Tag: Department for Education

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 28 September 2023.

Government announces four new attendance hubs, widening the support to a total of 400,000 pupils.

Thousands more pupils will be supported in schools as the Department for Education today (28 September) announces four more attendance hubs.

Hubs are led by schools with excellent attendance which share practical ideas with other primary, secondary, alternative provision and special schools in England who need support to boost their attendance.

The Government has been clear that attendance is everyone’s business. Regular attendance is vital for children’s education, wellbeing and long-term development and evidence shows pupils with higher attendance tend to have higher attainment across all key stages.

The four new attendance hubs announced today are in Nottinghamshire, Grimsby, and two in Swindon and they will support schools across the country.

The new hubs are St Giles Special School in Nottinghamshire, John Whitgift Academy in Grimsby and Ridgeway School and Sixth Form and The Croft Primary School both in Swindon.

This brings the total number of hubs to 14 – which will support around 800 schools across the country responsible for the attendance of 400,000 children, and will start working with schools over the next two weeks for the rest of the academic year.

Lead hub schools share practical approaches to improving attendance with other schools. This could include advice about how to make their school warm and welcoming, building strong relationships with families, working effectively with wider services where there are complex reasons for absence, and using data to identify pupils at risk of not coming in, to intervene early.

Hub schools also share ideas for how to use extra-curricular activities such as school trips, sports teams or breakfast clubs to create a positive culture where children want to attend.

This term, the Department will also be looking for more schools to establish new attendance hubs.

Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan said:

Being at school helps children grow in confidence and ensure they get the education they need to reach their full potential.

That is why we are doing everything in our power to ensure children don’t miss out on these precious years that only happen once in a lifetime.

We are delighted to expand our ground breaking attendance hubs and continue to work with the wider sector through the Attendance Action Alliance to further reduce absence.

The first attendance hub was set up by Rob Tarn, CEO of Northern Education Trust and members of the Attendance Action Alliance, to provide other schools with techniques, resources and advice on how to improve attendance, as successfully trialled in Northern Education Trust’s North Shore Academy.

CEO of Northern Education Trust, Rob Tarn said:

Securing excellent attendance continues to be a day-to-day challenge for all schools around the country.

I am delighted to see the launch of 4 additional attendance hubs supporting hundreds more schools around the country– building on the hub model that we created at North Shore Academy.

Attendance hubs give school leaders more opportunities to learn from others, share best practice and engage in an ongoing professional dialogue about improving attendance.

As part of the Government’s mission to tackle barriers to attendance, the Government announced the expansion of the attendance hubs and the attendance mentoring programme in May, to support more schools in England to improve their attendance.

The Department for Education also established the Attendance Action Alliance of national leaders from education, children’s social care and allied services to work together to raise school attendance and reduce persistent absence.

Last month, Schools Minister Nick Gibb urged parents to play their part in continuing to support pupils to go to school, including when they have a minor cough or cold.

The Department also recently published a toolkit for schools providing tips and evidence-based adaptable templates for communicating with parents and carers on attendance. This is in addition to work with children’s charity Barnardo’s to deliver the attendance mentors programme – which works directly with persistently absent children and their families to help overcome their specific barriers to attendance and support them back to school.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 21 September 2023.

27 new areas join the staying close programme, which provides significant extra support to help care leavers move to independent living up to the age of 21.

Thousands more young people will soon receive additional crucial support when leaving care as today, 21 September 2023, the government announces 27 new local authorities to join the staying close programme.

The staying close programme provides a package of continued support and guidance to young people leaving care. This includes ensuring they have accommodation, resources and practical and emotional help provided by a member of staff from their former children’s home, to help them thrive as independent adults.

The 27 local authorities have been awarded £27 million to run the staying close programme, taking the programme to a total of 47 local authorities nationally, worth £53 million overall. This funding means more care leavers than ever before will have access to this support.

To further demonstrate the government’s commitment to supporting the most vulnerable children, it has today launched a consultation, seeking feedback on the national advocacy standards and statutory guidance. The standards seek to improve advocacy provision for children in care and care leavers and address gaps and barriers to services, to ensure all voices are heard.

The government also introduced a new standard on non-instructed advocacy for very young and non-verbal children and young people. These updates set expectations for what high quality advocacy provision should look like and place the voice of children and young people at the heart of the system.

Today’s updates are part of the government’s continued work to improve children’s social care, as set out in the children’s social care strategy, stable homes, built on love. Backed by £200 million over the next 2 years, the ambitious and wide-ranging strategy will transform the current care system to focus on more early support for families, reducing the need for crisis response at a later stage.

Children and Families Minister, David Johnston, said:

We are making significant strides in our ambition to transform children’s social care services for some of our most vulnerable children and young people across the country.

At the heart of today’s developments are the needs of children in care and care leavers. Our work on advocacy standards will make sure they’re listened to and supported, while the fantastic Staying Close programme is helping give them the tools they need to thrive as young adults.

Today, the department has also published the government’s responses to 2 consultations: the first response on the overall strategy for transforming children’s social care, stable homes, built on love, and the second on the national framework and dashboard. The national framework, when published later this year, will clarify expectations and outcomes for what local authorities should achieve in children’s social care.

Stable homes, built on love responds to recommendations made by 3 independent reviews:

• the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care
• the National Panel’s review into the murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson
• the Competition and Markets Authority’s children’s social care report

Stable homes, built on love set out how we will help families overcome challenges, keep children safe, and make sure children in care have stable loving homes, long-term loving relationships, and opportunities for a good life.

The strategy outlines 6 pillars of support to achieve this, which includes bolstering family help, bettering multi-agency working, better supporting children in care and care leavers, and ensuring the children’s care system continuously learns and improves, making better use of evidence and data.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 19 September 2023.

The Department for Education (DfE) have developed software to sort thousands of emails, reducing the time taken to communicate with the public.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 19 September 2023.

The Lifelong Learning Bill becomes law, paving the way for a radical transformation of the student finance system.

New measures have been enshrined in law that will transform the student finance system, allowing colleges and universities to charge different fees for different courses for the first time and opening up opportunities for adults to study in a way that works for them.

The Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) (formerly the Lifelong Loan Entitlement) will give all adults from 2025 access to loans, worth up to £37,000 in today’s fees, that they can use flexibly over their working lives to upskill or retrain.

The LLE will mean people will be able to take out a student loan to pay for full-time courses such as university degrees or higher technical qualifications (HTQs), as well as for some individual modules of courses.

People who have already taken out a loan for a degree will also be able to use the rest of their entitlement to study subjects that will help them gain additional skills that employers are looking for, making it easier for people to build up their skills over time. This includes studying individual modules of degree courses or HTQs to help them to do this in a way that fits round their lives and commitments.

To prepare for the introduction of the LLE, a new £5 million scheme has launched to encourage universities and colleges to develop and offer individual modules of HTQs in a flexible way. Under the scheme students will be offered the opportunity to study in-demand modules of HTQs, such as digital, health and science and construction, ahead of the launch of the LLE from 2025.

Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education Robert Halfon said:

Giving people the chance to access education and training over the course of their working lives, in a way that suits them, is crucial to enabling those from all backgrounds to climb the ladder of opportunity.

From higher technical qualification modules in cyber security to short courses in accountancy and university degrees in engineering, this new Lifelong Learning Entitlement will allow people to hop on and off their educational journey throughout their lives with a single ticket, towards the destination of rewarding, skilled employment. This will plug skills gaps and give employers access to a pipeline of talent to help them grow.

The new measures in the Lifelong Learning Act will allow universities and colleges to use a new method of calculating the maximum level of tuition fees they can charge for different courses. This will make the pricing of modules and short courses proportionate, so people can access education and training at a fair price.

Chair of the Post-18 Education and Funding Review Philip Augar said:

This legislation gives us a framework that fits our modern, fast-changing jobs market. The potential now exists for adults to transform life opportunities through lifelong learning and I hope universities, colleges and employers respond constructively in ensuring that this potential is fulfilled.

Policy Advisor at Coventry University Dr Elizabeth Norton said:

The Lifelong Learning Bill has not only provided the foundation for a radical overhaul of the student tuition fee loans system in England, but has also asked the entire higher education sector to look carefully at how and when students decide to learn on a timeline convenient to them.

Coventry University Group has prioritised and pioneered “life shaped learning” for many years, and with this bill receiving Royal Assent, legislation is reflecting the flexibility people need in accessing higher education funding throughout their careers.

Vice Chancellor of Nottingham Trent University Edward Peck said:

From initial discussion within the Augar Review Panel in 2018 through to Royal Assent in 2023, the idea of a Lifelong Learning Entitlement has built universal support because it will make higher education available to those who could benefit throughout their adult working lives.

Everybody who is committed to enhanced social mobility within an ever higher skilled economy will welcome the successful passage of this Bill onto the statute book.

Executive Director of Finance at Salford University Julie Charge said:

The Lifelong Learning Bill is an important tool to support the skills development of individuals over their careers helping them reach their full potential. The ability to access module learning will open up opportunities to those who can’t commit to full time education and otherwise would be excluded.

This Bill is a significant step in embedding life long learning in the UK which will help address employer’s skills and productivity needs as well giving students access to high quality courses throughout their lives.

David Hughes, chief executive of Association of Colleges, said:

I am pleased to see the Lifelong Learning Bill gain Royal Assent, having given written and oral evidence as it made its way through parliament. The Lifelong Learning Entitlement has the potential to be a game-changer, and I hope that this is the beginning of a significant cultural shift in the way post-18 education and training is delivered and taken up in England.

The need for a new lifelong learning culture and the system of funding and opportunities behind it is clear – with an ageing population, the skills needed by employers rapidly changing with technological change and the move to a net zero economy, we need every adult to have the capacity, motivation, and opportunities to carry on learning throughout their lives.

Vice Chancellor of Bath Spa University Professor Sue Rigby said:

Opening up higher education by allowing learners to dip in and out of study throughout their career is a dramatic and transformational move.  It will increase the skills base that drives the economy and allow people to learn what they need to thrive when they are ready to do so.

Higher technical qualifications – that sit between A levels and T levels, and degrees – give adults the skills employers need and are available in a range of in demand subjects including Digital, Construction, and Health and Science with more coming on board over the next few years. From this September, HTQs have been put on par with degrees with students able to access maintenance loans, especially for those studying part time, helping learners fit study around work and other commitments as we move towards the flexibility envisioned by the LLE.

Following engagement with the higher education sector, the government has decided to change the name of the Lifelong Loan Entitlement to the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, so it better reflects its core purpose of offering learning opportunities throughout people’s working lives, making education and training more accessible to people from all backgrounds.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 18 September 2023.

Government announces membership of taskforce working towards reducing teacher and leader workload, alongside support to embed flexible working.

Work is underway to support teachers and leaders to tackle unnecessary workload, as the government establishes a new taskforce of unions, teachers, and sector leaders. The taskforce will help support the government’s wider ambition to reduce working hours for teachers and leaders by 5 hours per week within 3 years.

The launch of the workload reduction taskforce follows the 6.5% pay award announced in July when the Education Secretary committed to reducing teacher and leader workload.

The group of 14 includes representatives from all 4 teaching unions, as well as teachers, leaders, academics and other sector experts. The variety of expertise within the group will provide insight from across all parts of the education sector, from on the ground perspectives to those in positions of management and leadership. The first meeting will take place later this week.

Alongside measures to tackle workload, the Department for Education is also planning an update to its teacher recruitment and retention strategy to continue to attract, support and develop the highly skilled teachers needed to inspire the next generation.

Schools Minister, Nick Gibb said:

We’ve seen rising schools standards over the last decade, and that wouldn’t be possible without the work of great teachers. We do, however, continue to hear the concerns of teachers and school leaders about workload, which is why we want to build on the past successes in reducing workloads and continue to remove additional burdens, so that teachers can focus on what they do best: teach.

This builds on the generous pay rise agreed earlier this year, as part of the government’s continued commitment to building a highly skilled, well supported teaching profession.

This builds on a report from earlier this year that found two-thirds of teachers reported that they spent over half of their working time on tasks other than teaching, rising to 77% of secondary teachers.

School leaders will also receive support to embed flexible working in their schools, as a new toolkit is set to be launched later this month with practical resources to help them implement practices including job shares, part-time working and ad-hoc flexibility such as the occasional personal day. A further 5 new flexible working ambassador multi-academy trusts and schools (FWAMS) have today been announced, complementing the 7 announced in June this year.

The FWAMS appointed are Lapal Primary School of Hales Valley Trust, Newport Girls’ High School Academy Trust, Aspire Alternative Provision School, the Halifax Academy of Impact Education Multi-Academy Trust, and the Reach Academy Feltham of the Reach Academy Trust.

Michael Scott, of Newport Girls’ High School said:

Newport Girls’ High School is delighted to be re-designated as the flexible working ambassador multi academy trust and school for the west midlands region. Having helped a number of trusts to improve their flexible working offer during phase one of the project in 2021-2022, we look forward to spreading the word further and wider over the next 2 years.

The FWAMS will champion flexible working and provide bespoke peer support in how to implement it within the profession. This delivers on the commitments in the teacher recruitment and retention strategy.

Since its launch nearly 5 years ago, the department has made considerable progress in delivering its teacher recruitment and retention strategy to attract, retain and develop the highly skilled teachers needed to inspire the next generation. This includes implementing a ‘golden thread’ of professional development, ensuring all teachers have access to high-quality training and support at every stage of their career.

This winter, the department will publish a strategy update that builds upon its commitment to give every child a world class education delivered by great teachers. The update will provide an update on delivery of previous commitments, and set out priorities for the coming years.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 14 September 2023.

15 hubs selected as part of new programme to boost languages in schools across the country.

Thousands more pupils are set to benefit from learning languages such as German, French and Spanish, as 19 schools have been selected to lead on boosting how these subjects are taught across the country.

This is the next step in the rollout of the government’s flagship language hubs programme, which will raise national interest in studying languages and drive more pupils to study them throughout their education from primary schools onwards.

Data from this year’s GCSE entries showed that modern foreign languages have become increasingly popular as a subject, with a 5.1% increase in GCSE entries in 2023 compared to last year and a 9.2% increase compared to 2019.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said:

Young people who are confident in a second language are at a huge advantage in life. On top of the social and cultural advantages it provides, there are many economic benefits of learning another language.

That is why I have long called for more pupils to consider studying languages such as German at GCSE and this programme will crucially equip teachers with the necessary training and knowledge to support pupils looking to do so.

The language hubs programme, which will start from this month, aims to encourage more pupils to study a language at GCSE as the evidence shows that pupils who do so are more likely to study that language at A Level and have a lifelong interest in languages.

In an increasingly interconnected world, language skills are essential to business success in the global marketplace. According to a 2022 report by RAND Corporation, a 10% increase in UK pupils learning Spanish or French at key stage 3 and key stage 4 could increase UK gross domestic product over 30 years from £9.1 billion to £9.7 billion or £9.5 billion respectively.

Speaking an additional language can also increase lifetime earnings by 2% and demand for language skills has increased due to globalisation. For example, a recent survey of British businesses highlighted German as the most widely useful language within their organisations.

As well as being beneficial in business, the need for linguists is becoming more pronounced in careers like diplomacy, defence and security where languages help ensure effective communication between different peoples and cultures.

Research shows that students who study a second language perform better across a range of academic subjects than students who don’t study a second language. The brain’s plasticity is heightened when learning a language, leading to increased cognitive flexibility and adaptability.

The programme – which is backed by £14.9 million over the next 3 years and builds on the previous modern foreign language hub pilot, which ran from 2018 to March this year – will be managed by the National Consortium for Languages Education (NCLE).

The NCLE comprises of University College London, the British Council and the Goethe-Institut. An initial 15 schools from regions across the country have been selected as lead language hubs to join the NCLE’s centre for excellence. The hubs will begin their support to schools from this September. A further 10 schools are also set to be selected in a second recruitment round in January.

Lead hubs will engage with schools to improve the languages offer and ensure more effective transition from key stage 2 to key stage 3, whilst making sure that pupils aged 14 to 18 from all backgrounds have the opportunity to study languages through to key stage 5.

As well as increasing opportunities among disadvantaged pupils to study languages, the programme will also increase access to home, heritage and community languages for pupils.

The programme will include a distinct German promotion project to raise the profile of learning German in schools, including increasing awareness of the benefits of studying it. The German promotion project will be led by the Goethe-Institut. Included within the language hubs investment, this project is worth £400,000 and will involve increasing the number of schools that offer German, as well as championing learning the subject.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 1 September 2023.

Nurseries and childminders across the country will be paid more from today for every government-funded hour they provide to parents.

Nurseries and childminders will benefit from higher payment rates from today (1 September), as part of the largest ever investment in childcare in England.

The government has today increased the funding rates to local authorities for both three- and four-year-olds and two year olds, in a landmark moment for the early years sector,.

The additional £204 million of funding is providing a substantial uplift for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to early years providers for delivering the government funded hours to parents.

Funding rates per child paid from today are increasing from an average of £5.29 to £5.62 for three and four-year-olds, and from an average of £6.00 to £7.95 for two-year-olds.

There will be a further increase in funding to come next year, with the average rate paid to local authorities for 2024/25 anticipated to be set at £8.17 for two-year-olds and £11.06 for under twos. This would make the average rate for under twos almost double the average hourly fee of £5.68 charged to parents.

Final 2024-25 hourly funding rates for local authorities for all age groups will be confirmed in the autumn.

From April 2024, eligible working parents of two-year-olds will get a new offer of 15 free hours per week of free childcare. From September 2024, eligible parents will get 15 free hours from nine months until their children start school, and from September 2025, they will get 30 free hours from nine months until the start of school.

Parents whose children turn three this term can sign up for the 30 hours codes for the spring term, which starts from 1st January. The government is therefore urging every parent to check now if they are claiming the free childcare hours they are entitled to, with national data showing almost one in five eligible children may be missing out.

Minister for Children and Families, David Johnston, said:

This funding increase is another vital step in this government’s work with the early years sector to deliver the flexible, affordable, and quality childcare that parents need.

With yet another increase in funding coming next year, we are committed to supporting nurseries, childminders and everyone working with children in their vital early years to deliver on our biggest ever investment into childcare in England – set to save a working parent using 30 hours of childcare up to an average of £6,500 per year.

Alongside funding and developing a national recruitment campaign, the government is also supporting the early years workforce to deliver the biggest ever investment in childcare in England.

Funding rates have been set using insight gathered from surveying 10,000 providers up and down the country to understand their cost pressures. In autumn 2023, it will look into how best to bring down registration times for childminders from up to four months to 10 weeks.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 31 August 2023.

New guidance for education settings advises that any space or area with confirmed RAAC should no longer be open without mitigations in place.

New measures to minimise the impact of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in education settings have been published today, Thursday 31 August, by the government.

While building maintenance is the duty of councils and academy trusts, new RAAC cases have reduced the Department for Education’s confidence that school and college buildings with confirmed RAAC should remain open without mitigations in place.

As a result, following careful analysis of new cases, the department is taking the precautionary and proactive step to change its approach to RAAC in education settings, including schools. This decision has been made with an abundance of caution and to prioritise safety of children, pupils, and staff ahead of the start of the new term.

The vast majority of schools and colleges will be unaffected by this change.

Just over 50 settings have already been supported to put mitigations in place this year, including through additional funding for temporary accommodation, and all children are receiving face to face learning.

This week, the department has contacted all 104 further settings where RAAC is currently confirmed to be present without mitigations in place, to ask them to vacate spaces or buildings that are known to contain RAAC.

The majority of these settings will remain open for face-to-face learning on their existing site, because only a small part of the site is affected by RAAC. A minority will need to either fully or partially relocate to alternative accommodation while mitigations are put in place because of the extent to which RAAC is present.

The government has been aware of RAAC in public sector buildings since 1994. In 2018, the Department for Education published guidance for schools about the need to have adequate contingencies in place for the eventuality that RAAC-affected buildings need to be vacated at short notice.

Officials from the department have also contacted responsible bodies directly to remind them of the need to ensure that these plans are in place. The small proportion of schools that are impacted are being contacted directly by a Department for Education case worker and full support will be provided. The department will continue to work with all education settings to identify RAAC and provide support where it is confirmed to be present.

Parents will be contacted by their school if pupils are moving to a temporary location while remediation works are being carried out. Guidance for parents is available.

Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, said:

Nothing is more important than making sure children and staff are safe in schools and colleges, which is why we are acting on new evidence about RAAC now, ahead of the start of term.

We must take a cautious approach because that is the right thing to do for both pupils and staff.

The plan we have set out will minimise the impact on pupil learning and provide schools with the right funding and support they need to put mitigations in place to deal with RAAC.

While some short-term disruption is inevitable as a result of this change, all available measures are being taken to minimise disruption to learning. The Department for Education is providing further support including:

• Providing funding for essential immediate works needed to remove any immediate risk and, where necessary, to support the provision of temporary buildings for schools and colleges affected.  The Department will work closely with responsible bodies to manage RAAC in the long-term, supported by capital funding provided to the sectors each year, and through the school rebuilding programme.
• Assigning a dedicated caseworker to each school/college affected, who will work with them to assess their particular needs and implement individually designed mitigation plans. This could include using other spaces on the school or college site, using spaces in nearby schools or elsewhere in the local area, or putting in place safety measures in the affected area. If needed, the caseworker will be onsite to support the school.
• Issuing further guidance to schools and colleges on identifying and managing RAAC. This will set out how the Department will provide support and funding to schools and other settings so that face-to-face education continues safely.
• Project delivery, property, and technical experts will be on hand to support schools to put face-to-face education measures in place.

Since 2015, £15 billion has been invested to keep schools safe and operational, whilst buildings at 500 schools will be transformed over the next decade through the School Rebuilding Programme. Settings in the poorest condition and those with evidence of potential safety issues are being prioritised, including some now known to contain RAAC.

Settings that are concerned about the presence of RAAC should continue to inform the department through its ongoing questionnaire. Parents will be contacted by their school if pupils are moving to a temporary location while remediation works are being carried out.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 24 August 2023.

Top grades and standard passes in line with 2019, as part of the final step back to normal grading.

Over 640,000 young people are celebrating receiving GCSE results today and over 390,000 vocational qualifications are being awarded today as young people prepare to move on to the next phase of their education. The proportion of entries achieving top grades (grade 7 and above) and standard passes (grade 4) are consistent with 2019, as grading moves back to normal.

Reflecting the fact that digital is one of the fastest growing industries and contributes significantly to the UK economy, there has been an 13.5% increase in pupils taking computer science since 2019 including more girls. There are similar trends at A level.

Schools Minister, Nick Gibb said:

Pupils receiving their results today should feel very proud. I want to congratulate them all and give my thanks to the hardworking teaching staff that have helped them throughout this period.

Today’s results are a testament to this government’s longstanding work to drive up standards and expanding opportunities for all in our education system.

Pupils collecting results today can progress to one of many high-quality options including A levels, T Levels and apprenticeships.

GCSE entries to modern foreign languages (MFL) this year increased by 5.1% compared to last year, and 9.2% compared to 2019, with increases in Spanish and French. This is ahead of the additional £14.9m investment for the language hubs programme due to start in September.

Entries to subjects in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), subjects which are considered essential to many degrees and other opportunities, have also seen an increase this year including in computer science and history.

Total entries across all EBacc subjects is up by 3.9% this year compared to last year, and 11.2% compared to 2019. This builds on the government’s progress in raising standards in schools, with record numbers of schools rated good or outstanding, up from 68% in 2010 to 88% in December 2022.

The gap between independent schools and academies at grade 7 has narrowed from 33.3% in 2021 to 27.5% in 2022 to 25.5% in 2023. It has also narrowed from 26.5% in 2019.

Pupils collecting results today will progress to one of many high-quality options including A levels, hundreds of apprenticeship routes, vocational technical qualifications (VTQs) or T Levels. From September, students will be able to study new T Levels in legal and agriculture, with further options available over the next few years, and adding to the 16 already available in subjects such as health, engineering and digital.

Grading has returned to normal this year for the first time after the pandemic, in line with plans set out by Ofqual over two years ago. This is to ensure that grades maintain their value and pupils get the result that best represents their performance.

Top grades for 16 year olds in England are in line with 2019, with 22.4% of entries achieving a grade 7 and above. This is up 0.6 percentage points (ppt) from 2019. This year’s results show that 70.3% of entries received a grade 4 or above – a standard pass – which is up 0.4ppt from 2019.

To recognise the disruption pupils faced because of the pandemic, pupils did receive extra support with formulae and equation sheets for GCSE maths, physics, and combined science exams, so there were fewer things to remember going into the exam. Exams in the same subject were also spread out more meaning students had more time to revise between papers.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 23 August 2023.

Over a thousand new special school places confirmed, as additional seven special free schools to be built.

Over a thousand more children and young people with SEND are set to benefit from access to high-quality specialised learning, with seven new special free schools in Cambridgeshire, Kent, Merton and Norfolk selected to be built alongside the existing 83 already committed to opening, located across England from Devon to Darlington.

Once complete, this investment will more than double the number of special free school places available across the country – from around 8,500 to 19,000 – ensuring all children receive a quality education, tailored to their needs.

Today, local authorities across the country have been selected to deliver a ground-breaking new programme to test and refine the reforms to services for young people and families.

Backed by £70 million, the local authorities will help inform the development of new national standards to improve the consistency of provision across the country.

Each area will also bring together education and health services, as well as parents and families to develop an inclusion plan that sets out how they will deliver local services in a co-ordinated way – for example making sure a child with special educational needs who is behind in reading is quickly assessed and given the right support. This addresses feedback from families that the current system is often fragmented with agencies not working together.

This follows recent confirmation that high needs funding is increasing by a further £440 million for 24/25, bringing total funding to £10.5 billion – an increase of over 60% since 2019-20.

Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing, Claire Coutinho said:

Making sure children with special educational needs and disabilities get a superb education is a priority.

Earlier this year our Improvement Plan set out systemic reforms to make sure every child and young person gets consistently high-quality support, no matter where in the country they live.

Today we’re making sure that those reforms are informed by the experiences of real families, up and down the country, and creating the thousands of new places at specialist schools and in staff training courses that are needed to make sure our plan is a success.

The government is also confirming today an expansion in training for early years staff, adding an extra 2,000 training places for early years special educational needs co-ordinators on top of the 5,000 already announced.

Measures confirmed in the Improvement Plan included:

• A new leadership level National Professional Qualification for Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (NPQ for SENCOs), ensuring SENCOs have the training they need to provide the right support to children.
• A new approach to AP will focus on preparing children to return to mainstream or prepare for adulthood. AP will act as an intervention within mainstream education, as well as high-quality standalone provision, in an approach that meets children’s needs earlier and helps prevent escalation.
• An extension until March 2025  to the AP Specialist Taskforces, which work directly with young people in AP to offer intensive support from teams made up of experts, including mental health professionals, family workers, and speech and language therapists, backed by an additional £7 million investment.
• A doubling of the number of supported internship places by 2025, from around 2,500 to around 5,000, backed with £18 million of funding to help young people make the transition into adulthood.
• £30 million to go towards developing innovative approaches for short breaks for children, young people and their families, providing crucial respite for families of children with complex needs – the programme funds local areas to test new services including play, sports, arts and independent living activities, allowing parents time to themselves, while their child enjoys learning new skills. 13 local authorities are taking part in the second year of the programme.