offer all lines of learning, and so adds extra layers of complexity and red tape to the whole process, with a great deal of work required on curriculum planning and timetabling.

    Ending it will free schools and colleges to offer the lines of learning they want and that they know will meet the needs of their students. It will allow them to specialise in certain lines if they wish, and it will make it is easier for some centres to provide diplomas.

    We are stopping the development of the extended diploma because it would be an unnecessary burden on schools and colleges, with no clear benefit for young people, who already have the flexibility to take additional qualifications alongside their diploma.

    On freedoms granted to sixth-form colleges, Nick Gibb said:

    We will work to ensure that those sixth-form colleges rated outstanding will no longer be subject to routine Ofsted inspections as long as their performance does not drop, putting them in line with the proposals already announced on outstanding further education colleges and schools.

    We will also bring an end to the prescription on sixth-form colleges to do surveys of learner views – it will now be at the discretion of individual colleges as to whether they undertake them.

    I will also simplify the 16 to 19 allocations process to schools and colleges, by working with the Young People’s Learning Agency, local authorities and sixth-form colleges to strip away bureaucracy.

    As an immediate step, that will include asking the YPLA not to implement ‘in-year’ funding adjustments in the sector, which will make a real difference to colleges in the reduction of bureaucracy – and in providing greater certainty.

    These measures are only part of a longer running programme of red-tape reduction. As such, I hope I continually hear from the Sixth-form Colleges Forum, and its members, as to exactly where we can make improvements in the future.

    David Igoe, chief executive of the Sixth-form Colleges Forum (SFCF), said:

    The SFCF welcomes today’s announcements and in particular the early indications of the government’s commitment to simplification and reducing bureaucracy.

    These proposals are the first step in freeing up colleges, enabling principals and teaching staff to focus on their core purpose of teaching and learning. We look forward to working with the government in identifying further areas where burdens can be removed.

    Dr John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said:

    Removing the entitlement to all 14 diploma lines is a sensible, welcome decision. ASCL strongly supports diplomas but believes their complex structure can be simplified and this is a move in the right direction.

    It remains the case that schools and colleges will need to continue to work together in order to offer a good range of courses for 14- to 19-year-olds.

    However, heads and principals will be relieved that there is no longer a requirement to offer every diploma at 3 levels in every area.

    Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC), said:

    AoC is pleased to see that the government is committed to supporting diplomas as part of a rich mix of qualifications providing choice for young people. Colleges have invested significant time and resources in the development of their diploma offer and 98% of colleges are planning to offer diplomas from this September. Colleges have the breadth of experience to offer whole diplomas and AoC believes that colleges could become local diploma hubs serving the needs of their educational communities.

    We welcome the freedom from Ofsted inspections for outstanding colleges and, indeed, the general freedoms from constraint that will allow colleges to flourish.

    The government has already indicated an end to Ofsted inspections for outstanding schools, along with those in general further education settings. Earlier this month it announced that maintained schools could now choose whether or not their students take the iGCSE, and said development of the academic diplomas, due to be introduced in September 2011, would stop immediately, saving around £1.77 million instantly, with further savings in future years.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Michael Gove outlines process for setting up free schools

    PRESS RELEASE : Michael Gove outlines process for setting up free schools

    The press release issued by the Department for Education on 18 June 2010.

    Education Secretary Michael Gove has today outlined the process for allowing teachers, charities and parents to set up new schools – free schools – in response to parental demand. Free schools are independent state schools run by teachers not bureaucrats or politicians and accountable to parents.

    The government has already set out plans to give teachers the option to take on greater professional freedoms. Today’s announcement will see the government harnessing the passion and innovation of teachers even further by allowing them to set up schools for the first time.

    Education Secretary Michael Gove has today:

    • set out the process for how groups can start new schools and published a proposal form for groups to fill out
    • stated the government’s commitment to making it easier to secure sites for new schools. This will include allowing a wider range of sites, including residential and commercial property, to be used as schools without the need for ‘change of use’ consent. There will also be an extension of powers to protect existing schools’ sites, to make sure they are kept available for use by new schools where there is demand
    • reallocated £50 million of funding from the Harnessing Technology Grant to create a Standards and Diversity Fund. This will provide capital funding for free schools up to 31 March 2011. Funding for free schools will be a top priority for the Department for Education in the forthcoming Spending Review.
    • written to the New Schools Network to establish a formal relationship and to offer a £500,000 of initial funding to help make sure groups across the country get the support they need to start forming schools. The New Schools Network will act as the first point of contact for all groups who wish to start schools and will provide them with information as they go through the process and prepare their proposals.

    Education Secretary Michael Gove said:

    The most important element of a great education is the quality of teaching and free schools will enable excellent teachers to create new schools and improve standards for all children. This government believes that passionate teachers who want to make a real difference to education should have the opportunity. That’s why I am today inviting groups to complete a proposal form and enter a process to set up new free schools.

    Hundreds of groups, from teachers themselves to charities such as the Sutton Trust, have expressed an interest in starting great new schools. Just like the successful charter schools in the US, supported across the political spectrum, these schools will have the freedom to innovate and respond directly to parents’ needs. The new free schools will also be incentivised to concentrate on the poorest children by the introduction of this government’s pupil premium which will see schools receiving extra funds for educating children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

    In this country, too often the poorest children are left with the worst education while richer families can buy their way to quality education via private schools or expensive houses. By allowing new schools we will give all children access to the kind of education only the rich can afford – small schools with small class sizes, great teaching and strong discipline.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Gove to the National College – ‘We have to make opportunity more equal’

    PRESS RELEASE : Gove to the National College – ‘We have to make opportunity more equal’

    The press release issued by the Department for Education on 17 June 2010.

    Michael Gove today addressed headteachers at the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services’ Annual Leadership Conference in Birmingham.

    The Secretary of State for Education’s first keynote speech to the conference saw him stress the need for greater freedoms for headteachers and schools, the importance of learning from overseas, improved teaching, more intelligent accountability and a curriculum and qualifications system that compares with the best overseas.

    Academy freedoms

    Regarding greater freedoms Michael Gove said:

    One of the first things we have done is to give professionals more scope to drive improvement by inviting all schools to consider applying for academy freedoms.

    But we will now also provide you with the kind of autonomy that has served schools in America, Canada, Sweden and Finland so well and allow all schools the freedom to develop their own curriculum and fully control their own budget and staffing.

    The Education Secretary stated that over 1,772 schools have enquired about academy freedoms; 870 of these schools are rated ‘outstanding’ including 405 secondary schools and more than 400 outstanding primaries.

    He went on:

    That’s 70% of the outstanding secondary schools in the country and a significant cohort of outstanding primaries.

    Any school which acquires academy freedoms will continue to be governed by admissions rules which guarantee fair access to all, safeguards the inclusive character of comprehensive schools, ensures all schools take their fair share of pupils in need and prevents any school discriminating in any way against those pupils with special educational needs.

    Improving teaching

    The Education Secretary stressed the importance of attracting highly qualified teachers to the teaching profession:

    The generation of teachers currently in our schools is the best ever, but given the pace of international improvement we must always be striving to do better.

    That is why we will expand organisations such as Teach First, Teaching Leaders and Future Leaders which have done so much to attract more highly talented people into education.

    That is why we will write off the student loan payments of science and mathematics graduates who go into teaching.

    That is why we will reform teacher recruitment to ensure there is a relentless focus on tempting the best into this, most rewarding, of careers.

    And that is why we will reform teacher training to shift trainee teachers out of college and into the classroom.

    Discipline and behaviour

    The Education Secretary said that he will reform rules on discipline and behaviour to protect teachers from abuse, false allegation and from disruption and violence. He continued:

    That means getting parents to accept their responsibilities, giving teachers the discretion they need to get on with the job and sending a clear and consistent message at all times that adult authority has to be respected.

    Professional development

    Teachers will be given more control over their careers with a culture of more teachers acquiring a postgraduate qualification like a master’s or doctorate and potential school leaders will acquiring management qualifications. The Secretary of State saw the National College as key in this.

    Intelligent accountability

    The Education Secretary called for external assessment that shows what works, clearer information about teaching techniques that get results and evaluations of interventions that have run their course.

    Ofsted’s resources will also be directed to schools which are faltering or coasting and inspectors will spend more time on classroom observation and assessing teaching and learning.

    Curriculum and qualifications

    The Education Secretary stated:

    I want to ensure our national curriculum is a properly international curriculum – that it reflects the best collective wisdom we have about how children learn, what they should know and how quickly they can grow in knowledge.

    He stressed the need for a curriculum with a ‘simple core’ which is informed by best international practice which will be a measure for schools and will also allow parents to ask meaningful and informed questions about progress.

    In addition to curriculum reform, the Education Secretary said that tests that 11-year-olds sit in this country should be comparable with those 11-year-olds sit in Singapore, Taiwan or Toronto. He went on:

    That is why I want Ofqual to work not just to guarantee exam standards over time, but to guarantee exam standards match the best in the world.

  • John Hayes – 2010 Speech to City and Islington College

    John Hayes – 2010 Speech to City and Islington College

    The speech made by John Hayes, the then Education Minister, at City and Islington College on 17 June 2010.

    Thank you and good morning everyone.

    Arthur Hugh Clough wrote that: “if hopes were dupes, fears may be liars”. And it seems to me that the words of this unjustly neglected poet are a particularly apt place to begin my remarks on what has been an unjustly neglected sector.

    I know that many of the hopes that the last government raised for further education ultimately proved illusory.

    And perhaps the most important thing I want to say today is that the fears which you may have for the future will prove equally misplaced.

    But before I try to justify that bold statement, I must first thank you all, and especially Frank and his staff, for accommodating my request for an early start this morning.

    For being here for me.

    I have to go to Parliament shortly for a debate on the importance of skills in building and maintaining a strong economy and, of course, that’s closely linked to what I have to say now…

    Even before Lord Leitch published his compelling analysis of the problem, it’s been no secret to most of us that skills are economically vital. And that doesn’t apply just to the manufacturing and industrial sectors, but right across our economy, to the service and retail sectors, and the public sector too.

    Employers can’t stay in business without people with the right skills for the job. While people can’t hope for a good job without the skills employers are looking for. Without the right skills, inward investment will dwindle because we can’t compete for jobs on the grounds of cost with countries where low wages are the rule. And of course we wouldn’t want to. We are thankfully beyond dark, satanic mills.

    But we can still compete effectively in ways which would have been unfamiliar to Mr Gradgrind. Through the business environment that the government creates. And, crucially, through the skills of our workers; skills which are still vital in the high-tech world in which we live than when William Morris majestically celebrated the joy of craft.

    Few people, and very few politicians, would disagree with any of that. Indeed, I know that you’ve heard members of the previous government say similar things, albeit with less style.

    But the similarity of aims should not obscure absolute difference of view about mean. You see my own analysis differs fundamentally from theirs, and the good news for you and particularly for me it that both the Prime Minister and Vince Cable agree with me, not my predecessors.

    I believe, like Ruskin, that “industry without art is brutality”.

    Too often in the recent past, the strength of the economic case for skills has been portrayed as the only case for skills, creating an implicit and in my opinion wrongheaded divide between learning that is useful and learning that is useless. We emphasise the economic and overlook the social and cultural benefits of learning at our peril.

    The previous government’s concentration on the utilitarian aspects of learning excluded too much valuable activity and too many people. I see learning as a single whole, not a series of separate silos. Learning a skill to do a job should lead into learning for pleasure or self-fulfilment, and vice versa. But more the acquisition of practical skills is virtuous for its own sake as it instils purposeful pride. We enjoy what we learn to do well.

    Likewise, the line between further and higher education should be a permeable membrane, not an iron curtain.

    As soon as people start to treat the various styles and levels of learning as discrete entities, they also begin to erect the sorts of arbitrary barriers that stop learners moving from one to another, barriers that are the antithesis of the ideal of lifelong learning. And, of course, the people worst affected by these barriers are the most disadvantaged in our society, those furthest from learning and with fewest chances for progression.

    These are all reasons why, in my view, no learning should be treated as if it were without point and every new element added to our collective stock of knowledge and skill should be applauded. Everything any of us learns adds a new brick to the edifice of civilised life. Those with the will and commitment to learn, however they do it and whatever they choose to study, should be admired and encouraged. None should be disparaged as one of Browning’s “picker-up of learning’s crumbs”.

    The services this college offers to its community – services the excellence of which has repeatedly been recognised – are a case in point.

    I recently took a look at your summer courses and was pleased to see intensive ceramic-throwing in there alongside more obviously vocational options like beginners’ computing and level 3 perming effects.

    I think the author of The Stones of Venice would have approved.

    But it’s the economic rather than the social or cultural case for skills that has been used by some not just to downgrade learning for its own sake, but as an excuse for the centralised command and control arrangements that have been foisted on adult educators over the past decade and more.

    Now we must finally acknowledge that this approach, even in the terms of its own narrow criteria, has failed.

    As the UK Commission of Employment and Skills reported in the Ambition 2020 report published last year, on recent trends, we are likely to slip from 18th to 21st in OECD rankings for intermediate level skills by 2020.

    On recent performance ‘we will not be in the top eight countries of the world at any skill level’ in ten years time.

    The highly centralised and bureaucratic system that developed over the course of the last Government meant that funds that could have been used on teaching and training, to dirve up skill levels, have, instead been devoted to formulating detailed plans and complying with targets.

    Bean counting, hoop jumping, form filling – these were the skills my predecessors most admired.

    Instead of enabling colleges and other providers to respond to needs of businesses and learners in their areas, Ministers, isolated in their Whitehall Offices, thought that they had a better idea of what these needs were.

    Excessive bureaucracy sapped precious energy from our education system.

    And, even worse, it led to systemic failure in the form of a F.E. capital crisis from which the sector is still reeling.

    The LSC encouraged bids that would have cost 10 times more than the available funds.

    144 capital projects were frozen.

    79 of these projects had already received agreement in principle, and many colleges incurred considerable costs .as the result of what the Foster Review into the crisis described as ‘mismanagement’.

    The top-heavy target driven bureaucratic system failed, as it was bound to. As Andrew Foster concluded, the LSC was too slow to respond: ‘there were straws in the wind, early storm warnings, but the problem was not crystallised fast enough.

    There has to be a better way. An increasingly dynamic economy necessitates a dynamic skills system. If we are to build a highly skilled, high tech economy Colleges and independent providers need to be able to respond quickly to the needs of learners and employers.

    That is why this government must and will offer further education a new beginning. – From satanic mills to bows of burning gold in one speech.

    Before being appointed as Minister I was fortunate enough to have enjoyed a long Apprenticeship as Shadow Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further Education and Skills. Over the past five years I have held countless meetings with College Principles, their representative bodies and others from the sector.

    I visited innumerable colleges across the country.

    Everything I said in Opposition, and everything I say now in Government has been informed by the relationship I have built with FE.

    I’ve listened to what you have had to say.

    Which is why we came into government with the promise to set colleges free.

    Now is the time to start delivering on this promise.

    That’s why I’ve to come here, to a college, to announce publicly that we’re starting today. This is not the end of a process, but only the beginning.

    Vince Cable has written this morning to the Chief Executive of the Skills Funding Agency setting out our ambitions for the Agency’s in 2010-11.

    In parallel, I have also written today to colleges and other training organisations. My letter announces a number of ways in which the burdens on them will be lightened:

    First, I am removing the requirement to complete Summary Statements of Activity, with a resulting reduction in performance monitoring of employer responsiveness.

    Second, the Government has already announced the removal of Ofsted inspections for schools with outstanding performance – I will work with Ministerial Colleagues to introduce the same way approach to the FE sector removing inspections for Colleges with outstanding performance’.

    Third, I will also remove the regulatory requirement for college Principals to undertake the Principals’ Qualifying Programme. That is not because I do not want appropriately qualified principals, but because I know that there are a range of development opportunities and qualifications which can enhance principals’ capabilities to run colleges.

    Individuals and their institutions should be free to decide what package of development is appropriate to suit individual circumstances.

    We will, of course, work with the Learning and Skills Improvement Service to ensure that there are high quality development opportunities available to prepare for and carry out leadership roles in the sector. This will allow governors to reassure themselves about the skills and capabilities of those seeking to take up leadership positions or to develop further in those roles.

    And fourthly and most importantly, I will enable all colleges except those which are performing poorly to move money between adult learner and employer budgets, because you know best how to help you learners’ fulfil their potential and meet employer needs.

    I hope that these are all changes which you welcome. But they are not an end in themselves. They are only a beginning, a first indication of this government’s determination to deliver on the promises it has made to providers and learners alike. To draw a line under the mistakes of the past and deliver a better future.

    With this Government FE is no longer the poor relation. Cinderella is going to the ball.

    With freedom comes a fresh challenge, as the costs of compliance is reduced I will be looking for colleges to find efficiencies. This may be, for example though the use of shared services and new approach to procurement. And colleges freed from constraints will also find new, better and more efficient ways of responding to local needs.

    It won’t have escaped you that there are other things that the government has promised, too. And that chief among them is to tackle the public sector deficit and secure our economic recovery. You may therefore suspect that, as I have come here today with some goodies for colleges in one hand, I’ve probably got a big stick in the other.

    So now you’ve at last got a Minister who is going to treat the FE sector as grown ups lets talk frankly. Members of the government from the Prime Minister down have striven to be completely frank with people about the scale of the savings that will need to be made to bring the public finances back under control and the pain that will inevitably result.

    I certainly can’t pretend that further education will be excluded from those challenges. But I can give you some indications about how it will be managed.

    So for the rest of my time this morning, I want to turn my attention to an area where we announced that there would be changes: the £1 billion Train to Gain programme. I know that there has been a lot of comments about this in the sector and among employers and it’s important that I should make our intentions clear.

    George Osborne’s budget announcement a couple of weeks ago saw £200 million from the Train to Gain budget, refocused where we know it is needed most . £50 million of that money is being recycled into new capital grants for colleges, while the remaining £150 million will pay for 50,000 extra apprenticeship places this year.

    The main point I want to make is that the money saved was not taken from further education and skills. A quarter of it is going to help alleviate a serious problem for many colleges; a left over from the capital crisis I spoke of earlier, while the rest will continue to support training in the workplace.

    In that context, those of you who have followed the debate around further education policy over the last few years will know how much store this government sets on apprenticeships. There are many good reasons for that. First and foremost, the apprenticeships model is not only work-based, but work-focused. It passes on the practical skills needed to do a particular job in a way that is widely appreciated and understood.

    The evidence also shows that apprenticeships add more to a person’s earning-power than any other form of practical training. Someone may begin an apprenticeship unable to do anything that might fit them for a skilled job. But they emerge as – and I’m not afraid of the word – a craftsman. I am as proud of medieval stonemasons, who build so many of our cathedrals – and an apprenticeship can still rightly involve learning how to use a mallet and chisel – as I am of the software designers, film technicians, aeronautical engineers that emerge from today’s apprenticeships.

    Demand for apprenticeship places is growing and one of our priorities is to encourage more employers to participate. Apprenticeships are both a route to key competences for employees and a vital way to help employers build highly skilled, efficient businesses.

    We must also seek new ways of guiding people from lower-level engagement into apprenticeships, and from apprenticeships into higher education or other forms of further study.

    Academic study should not, and both David Willetts and I are determined it won’t be, seen as the only thing that carries value. Practical skills are often undervalued, but that’s usually by people who don’t and couldn’t ever have them.

    As a youngster growing up in south east London, I realised that I was only clever enough to be an academic. I was not clever enough to use my hands to make and do things. And the older I get, the more I revere the practical skills of my forbears, their craftsmanship and the pride they were able to take in it.

    But as effective as apprenticeships are, they are not the be-all and end-all of workplace training. That is why we have never proposed, as some people mischievously claim, simply to end funding for other work based training and put all of the money saved into apprenticeships instead. And let me say once and for all that there’s nothing whatsoever wrong with helping people to train whilst in work.

    But there’s everything wrong with waste at any time and above all at times like these. Train to Gain was always too blunt an instrument to be efficient, craft the skills we need and its impact was never proportionate to the enormous amounts of money it cost.

    Indeed, the National Audit Office found that that the scheme did not provide good value for money.

    Apprenticeships have value, for people and for employers. People understand what they are and the benefits they bring. But for some, that won’t always be right. And we’re determined that we won’t repeat the mistakes of the last government by driving towards one arbitrary goal without actually considering what else employees and employers need.

    So one of the big questions I’m going to be seeking to answer over the next few months is what are the right things for the government to do to support employers and people for whom apprenticeships aren’t the right answer, as we create a comprehensive, efficient and effective workplace training offer.

    One of the key issues is eliminating deadweight – where taxpayers’ money is simply substituted for money that employers would spend regardless. Because every pound that my Department spends to zero effect is a pound that won’t be spent on other public services or in helping to bring down the deficit, or simply left in the pockets of the people who worked hard to earn.

    There are clearly also questions around the specific needs of particular economic sectors, and also whether special provision should be made for small and medium-sized enterprises who often find it more difficult than larger organisations to absorb the time and cost pressures that staff training can involve.

    Finally, there is the problem of bureaucracy on which I have already touched. Whatever new arrangements to support workplace training are established – including the provisions of information, advice and guidance to employers and learners – must avoid the pitfalls of excessive paperwork that have put so many people off training and frustrated employers.

    Those are some of the key issues that we will need to address soon. Others will occur to those of you with direct experience of training in the workplace. And that’s another important point.

    I am determined not to sit in Whitehall and remotely form a picture of how things are in colleges or workplaces. As I have done during our time in opposition I will consult, listen, learn and act.

    I want to take time to talk to people like you about how things are, and what we should do to make them better.

    Lets agree on the clear that action is needed, to build on what is working in the further education and skills sector and set right what is not.

    Change is coming and, as Dr Johnson so rightly said in the preface to his dictionary, “change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better”.

    It behoves all of us here, whatever the inconvenience and however difficult the transition, that the changes that are coming lead to a better deal for the learners whose hopes, in our various ways, we hold in our hands.

    I began my speech by quoting a poem by Arthur Hugh Clough. The last line of that poem is quite well known – “But westward, look, the land is bright”. This was once famously quoted by the last leader of a British coalition government before David Cameron. Even at one of the darkest moments of the war, Churchill was inviting Britain to look to the future with confidence. And even amid our current troubles, I invite you to do the same today. Because I firmly believe that the future for colleges is bright. I am determined to work unceasingly to make it so.

    Today, we take the first step towards a better, freer, more empowered further education system.

    Today we start to unchain the immense human capital in FE.

    Today, with the changes I have announced, we have made a new beginning. But tomorrow we must strive together to bring the process of rebuilding to fruition. Let us make sure that looking back we will be able to say that rebuilding started here, today, with us.

    And I hope that we will feel able to say, that Cinderella lived happily ever after.

    Thank you.