Julian Gravatt

OBR talk about the wider issue in recent fiscal risk report but have forgotten about those not covered. Like a stealth tax. Private schools allowed to exit TPS for new staff with no penalty. Post 92 unis trapped. State schools and colleges have higher employment oncosts but higher funding

Employer contribution costs across
all public sector pension schemes (NHS, civil service, TPS etc) rose by a total of £5.6 billion in 2024.5 with HMT providing a nearly equivalent amoumt to cover the extra costs (incl schools and colleges) but they missed out unis and private schools.

A joined-up approach to UK skills policy The UK requires a joined-up approach to skills policy that considers the needs of learners, workers and businesses, is adaptable to changes in technology and the economy, and is flexible to local need...

This @britishacademy.bsky.social report is solid, and makes sensible recommendations. The report stresses the "middle" (HNC/HND in old money) as a gap, as well as the need to boost provision for adults. (Skills "capital" is a stock as well as a flow.)
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications...

Who cares? Funding boost won’t spark renaissance in care apprenticeships Last year’s £1,000 uplift to adult care apprenticeship funding is not enough to entice training providers back to the market, as the number of new apprentices plummets, an FE Week investigation has fo...

Care training in England has been at the whim of a (badly run) market, and this is the result - training providers abandoning provision

Cutting off access to foreign workers without fixing the care training sector is mad

feweek.co.uk/who-cares-fu...

Accounting officer of a college has responsibilities set out in funding agremeent (see 2024-5 version) and was in this case (as is normal) a governor

Still run by Capita. Shifts to Tara this autumn

The reason the nation has a 'skills problem' is a complete mystery.

DfE announce 6% cut to national adult skills budgets Adult education funding will see a six per cent 'affordability' cut next year, the Department for Education has told providers.

A lot to digest on @feweek.bsky.social today:

✂️ DfE will cut national adult skills allocations by 6% next year in the latest blow to budgets: feweek.co.uk/dfe-announce...

😓A 'health top up' will be removed for out-of-work young people in a bid to reduce NEETs
feweek.co.uk/benefits-cra...

Research on EMA support has defied common sense Blunkett argues that his Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) helped disadvantaged students stay in education

Ex-education and employment secretary David Blunkett launched the education maintenance allowance (EMA) more than 20 years ago: now he's defending it against @theifs.bsky.social criticism

Can you imagine our party leaders doing a joint inquest - an hour after the exit poll drops - in roundtable format!
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

New DfE report showing the net present value of different qualifications. Note the largest benefit cost ratios are for learning at & below level 2. Definitely wouldn't want to be cutting further education & adult skills based on this... assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67adc0...

It's not finished. This is just the outline. But I wrote about why North England is poor. Which it really really is. tomforth.co.uk/whynorthengl...

Save NIC candidates sweep North Idaho College trustee races Mainstream candidates prevail with message of maintaining accreditation.

It’s a sorry story but there was a fight back against the bad trustees in early November

www.idahoednews.org/top-news/nic...

ESOL: Immigration charge on businesses should fund courses The government should spend some of its £2.1 billion revenue from the immigration skills charge to boost declining levels of ESOL funding over the last 7years

'The government should spend some of its £2.1 billion revenue from the immigration skills charge to boost declining levels of ESOL funding over the last seven years.' @feweek.bsky.social write-up of joint @aoc-info.bsky.social- Bell Foundation report out yesterday. feweek.co.uk/aoc-immigrat...

Next week is important: it's the deadline to join the Devolution Priority Programme.

Councillors in Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Surrey, Norfolk, Cumbria and Suffolk will be considering whether to do so by 10 January, as will East Sussex and West Sussex.

Is reform of social care doomed? For people who have worked in UK public policy in recent decades, whether as civil servants, politicians or advisers, there is something wearily familiar, and depressing, about the current debate o…

Why does comprehensive social care reform never happen in the UK, in contrast to other complex areas of public policy? It is largely a political-economic question, in my view. This from 2017 still holds largely true: blogs.bath.ac.uk/iprblog/2017...

Definitely worth a listen. Demographic change drives lots of other issues. This note from ONS has a good explanation of the UK numbers

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...

Chancellors wave through tax reliefs with much less scrutiny than they give to spending programmes. NI exemption for under 21s dates back to 2013 in the years when DWP employment and DfE post-16 budgets were being cut year-on-year

I’m not sure there’s any research showing a correlation between in-person taught hours and those post-16 % achievement rates. Or, for that matter, with % participation rates in resits

Possibly. But on the assumption that the funding stick worked, DfE now making it bigger for 2025-6, a year where below-inflation 16-18 funding increase is likely

There's definitely scope for more planning of specialist provision, particularly for growth sectors. Especially if there's any funding to support

MCAs (or is it MSAs) have a lot to contribute to education but I’m not sure anyone has worked through implications of devolving 16-19 FE budgets if DfE continued to fund 16-19 sixth forms. Where would line be drawn? By institution or subject? How to avoid duplication or destabilising competition?

Some people state confidently that the stick (the condition of funding) secured the English and maths progress between 16 and 18 but maybe it was the sustained management attention, increased support for teachers

AoC responds to the English Devolution White Paper David Hughes, Chief Executive, Association of Colleges, said: “It’s good to see the government publish the English Devolution White Paper today, offering…

4/4. AoC comment notes that DfE ministers promise a more coordinated / less fragmented post 16 education system. There’s a DfE vision statement on its way. Possible role for strategic authorities in joining things up but only if they cover all publicly funded providers

www.aoc.co.uk/news-campaig...

3/4.The white paper categories strategic authorities into 3 groups - foundation, mayoral strategic, established mayoral strategic. Quite like the Level 2,3 and 4 in the deals list. All categories are promised control of the adult skills fund but the national budget total hasn’t changed since 2019

2/4. The 12 mayors and the 8 areas with deals account for 34 million people (61% of England). White paper says that strategic authorities should ideally have 1.5 million people. This is more than all of the 8 areas in the pipeline. If this threshold applies, it implies another 14 areas. 34 in all.

1/4. Aim of English devolution white paper is universal coverage of strategic authorities. The carrot is enhanced powers for mayoral authorities, 6 of which will get integrated settlements. The stick is legislation that will allow Ministers to create authorities where leaders can’t agree

Here's how the Government envisions working with strategic and local authorities:

UK 'doesn't have enough builders' for Labour's 1.5m homes Builders and developers say reforms are needed to recruit more tradespeople to build the homes being promised.

This problem was foreseeable months ago. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... The problem with Labour's policy - on building & repairing public services - is not "where will the money come from?" (a stupid qn) but "where will the workers come from?" stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...