Tag: Department for Education

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.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 22 August 2023.

Fifteen new free schools to open in areas where education outcomes are poorest to drive up school standards.

Around 12,000 young people in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the country will benefit from a wave of new free schools, another major step in this government’s work to raise school standards.

The government has announced today (22 August 2023) that 15 new free schools are set to be opened in parts of the country where education outcomes are weakest, providing more opportunities for local young people.

Free schools are funded by the government but are not run by the local authority, instead, they are run by other organisations – most commonly academy trusts – but also industry and universities. They have greater freedom to innovate and drive up standards, for example more autonomy over the teachers’ pay and their curriculum.

The new schools will include 3 schools run by the high performing Star Academies and Eton College, located in Dudley, Teesside and Oldham, spreading the highest standards of education across the North East, North West and West Midlands. These schools will help rapidly increase the progression of talented local pupils into top universities including Oxford and Cambridge.

Free schools and academies have been central to this government’s work to raise school standards, with 88% of schools​ now rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, up from 68% in 2010. In classrooms, England’s children have shot up the international rankings for reading and our 9 and 10 year olds are now the best in the western world.

The free schools programme provides parents with more choice of good schools, helping to level up opportunity across the country. It enables strong trusts to open high-quality schools in new areas and attract fresh expertise to areas across the country that need it most.

Free schools outperformed other types of non-selective state schools in England in last week’s A level results. Around 35% of A levels taken by pupils in free schools achieved a grade A or A* compared to 22% studied by pupils in local authority schools.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said:

We want to make more good school places available to families, and these 15 new free schools will bring brand new opportunities to young people from Bradford to Bristol.

Free schools bring high standards, more choice for parents and strong links to industry – and all in the areas where those opportunities are needed most.

These new schools build on this government’s work to drive up school standards since 2010, with 88% of schools now rated good or outstanding – up from 68% – and high performing academies and free schools in all parts of the country.

Star Academies chief executive Sir Hamid Patel CBE said:

The free schools programme continues to inject innovation and creativity into the school system.

We’re delighted our 3 sixth form colleges – being delivered in partnership with Eton College – will be part of the programme and we look forward to working with our local stakeholders to provide more young people with the high-quality education and aspirational opportunities they deserve.

Eton College headmaster Simon Henderson said:

We are delighted by this decision. We believe these new colleges have the potential to be transformative both for the young people who attend and for the wider communities they will serve.

Collaborative partnership will be key to this project’s success and we are very grateful for the support we have had already from the respective councils, from the local communities and from our colleagues in other educational settings.

Each Eton Star sixth-form college will create 480 schools spaces and will be run through a strong partnership between Star Academies, a highly successful academy trust, and Eton College, who will provide financial and extra-curricular support.

Plans have also been approved for the BRIT School North in Bradford, 2 University Technical Colleges (UTCs), 1 new all-through school for pupils aged 4 to 16, a primary school, 2 secondary schools and a further 5 free schools for 16 to 19 year olds.

The 2 University Technical Colleges (UTCs) have been approved for Doncaster and Southampton to support young people build the skills they need for their future careers, including in health sciences and marine engineering.

The BRIT School North will create opportunities for rising stars in the north of the country to break into the performing arts industry. It is based on the award-winning performing arts school in South London which helped to launch the careers of Adele, Amy Winehouse and Jessie J.

Free schools in this wave have been approved where there is the greatest need for good new places, prioritising Education Investment Areas (EIAs)identified in the Levelling Up White Paper and Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIAs) identified in the Schools White Paper.

These are parts of the country with the lowest education outcomes that the government is investing in to support young people to get the education and skills they need to get a good job and help the economy continue growing.

The full list of new free schools that have been approved and are expected to open in 3 or 4 years include:

• Eton Star, a 16-19 school in Dudley
• Eton Star, a 16-19 school in Teesside
• Eton Star, a 16-19 school in Oldham
• BRIT School North, a 16-19 school in Bradford
• Great Stall East Academy, an all through school from ages 4 to 16 in Swindon
• Lotmead Primary School in Swindon
• Dixons Victoria Academy, a secondary school in Manchester
• Dixons Wythenshawe Sixth Form, a 16-19 school in Manchester
• Eden Girls’ Leadership Academy, a secondary school in Liverpool
• Bolsover Sixth Form, a 16-19 school in Derbyshire
• Cabot Sixth Form, a 16-19 school in Bristol
• New College Keighley, a 16-19 school in Bradford
• Thorpe Park College, a 16-19 school in Leeds
• UTC Southampton
• Doncaster UTC – Health Sciences and Green Technologies

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

Minister Coutinho writes to housing associations, social landlords and developers to urge them to allow childminders to work from their rented properties.

Housing associations, social landlords and developers in England are being urged to allow childminders to work in their rented properties, to help encourage entry into the profession and increase availability of childcare for parents.

The Children and Families Minister, Claire Coutinho, has today written to housing associations, developers and landlords, urging them to better support prospective childminders who too often face restrictive clauses in contracts which stop them from working in their homes. This will help tackle the unfair barriers to those who rent or have leasehold properties, compared with those who own their own home.

It comes as the government today launches new measures to support and inspire more people into the childminding sector. This forms part of the government roll out of its new childcare offer – the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever. This massive new investment will take expected Government spending on childcare to over £8bn in total by 27-28 helping parents, especially mothers, access flexible childcare support, return to work and help us to meet our ambition to grow the economy.

The government has already tabled amendments to the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill (LURB) that will mean that childminders can work together in groups of up to four childminders in total, and spend more time working outside of their own homes such as in a community centre or village hall.

The government will also consult on reducing registration times to around 10 weeks, make sure childminders are paid monthly by local authorities, and soon launch the childminder start-up grant, worth up to £1,200 for all childminders who have joined the profession since the Spring Budget.

The number of childminders operating in England has more than halved over the past ten years, with many comparable countries facing similar pressures. The Government is determined to reverse that trend in England, and give parents maximum choice and flexibility when the radical expansion of free childcare begins from April 2024.

Recognising the need to grow and support the sector, the government has already boosted the funding rates paid to early years providers including childminders to deliver free hours – increasing them 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.

At the same time the Prime Minister and Education Secretary are urging every parent to check they are claiming the free childcare hours they are already entitled to, with the data showing around one in 20 children nationally may be missing out. There are just ten days to go to claim for hours for the upcoming autumn term.

Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, said:

Over the next few years we are doubling our investment into free childcare, bringing 30 free hours for working parents of children down to just nine months old by 2025.

I wouldn’t want any family to miss out because they can’t find childcare that meets their needs or simply didn’t know how much they were entitled to.

With just ten days to go to sign up for free childcare hours for the autumn term, my message to every parent is don’t delay, check today!

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

We have outstanding, high quality childminders, offering flexible and accessible childcare in a home-like environment.

Too often prospective childminders are having the door slammed in their faces because they face a blanket ban on working from home.

However, parents tell us time and again how much they value the flexibility and quality that childminders bring so we are making sure that we are supporting the workforce to deliver what parents need.

To do this in the best possible way, we are addressing the challenges childminders face including loneliness, where they work, long registration times and local authority pay timetables. Through our support of the sector, we will deliver the flexible care that parents need.

Every working parent of three- and four-year-olds is being encouraged to check what they are entitled to for the autumn term so that they are getting the maximum possible support now, and are ready to sign up for the new offers when they roll out early next year.

Childminders can currently face challenging registration processes, and according to data collected by Tiney, a childminder agency, one in eight prospective childminders who did not complete the registration process were unable to do so because they could not secure permission to work from their home.

Childminders who are living in leasehold properties are sometimes being blocked by so-called restrictive covenants, which say that the properties cannot be used for business purposes. Some who are living in rented accommodation have found that their tenancy agreements prevent them from registering their business or that their landlords’ mortgage agreements include restrictions from the lender.

Within the letter to landlords, Minister Coutinho has urged them to engage with prospective childminders to unblock these issues wherever possible, for the good of local communities.

On top of the existing offers, from April 2024, eligible working parents will get 15 free hours for two-year-olds, from September 2024, 15 free hours will be available from nine months, and from September 2025, 30 free hours will be available from nine months until the start of school.

The offers will help more parents to increase their hours or return to work, as part of wider government support to families to help with rising prices.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 17 August 2023.

University acceptances are up on 2019, with 79% getting their first-choice as results return to pre-pandemic levels in an important step back to normal.

Young people across England are celebrating exam results this morning – with thousands of them moving on to university, apprenticeships and the world of work.

Overall, 79% of 18-year-old pupils in the UK receiving a decision today have gained a place at their first choice university.

16,530 students who received free school meals (FSM) have also gained a place at university which is a 60% increase from 2019.

In a sign that grading is returning to normal, this year, 27.2% of UK entries for A levels achieved a grade A and above, slightly higher than 25.4% in 2019, before the pandemic. 76% of UK entries achieved a grade C and above, in line with 75.9% in 2019.

This year has seen mathematics continue to be the most popular A Level since 2014 as well as record-breaking numbers of A Level entries in computing, producing over 16% more entries than last year. The data from this year’s results day show 34.8% of entries from free schools and 25.4% of entries from academies getting a grade A or above – compared to 22.0% of entries from local authority maintained comprehensive schools.

Around 3,400 T Level students received their results today as the second ever cohort completed the new, high quality technical qualification. 90.5% of T Level students achieved a pass or above.

T Levels offer a wide range of progression options as many of these students will also go on to do apprenticeships, and UCAS has today revealed that 1,220 T Level students have been accepted into university, demonstrating the value and reputation of these qualifications.

Over 250,000 certificates were awarded for those completing their Level 3 vocational and technical qualifications.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said:

Congratulations to everyone receiving results today. There are more opportunities than ever before so whatever your results, I’m sure you will have a bright future ahead of you.

It’s fantastic to see the number of young people accepted to university – including to their first choice – continue to be up on the years before the pandemic, while thousands more go off to exciting apprenticeships and the world of work.

As always, there are a wide range of fantastic options for those who did not get the results they hoped for, and students can find out more by visiting the UCAS website or through the National Careers Service.

If students have not received the grades they were hoping for, there are thousands of high-quality courses available through clearing. This morning there were nearly 29,000 courses available, many of which are at the most selective universities. Clearing opportunities can be accessed through this link: Clearing Launch

For those who do not wish to go through clearing, students can call the National Careers Service on 0800 100 900 for advice on their next steps.

There are also options available other than university. Apprenticeships offer people of all ages and backgrounds the chance to gain the skills they need to build successful careers, while making sure employers can access the skilled workforce they and our economy need to grow.

For more information and to explore all the other exciting options available to young people go to: Get the Jump: explore your education and training choices

Almost £5 billion has been made available to help pupils to recover from the impact of the pandemic, including over £1.5 billion for the National Tutoring Programme and 16-19 Tuition Fund, which have supported millions of students in need of extra support. Nearly four million tutoring courses have now been started through the National Tutoring Programme, including over 1.3 million so far this academic year.

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 17 August 2023.

Grades this summer are expected to be lower than last year due to the way they were assessed.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has praised the resilience and hard work of young people, as hundreds of thousands prepare to collect A and AS level, T Level and Level 3 vocational and technical exam results today (17 August).

The results mark the culmination of years of hard work for young people and their teachers, and pave the way for students’ next steps to university, further training, or into work.

This is the first year that AS and A Levels have largely returned to normal. During the pandemic, results were higher as exams could not go ahead. As the normal grading system returned this summer, grades will be lower than last year but similar to 2019 levels. That means, for example, a student whose work would have earned a C grade at A level in 2019 is just as likely to get a C this year, opening the same exciting doors to life after school.

The return to pre-pandemic grading is important for students – it means that universities and employers understand their performance, have confidence in their qualifications, and can use them to help students progress into opportunities that match their achievements, now and in the future.

This is also the second year the Government’s flagship new qualifications, T Levels, have been awarded, with thousands of students waiting to receive their results today. These new qualifications – the technical counterpart to A levels – are designed in collaboration with leading employers and offer a high quality technical education.

Universities have made sure entry requirements and offers reflect the grades students were expected to receive – as they do every year – and the number of places at top universities is not affected by the number of top grades.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said:

I’m incredibly proud of all students receiving their results today. For many, this will have been the first set of formal exams they have ever taken, having faced unprecedented circumstances in the years building up to this summer.

I know young people will have risen to the challenge, and thousands will get the results they need to take hold of their future, whether at university, through an apprenticeship or in the world of work. There are more options than ever before and a huge amount of support available, whether pupils get the results they wanted or not.

Congratulations to each and every young person taking their next step and thank you to the teachers who helped them get there.

By sitting exams, students have a fair chance to show their knowledge and understanding of a subject and ensure a level playing field.

For GCSEs and A levels, senior examiners will have made allowances where national performance was found to be slightly lower than before the pandemic. This will create a level of protection for students as grading returns to normal, following the disruption of recent years.

The Government has made almost £5 billion available to help children and young people recover from the impact of the pandemic, including £1.5 billion for high quality tutoring to support students taking exams this year and in the future. Nearly four million courses have been started through the National Tutoring Programme since 2020, including 1.3 million so far this academic year.

In cases where a student does not achieve their predicted grades, it is very common for them to still be offered a place by their preferred universities. In 2019, only 20 per cent of English 18-year-old applicants with a minimum of 3 A Level predictions met or exceeded their predicted grades, but almost 90 per cent of the same group still got a place at a UK university. Almost 65 per cent of those were accepted to their firm choice.

There’s a huge amount of support on hand for students:

• Students’ school or college – or the admissions team at the university which they are applying – should be their first port of call.
• Experts at the National Careers Service will be available throughout the results period.
• UCAS’s Clearing hotline is open to help students understand their options.
• The online ‘Clearing Plus’ service will help match students to courses with entry requirements that align with the grades they achieved.

There is also a variety of high-quality technical options open to students, including degree apprenticeships and higher technical qualifications, that will enable them to gain the skills they need to kickstart great careers. Students can explore their options through the Get The Jump website.

GCSE grades will be released on 24 August 2023.