Tag: Gillian Keegan

The speech made by Gillian Keegan, the Secretary of State for Education, in Liverpool on 8 March 2024.

Good afternoon and welcome to my home city of Liverpool!

If you’re staying for the weekend, do make the most of everything that Liverpool has to offer… especially the nightlife.

40 years ago, aged 16, I left a comprehensive school which was only a few miles away from this very building.

92% of my classmates left with less than five GCSEs, or O-Levels as they were in my day, that are needed to reach the next stage of education.

Many of my school friends left without a single qualification.

Whilst it’s fair to say it wasn’t the best school in the country, it did have some good points.

One teacher, Mr Ashcroft, stayed behind after school to teach me technical drawing and engineering, subjects that girls weren’t allowed to study in those days.

He encouraged me and helped me to pass 10 O-Levels… which was considered a miracle!

This led to the apprenticeship that kickstarted my 30-year career in international business.

That, in a nutshell, is the power of education.

Underperforming schools and colleges are now few and far between.

That is thanks to your hard work.

One of the best things about being Education Secretary is having the opportunity to visit schools and colleges around the country.

During the last 18 months, I’ve listened, and I’ve learnt a lot.

You told me about workload and the additional pressures being placed on our brilliant teachers.

So, together we’ve set-up the workload reduction taskforce, aiming to reduce teachers’ and leaders’ working hours.

You told me how difficult it can be to recruit and retain teachers.

Together we’re building on our recruitment and retention strategy and introducing new routes into teaching, including the teacher degree apprenticeship.

We’ve put you, the experts, in charge of leading your schools and colleges.

How have we done that?

Since 2010, we’ve massively expanded the number of academies from a few hundred to over 10,000.

Giving you the power to lead and to make the right decisions for your schools and colleges.

However, we all know that the best education systems combine trust in leaders, with consistent accountability.

In the last 18 months I’ve been struck by the number of education ministers from countries around the world that have asked me, “how have you dramatically improved your school standards?”.

I tell them it’s thanks to you, our fantastic school and college leaders, that around 90% of schools and 92% of colleges in this country are now rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.

We’ve just heard from Martyn, who I was delighted to appoint as Ofsted’s chief inspector.

Martyn has a wealth of experience, so I hope you’ll agree he’s an excellent choice.

As you’ve heard, Ofsted wants to improve, it wants to listen.

Now, since the pandemic, we’ve seen a worrying trend of more children being absent from school.

What’s the point in building a world class education system if children aren’t in the classroom?

At the G7 in Japan, I was reminded that attendance is actually a challenge in many countries.

In January, the education minister in New Zealand spoke to me about how their overall absence rates had increased from 8% in 2019 to 12% in 2023.

Even now they have over 40% of children persistently absent from school.

That’s why access to data is critical.

That’s why we’ve revolutionised ours.

Making it some of the most comprehensive daily attendance data collected anywhere in the world.

It’s the data that we’re receiving from 89% of schools which is helping us overcome this challenge.

From September, all schools will be required to share daily data, providing 100% coverage.

This work has helped ensure that there are 380,000 fewer children persistently absent or not attending school than last year.

There’s been a theme of togetherness running through everything I’ve said today.

We’re working together to tackle challenges, but also to grasp opportunities.

We’re working together to improve school standards for all young people.

We’re working together to get attendance back to pre-pandemic levels.

It’s that theme of togetherness that we need to take forward.

I can’t think of a more appropriate city to be in, to talk about togetherness.

A city with a great sense of family and community.

So, I’d like to leave you with a quote from one of the most loved sons of this city, Jürgen Klopp, the manager of undoubtedly the best football team in the world.

He said, “to be successful, you need to be brave, you need to make decisions, and you need to feel responsibility”.

I know you feel that responsibility.

I know you will continue to be brave and take the tough decisions that are improving education standards for the children of this country.

For that, I say thank you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is the next chapter in our reforms.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But that will only take us so far.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

People make a community, and children make a school.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The speech made by Gillian Keegan, the Secretary of State for Education, at London Tech Week on 14 June 2023.

Good morning,

I’d like to start by wishing London Tech Week a happy 10th birthday. So, 10 years, an awful lot happens in tech in 10 years, even in 2 years…

10 years ago, for instance, Goldsmiths, University of London had just published a study that said 1 in 5 Brits were so worried about privacy that they wanted to ban Google’s new wearable tech Google Glass.

Fast forward to the present day, we seem to have got over somewhat our reservations about sharing and tracking data, even if we didn’t all get behind Google Glass.

Last year the market for wearable tech was worth around $61billion and is expected to grow 15% a year between now and 2030.

But, as you know, the tech revolution isn’t just helping us to track our daily steps – it’s transformed every aspect of the way we live and the way we work.

Take farming – it’s hardly the first industry you think of when you think of tech, but this week I was learning about how farmers are now using satellite imaging to analyse crop quality, and data modelling to predict when to move their livestock from one field to another to get the best grazing. Another example is medicine, where simulations in interactive wards help train the nurses and doctors of tomorrow. The speed, cost and increasingly ubiquitous nature of tech is extraordinary.

I recently visited City of Liverpool College, where they have a mind-blowing state-of-the-art Mo-Cap or motion capture suite which is used to develop the next generation of games and animated films as well as many other utilities across business.

When Walt Disney was creating animations in the 1930s, every second of film involved 20-30 drawings. The speed at which Mo-Cap allows current animators to produce content is breath-taking.

Tech is reaching further and deeper than ever before.

But if we are to harness its potential, our workforce has to be flexible and ready. Upskilling so that we can use tech to its full potential is one of the biggest challenges we face if we are to keep our economy growing and competitive in a global context.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the world around us and will help grow the economy. The workforces that are best equipped in AI with the skills they need will be the ones that ride the wave. We must make sure education is not left behind.

For that potential to be realised, we need to understand the opportunities, as well as the real risks new technology brings.

That’s why we want to kick-start a conversation with experts from across education and technology to hear their views and learn from their experiences.

From today we are opening a call for evidence, seeking the views and experiences of business leaders like you on the use of generative artificial intelligence. The scope of this review includes Large Language Models such as ChatGPT, Google Bard and others. We are also seeking views on the benefits and concerns around its use in education.

And this will help us make the right decisions to get the best out of generative AI in a safe and secure way. So, I ask you, please, get involved with this conversation.

Your experience and insights are essential to our mission to create an agile and responsive skills system, which delivers the skills needed to support a world-class workforce and drive economic growth.

The UK is already a world leader in technology with the largest tech sector in Europe and the third largest in the world. We have a focus on the key growth sectors of digital, green industries, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, and creative industries, which is where we really excel. How are we going to make sure we stay ahead of the curve and are not playing catch-up? That will be the challenge for everyone in this room.

In March this year, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published a framework that sets out our approach to make the UK a science and technology superpower by 2030.

We want to make sure there are more opportunities for people to enter the science and technology workforce.

One of the reasons I went back to study in my 40s was because there’d been a digital tech revolution and I wanted to understand how to deal with it. Suddenly harvesting data about your customers was way more valuable than the actual product or service you were selling. I needed to take the time to understand this change and I spent a year at London Business School to upskill myself.

For this reason, IT technicians and data scientists are among the professions that are going to be in very high demand, and we have already started to expand routes to these careers by investing in education at all levels to meet the need for these skills.

Take T levels for example, T standing for tech. Thanks to our close relationship with industry, young people now have far more options to get further qualifications or into actual jobs.

Yandiya Technologies for example, are among our T level flagbearers. They make sustainable heating solutions. They take T Level students on industry placements, 45-days, and they have done that for the past two years. They now have five apprentices, two of them purely as a result of these T Levels programmes. They are using T levels to make sure they get the pick of the crop. And many smart employers will do the same.

But getting the skills that lead to great jobs isn’t just for young people. There is already a shortage of people who are coming into computing professions and this gap will only get bigger.

Thanks to a skills bootcamp in coding, Dan Watson was able to upskill from a career as personal trainer to one as a digital project manager for tech company Wise. He said the experience was ‘priceless’ and has enabled him to future-proof his career.

We have bootcamps all across the country in many different areas, including digital, which is the most popular bootcamp.

Let’s not forget that worldwide there’s a massive need for more software engineers… 40 million of them. That’s equal to the entire population of Poland.

If you think this sounds alarming, by 2030 this gap is expected to reach 85 million – bigger than Germany’s current population.

Although AI will also have an impact on these numbers.

This is why we have created the Digital and Computing Skills Education Taskforce. Its role will be to spot what computing and digital skills are needed for the economy, where the gaps are now, and what they’re likely to be in the future and how technology may change these.

Most importantly the taskforce will make it easier for students to choose computing and digital pathways at school, colleges, Institutes of Technology and universities and we have invested over £100 million in the National Centre for Computing Education.

To navigate these changes, we are determined to ensure that education and business work really closely together. The taskforce will call on a number of industry experts, from cyber security, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and big data.

We have 12 Institutes of Technology across the country today with nine more in the pipeline. They are currently working with over a 100 employer partners, including world-leading businesses such as Microsoft, Nissan, Bosch, Babcock, Fujitsu, Siemens and many, many more. This number will continue to grow, ensuring we deliver the STEM skills that the industry needs – now and for the future. We’ve also made it easier for employers to recruit apprentices, as well as introducing a new Level 7, a masters level Apprenticeship Standard in AI and data science.

I’ve already mentioned T Levels and we’re rolling out more of them including additional digital routes. Eleven T Levels are now available in STEM subjects, including Digital Business Services, which includes specialist content on data analysis.

Digital skills matter. As tech accelerates, they’re likely to become as important to a person’s employability as English and maths, eventually being on a level pegging with those two core subjects. This will be the cornerstone of how we prepare people for the world of work.

As part of these reforms, from September students will be able to study our new Digital Functional Skills Qualifications. These will provide a benchmark of digital skills for employers and will give everybody the opportunity to get the full range of essential digital skills they need to participate actively in life, work and society.

Whether you’re a business or an investor, I want to assure you our workforce will be ready for the future, whatever that future looks like.

Tim Berners Lee once said “The web as I envisage it? We have not seen it yet. The future is still so much bigger than the past.”

For me, that is a challenge but an exciting one.

None of us has a crystal ball but one thing I can promise you, we won’t be settling for anything less than a world-leading role.

Last night it was announced that a French start-up developing generative AI products has raised a record-breaking seed funding of over 100 million euros. The start-up is only one month old.

We have innovation woven into our DNA in this country, but in the global tech race, we can’t afford to slow down.  We must work together now to ensure that UK companies and organisations are at the forefront of AI and technological developments, and in the best possible position to take advantage of the transformative opportunities that these generate.

The Department for Education is ready for that challenge, and we will be there as you face that challenge too.

Thank you very much.

The speech made by Gillian Keegan, the Secretary of State for Education, at the Education World Forum in London on 8 May 2023.

Good afternoon everyone.

I’d like to welcome you all to this annual gathering of education ministers.

You find us all in a celebratory mood and many world leaders from your countries joined us to celebrate.

The coronation of His Majesty King Charles showcased what this country is known for around the world.

Pageantry, tradition, our history, the importance of continuity. But it is not just a celebration of the past. We’re also focused on the future, even an ancient monarchy like ours is constantly evolving.

Who would have thought back in 1953 when we last held a coronation that the next monarch would be one of world’s original environmental champions?

Curiosity and flexibility are vital at any time but especially when the world is changing so fast.

That is why we need education – it allows us to change, it allows us to adapt, it ensures we can meet the future head on.

Many of us will be facing the same challenges. Others will have to tackle problems that are particular to them.

But one challenge we all face is this: How do we make sure our young people leave school or college with the skills to prepare them for a life of opportunity?

We have all found ourselves in situations when our skills didn’t go far enough. I once found myself on a plane travelling to Japan for a major negotiation with nothing but a book on etiquette.

What saved me was a huge appetite to learn from my hosts and my new-found karaoke skills.

Every child has an inbuilt sense of curiosity. None of them want to be left behind, they want to learn and do well.

It’s our job to give them the opportunity to do so. And if we do, we all benefit.

Give people the opportunity to learn and the end result almost always sparks innovation.

The more we collaborate and work together to solve our problems, the more we’re likely to see the power of innovation.

Take the pandemic for example. Look at what the power of global unity achieved when it came to vaccinating our populations. It showed that those who were quickest to innovate in a crisis were more likely to be the first out of it.

So, how do we make this work in education.

I learnt in business, you may not always be first but you can learn from the best and that is what we have done in the UK. We’ve learnt from all of you, and we want to continue doing so.

To inform our Skills for Jobs White Paper, we looked at world leading technical education systems, like in Germany and the Netherlands and those which have implemented more recent reforms, such as Ireland.

Our new vocational qualifications, T-levels, drew heavily on evidence from the Norwegian, Dutch and Swiss technical education systems.

Our reforms to the national curriculum in 2014 have given us world-class standards across all subjects and have drawn on best practice, such as how maths is taught in Singapore and Shanghai.

We benchmark ourselves against all of you – to drive improvement and instil innovation in our education system.

Working with thousands of businesses, we are learning all the time as we partner to design qualifications and provide work experience and training for young people.

But we don’t just want to take excellence from others, we want to share our own too.

The Teaching for Success Tunisia is a project with the British Council, the Ministry of Education and the British Embassy which will give teachers the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to teach English more effectively. So far it has resulted in more than 5,000 primary school teachers learning simultaneously online.

While Heriot-Watt Dubai was the first campus of an overseas university to open in Dubai International Academic City in 2005. There were 120 students to start with. Now there are nearly 4,000.

I hope that this conference can be the first of many conversations I have with you about how we can work together to innovate and improve our education systems further.

Innovation and collaboration are essential for economies at every level and in every corner of the Earth.

No country has a monopoly on bright ideas so the more we talk to one another, the greater the scope for coming up with solutions.

One of the most fruitful ways of doing this is by encouraging international students.

We are proud that the UK remains a destination of choice for so many students. With four out of the top 10 universities in the world, the UK’s higher education sector is truly world class. In fact, 55 current world leaders were educated right here in the UK, only one country is educating more world leaders and that is the US.

International mobility is increasing but so is global competitiveness for talent. We are in a global race, not just for talent but for technology. The industries of the future, whether AI, quantum computing, green technology or life sciences, rely not just on having talent in our own countries but on deep and lasting partnerships.

For example, I am proud that Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn was able to come from Australia and study here in the UK at Cambridge. Her research on enzymes and genetic material could pave the way for people to live longer, healthier lives.

Human rights advocate Ambiga Sreenevasan, travelled from Malaysia to graduate in Law from Exeter University in 1979. She eventually became president of that country’s Bar Council and has been awarded the US International Women of Courage Award.

So I am hugely proud that we are welcoming more than 600,000 international students every year.

International education is popular. It makes us all richer. We all benefit as we build partnerships and lasting bonds. That’s something we value hugely.

And of course, we are equally keen to see our students go and study abroad. Which is why I am delighted that the Turing Scheme, our global programme to study and work abroad, is now approaching its third year.

This year the scheme is unlocking opportunities for more than 38,000 UK students and learners who will gain international experience, developing skills and expertise.

I’m especially pleased that this scheme is extending the horizons for students who might never have had that chance. 51% of the international placements across 160 countries all over the world have been earmarked for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Turing Scheme is truly global in scope, with every country in the world eligible as a destination for UK students, including EU countries. This is great news for all students, including those studying languages, as many more countries, cultures and languages are within reach for UK participants.

Thanks to Turing, Lanchester Primary School in Durham was able to take 16 children to their partner school in India.

The children found themselves immersed in a totally new world and as their head teacher Jane Davis said: ‘they experienced more in a week than some of us experience in a lifetime’.

Whether it’s construction students from South West College in Northern Ireland, who went to Canada to improve their knowledge of green building techniques, or budding entrepreneurs from Nottingham Trent University getting to sample work and study, and probably some dance moves, in Latin America, the Turing Scheme is unlocking international opportunities for students, pupils and learners across the UK.

Actually Turing who also taught and studied internationally was, as many of you will know, widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.

Which brings me to a subject that divides opinion and that is the use of Artificial Intelligence, particularly in education settings.

I know in some countries there is a knee-jerk reaction to AI. It’s going to be the end of mankind as we know it, some cry.

To challenge this response to a future technology I want to call on a voice from the past. Winston Churchill once said “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

We’ve had the difficulties. Now let us make the most of our opportunities.

Which is why here in the UK, AI is making a difference in schools and universities already but there is far greater scope for really transformative change.

AI could have the power to transform a teacher’s day-to-day work. For example, it could take much of the heavy lifting out of compiling lesson plans and marking. This would enable teachers to do the one thing that AI cannot and that’s teach, up close and personal, at the front of a classroom.

We need to respond to it just as we have to other technical innovations in the past like the calculator, or more recently Google. We’ll learn about it, then apply it to deliver better outcomes for students.

We’re excited to learn about what it can do. Whether it could radically reduce the amount of time teachers spend marking, how effective it could be for personalised and adaptive learning and how it might be used as an assistive technology to improve access to education.

My department has already begun this journey by publishing a statement that examines the opportunities, as well as the risks, that generative AI brings to education.

We have a lot more thinking and learning to do to understand the potential here and I am committed to working hand-in-hand with experts, educators and all of you in this room as we do that thinking.

I’d like to thank you Dominic and your team for all your hard work in organising EWF and enabling ministers from so many countries around the world to meet today.

Innovation, resilience, a desire to learn. This is how we will be stronger after the pandemic. We must embrace change and learn from each other.

Alexander Graham Bell, a man whose innovation, resilience and desire to learn, have totally transformed life for all of us, once said: “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened.”

Sometimes a door opening can lead to the most extraordinary places which is how I find myself here before you today.

Let us overcome our fear and open these doors and be ready to embrace the opportunities that are waiting there.

Thank you.

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

The Prime Minister has set out a campaign to transform our national approach to maths. We are one of the few countries in the OECD where young people do not routinely study some form of maths up to the age of 18. Without a solid foundation in this subject, our young people risk being left behind and shut out of the careers to which they aspire and the lives they want to lead. We plan to change the way our system works so that everyone will study some form of maths to 18.

So, today I am announcing an expert advisory group to advise the Prime Minister and me on the essential maths knowledge and skills that young people need to study. To support the group, the Government will commission research on post-16 maths provision around the world, ensuring the curriculum in this country rivals that of the highest performing countries. Alongside this, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education will work with employers to review the maths content in apprenticeships.

Since 2010, the Government have transformed the way maths is taught in schools, based on the best available international evidence, including approaches from the highest performing countries in the world. Supported by 40 maths hubs—exemplary schools in the teaching of maths—and the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, mastery-based pedagogy from south-east Asia has been adopted by more than half of England’s primary schools. In the 2019 TIMSS international survey, year 5 pupils in England achieved their highest ever maths score.

To complement evidence-based approaches to maths teaching and content, the Government introduced more challenging assessments at both primary and secondary schools, including the times tables check in year 4, new key stage 2 maths tests, and reformed GCSEs and A-levels. These assessments ensure that children are taught and master the basics of mathematics, before tackling more demanding content. The success of these approaches was reflected in England’s highest mathematics PISA results for 15-year-olds in 2019.

To continue this progress, the Government are today also announcing:

An increase in the number of schools supported by the maths hubs Teaching for Mastery programme to reach 75% of primary schools and 65% of secondary schools by 2025. We will introduce intensive maths hubs support for the schools that need it most. We will also provide further support for teachers of 16 to 19-year-olds who are resitting their maths GCSE or functional skills qualifications.

An expansion of the Mastering Number programme, which helps children in the first years of primary school master the basics of arithmetic, including number bonds and times tables. This programme will be delivered by maths hubs, reaching over 8,000 schools by 2024. We will also expand the programme into years 4 and 5 to bolster fluency in times tables.

An expansion of the Taking Teaching Further programme, delivering funding for further education (FE) colleges to recruit and offer early career support to those with the relevant knowledge and industry experience to retrain as FE teachers. We will launch a financial incentive pilot this year for up to 355 teachers, targeted at some of the hardest-to-fill subjects, including maths.

A new fully funded maths National Professional Qualification for those leading maths in primary schools, teaching participants how to train other teachers to embed mastery pedagogy. We expect to make this available to all primary schools from February 2024. We will offer an updated targeted support fund for the 2023-24 academic year, providing additional funding to incentivise primary school teachers and leaders, including in the smallest schools.

Today’s announcement sets out how we will deliver the Prime Minister’s ambition to see all young people study maths to the age of 18 and ensure they are equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the modern economy.

The speech made by Gillian Keegan, the Secretary of State for Education, in London on 29 March 2023.

Mankind’s great light-bulb moments, especially the transformational ones, rely on someone turning inspiration into innovation.

Before becoming an MP, I spent almost 30 years in business and largely in tech, so it’s a real pleasure for me to be with you here today.

I spent many years in the financial sector, where among other things I worked on the development of digital payments, to power ecommerce and mcommerce – remember them.

And I got to see life-changing innovation in action.

Back then, when you bought a new TV you got out a simple, magstripe credit card; if you wanted to book a family holiday, you queued up at a travel agents.

I was part of a coalition of banks and mastercard that developed early digital payments using chip and pin technology which was a retail game changer at the time.

Like many in this room, I’ve seen some incredible tech transformations during my business career. I’ve seen innovation come to life and disrupt whole industries. And I’ve learnt many things along the journey.

First, you can’t innovate if you haven’t got the basics right;

Second, you need to know what problems you are solving and not cause new ones;

And third, what sounds far-fetched now will be commonplace in a couple of years. Tech moves fast.

These lessons have served me well, and I think we have a lot to learn in education, which has often lagged in tech adoption.

Let’s look at the basics.

Top of the list is connectivity. I almost said ‘obviously’. But I guess it can’t be that obvious if some schools are still battling glacial broadband speeds. Connectivity in schools, like everywhere, is a basic utility like water or electricity.

We are delivering on the pledge made last year to enable all schools to connect to gigabit broadband by 2025.

We’ve run the procurement for schools in the South West of England, and we’re working with schools across the North West, North East, and Yorkshire and Humber to get new fibre infrastructure.

We’re also upgrading school WiFi networks that don’t meet our connectivity standards in the 55 Local Authorities where school outcomes are the weakest.

We need to get the basics right.

Which brings me on to my second point.

I’m not the first Education Secretary to say that when it comes to tech, what schools need is stuff that just works, that solves a real problem.

Tech that doesn’t work is an expensive and potentially dangerous mistake, and it’s one that schools cannot afford to make.

That is why we are launching the latest set of technology standards. These will build on those published last year and will help schools to develop effective and safe strategies, including safeguarding pupils from potentially harmful and inappropriate material online.

In September we will also be launching a pilot service in Blackpool and Portsmouth, both priority education investment areas, that will help schools meet standards, make the best use of their technology and plan more effectively for the future.

We know for instance, that teachers still spend too much time on admin, lesson planning and marking.

I know there are brilliant products out there to help and many schools use them. With many of the best nominated at the Bett awards this evening.

I’m also glad to see so many innovative maths tools represented.

I want to make it easier for schools and colleges to know what works – so we need to see evidence about what your products can do in the real world.

Which brings me to my third and final point – the game changer.

Artificial Intelligence.

I know the education sector, like many, has had its fair share of false dawns when it comes to technology. In some places, really effective and integrated use of tech is making a difference already, but the tasks that really drive workload – things like planning, marking and giving 1-2-1 support to pupils – remain largely unchanged.

AI will have the power to transform a teacher’s day-to-day work. We’ve seen people using it to write lesson plans, and some interesting experiments around marking too.

Can it do those things now, to the standard we need? No. Should the time it saves ever come at the cost of the quality produced by a skilled teacher? Absolutely not.

But could we get to a point where the tasks that really drain teachers’ time are significantly reduced? I think we will.

Getting to that point is a journey we in this room can go on together – and just as we’ve responded to other innovations like the calculator and Google, we’ll use technology to deliver better outcomes for students.

We will empower you and support you to try things, to see what works, and you must do the same for each other, by working together.

We have kicked off that journey today by publishing a statement on the DfE’s website that says a bit more about the opportunities, as well as the risks, that AI brings to education.

I’m genuinely excited about driving this forward with sector experts including regulators, educators, researchers and the tech sector.

This is part of the government’s pro-innovation approach to AI regulation, as evidenced by our AI White Paper and the launch of a Foundation Model Taskforce, which will also consider UK domestic capability in this important technology.

My hope is that quite soon I’ll be able to tell you more about how we can establish a plan for getting the most out of AI in education, as well as protecting against the risks.

Tech is a tool, and it’s one that schools haven’t yet managed to get the most out of, but it can’t be the tail that wags the dog.

We have to look at others’ best practice – whether that be Estonia’s integrated education data, or South Korea’s exemplary leadership in AI transition. It is great to see so many of you from overseas here today to do that, and to have met some of you earlier. But we must also lead with our own best practice.

We’ve already done it in banking, we’ve already done it in travel. We’ve done it in retail, in music, in entertainment. We cannot wait a moment longer to do it in education. I know I’m preaching to the converted here and lots of you are already on this journey

There’s a great quote by the late Steve Jobs, who once said: “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” This is what great innovators do and I know this country’s schools, colleges and universities can be a beacon for innovation that will transform education.

Thank you.

The statement made by Gillian Keegan, the Secretary of State for Education, in the House of Commons on 2 February 2023.

With permission, Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement about how we plan to reform children’s social care.

My first visit in this role was to a children’s home in Hampshire. The young people I met were full of excitement and enthusiasm for the opportunities ahead. One wanted to be a hairdresser or perhaps a beautician—she was still deciding—and another was set to follow his dreams and join the Navy. They all wanted to have the same opportunities as their friends, and our job is to make sure that all children should have those opportunities. It is why levelling up was the guiding principle of our 2019 manifesto.

On this visit, I could not have seen a more vivid example of how our dedicated professionals can change young lives. I am sure all colleagues will join me in paying tribute to the phenomenal work of our social workers and family support workers, directors of children’s services, foster and kinship carers, children’s home staff and so many others across the country. It is thanks to them, as well as to children’s talent, resilience and determination to succeed, that many who have had a tough start in life go on to thrive.

While the care review, the child safeguarding practice review panel on the tragic deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson, and the Competition and Markets Authority pointed to some good and innovative practice in children’s social care, they were also unequivocal in showing us that we are not delivering consistently enough for children and young people. These reviews provide us with a vision of how to do things differently, and how to help families overcome challenges at the earliest stage, keep children safe and ensure that those in care have loving and stable homes. I accept wholeheartedly their messages, and give special thanks to those who led and contributed—Josh MacAlister and his team, Annie Hudson and the rest of the panel, and the Competition and Markets Authority. Many thousands of people with lived and personal experience of the system also contributed and told their stories to these reviews, and I extend my heartfelt thanks to them for helping us to reach this point.

My hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Will Quince) came to this House eight months ago and committed to action from day one to respond to the care review, and I commend him for all his work while he was the Minister for Children and Families. Since then, we have established a national implementation board, with members to advise, support and challenge us on the delivery of reform. We have set up a new child protection ministerial group to champion safeguarding at the highest levels. We have launched a data and digital solutions fund to unlock the potential of technology, and we have started work to increase foster care placements. This work, coupled with the direction of the reviews and successful initiatives such as the supporting families programme and the innovation programme, has provided us with the confidence to go further to achieve our ambitions for children.

I know both Houses and all parties support bold and ambitious reform. This Government are determined to deliver that, and I am pleased to announce that today we will publish our consultation and implementation strategy, “Stable Homes, Built on Love”, which sets out how we will achieve broad, system-wide transformation.

We want children to grow up in loving, safe and stable families where they can flourish. The Prime Minister recently spoke about the role of families in answering the profound questions we face as a country. Where would any of us be without our family? That is true for me and I am sure it is true for everybody. My parents, my brother, my sister and my wider family had a huge role in shaping who I am, and they continue to do so.

When children are not safe with their families, the child protection system should take swift and decisive action to protect children. Where children cannot stay with their parents, we should look first at wider family networks and support them to care for the child. Where a child needs to enter care, the care system should provide the same foundation of love, stability and safety. Over the next two years, we plan to address some urgent issues and lay the foundations for wider-reaching reform across the whole system. Our strategy is backed by £200 million of additional investment, so we can start reforms immediately and build the evidence for future roll-out. We know this is something that partners support, including local government. This investment builds on the £3.2 billion provided at the autumn statement for children and adult’s social care.

After that, we will look to scale up our new approaches and bring forward the necessary underpinning legislation, subject to parliamentary time. We will listen to those with experience of the system as we deliver. This starts today, as we consult on our strategy and the children’s social care national framework. Our strategy will focus on six pillars of action to transform the system. We will provide the right support at the right time, so that children thrive within their families and families stay together through our family help offer. We will strengthen our child protection response by getting agencies to work together in a fully integrated way, led by social workers with greater skills and knowledge. We will unlock the potential of kinship care so that, wherever possible, children who cannot stay with their parents are cared for by people who know and love them already. We will reform the care system to make sure we have the right homes for children in the right places. We must be ambitious for children in care and care leavers, and provide them with the right support to help them thrive and achieve their potential into adulthood. We will provide a valued, supported and highly-skilled social worker for every child who needs one, and make sure the whole system continuously learns and improves and makes better use of evidence and data.

I will set out some of our key activity over the next two years to deliver this shift. On family help, we will deliver pathfinders with local areas to test a model of family help, and integrated and expert child protection to make sure that we support family networks and help them get the early help they need. On child protection, we will consult on new child protection standards and improve leadership across local authorities, the police, health and education through updates to the statutory guidance, “Working Together”. On unlocking the benefits of alternatives to care, we will publish a national kinship care strategy by the end of 2023, and invest £9 million to train and support kinship carers before the end of this Parliament.

For children in care and care leavers, we will deliver a fostering programme to recruit and retain more foster carers, and path-find regional care co-operatives to plan, commission and deliver care places. We will fund practical help for care leavers by increasing the available leaving care allowance from £2,000 to £3,000, and strengthening our offers so children can stay with their foster carers or close to their children’s homes when they leave care. In recognition of the great work that foster carers do and the increasing costs of living, we are raising the national minimum allowance and foster carers will benefit from a 12.43% increase to that allowance. We will consult on strengthening and widening our corporate parenting responsibilities so that more public bodies provide the right support to care leavers.

On the workforce, we will bring forward a new early career framework to give social workers the right start, and support employers with a virtual hub sharing best practice. We will expand the number of child and family social worker apprentices by up to 500, and we will reduce our reliance on agency workers by consulting on national rules related to their use. For this system, we will assemble an expert forum to advise on how we make the most of the latest technology and publish a data strategy by the end of this year. We will introduce a children’s social care national framework to set out our system outcomes and expectations for practice, and align this with the work of Ofsted.

This strategy sets out a pathway towards fundamental, whole-system reform of children’s social care. We are rising to Josh MacAlister’s challenge to be ambitious, bold and broad for the sake of vulnerable children and families. I thank all those who guided us here, including my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton), my right hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Vicky Ford) and my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Eddisbury (Edward Timpson), who contributed so much along the journey.

Too many children and families have been let down, and we are determined to make the changes needed. We must remember the stories and the lives of Arthur and Star and the children who came before them. We must settle for nothing less than wide-reaching, long-lasting change. Today we set the direction of travel and make a pledge on a future system that will help to provide all vulnerable children with the start in life they deserve.

As the Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing, my hon. Friend the Member for East Surrey (Claire Coutinho), noted in November in the House, our ambition is to lay the foundations for a system built on love and family. I believe that this strategy and the actions we are taking now will deliver that. Family will be central to the way we deliver our ambitions. I commend this statement to the House.