Latest News October 2025

In this months Latest News, we report on the delay of the government’s schools white paper and a new blueprint for SEND reform from IPPR; a new report from the Sutton Trust which identifies the ‘double disadvantage’ for students with SEND from poorer family backgrounds; signals for Arts education from Bridget Phillipson in her latest speech at the Confederation of School Trusts conference on 16 October; the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper published on 20 October, including the introduction of V Levels; arts subjects losing out once again in cuts to teacher training bursaries; a new report examining whether access to a career in the arts industry is equitable and accessible; why the arts are important in developing the skills needed for the era of AI, as well as news in brief for our sector.

And finally, more good news for CLA – we will shortly be announcing the appointment of a new Advisers from the school sector to work with us on our analysis of the upcoming Curriculum and Assessment Review.

Schools White Paper delayed

On 22 October the government announced that the schools white paper – originally expected this autumn – will be delayed until “early in the new year”. In a letter to the Chair of the Education Select Committee, Bridgit Phillipson set out the rationale for the delay – the need for additional time to test SEND reform policy options with parents and experts.

The Education Select Committee, chaired by Helen Hayes MP, had published a report in September, Solving the SEND Crisis.

There are five principles for the SEND reforms that will be set out in the white paper:

• Early: Children should receive the support they need as soon as possible. This will start to break the cycle of needs going unmet and getting worse, instead intervening upstream, earlier in children’s lives when this can have most impact.
• Local: Children and young people with SEND should be able to learn at a school close to their home, alongside their peers, rather than travelling long distances from their family and community. Special schools should continue to play a vital role supporting those with the most complex needs.
• Fair: Every school should be resourced and able to meet common and predictable needs, including as they change over time, without parents having to fight to get support for their children. Where specialist provision is needed for children in mainstream, special or Alternative Provision, we will ensure it is there, with clear legal requirements and safeguards for children and parents.
• Effective: Reforms should be grounded in evidence, ensuring all education settings know where to go to find effective practice that has excellent long-term outcomes for children.
• Shared: Education, health and care services should work in partnership with one another, local government, families, teachers, experts and representative bodies to deliver better experiences and outcomes for all our children.

Schools Week talked to Geoff Barton, who led the inclusion taskforce for IPPR, about the delay: “It’s such a contentious, fraught issue – in reality I’m quite pleased we’ve space to talk through the principles knowing the government is going to have to work through some really difficult stuff in the new year. The fact they are delaying shows the potential of these reforms to be the biggest education has had – making the system work for a lot more children. In order to do that, you need to get it right.”

Tom Rees, chair of the government’s expert advisory group on inclusion, was quoted in Schools Week saying that SEND reforms are “both the most important and the most complex policy area in education today. There is lots of appetite for change, and it’s important to take the time to get this right.”

It was good to hear Phillipson say that it would be “crucial to build a consensus around the reforms” she wants to bring and to state that the delay would allow for full consideration of recent reports from the Children’s Commissioner and organisations including IPPR (see below) and Sutton Trust (see below). New Minister Georgia Gould is at the forefront of this work.

A new report, Breaking the Cycle: A blueprint for SEND reform, from the IPPR (Institute for Public Policy Research) was published on 23 October following work by the think tank’s Inclusion Taskforce, chaired by Geoff Barton, which was set up to find a cross-party solution to the special educational needs and disabilities system. The report concludes that the current approach to supporting children with special educational needs is no longer fit for purpose for families.

Phillipson’s letter stated that Professor Becky Francis would be publishing the Curriculum and Assessment Review “in the coming weeks” and that the government would be publishing its response – so we assume that these will be on the same day, even if they are no longer to be aligned with the white paper. Phillipson stated that the response would “set out how we will ensure every child and young person, including those with SEND, receives a high-quality education supported by a curriculum that gives them the knowledge and skills they need to thrive and adapt in the future.”

CLA welcomes the delay if it is to allow more time for proper consultation with parents and experts and to absorb the findings of several recent and highly relevant reports. Meanwhile, we await the publication of the Curriculum and Assessment Review and the government’s response, and also the publication of details (in the form of an initial invitation to tender) for the new National Centre for Arts and Music Education – which is still scheduled to be operational by September 2026.

On 24 October DfE announced that the National Centre initial invitation to tender would be “published before the end of the calendar year” – we had been expecting it in October.

CLA produced a sector-generated vision and framework for the National Centre which we published in early October (and shared with DfE in August), and we will soon be setting out how we propose to work with the new Centre when it launches.

The Curriculum and Assessment Review interim report in March acknowledged that the system is not working well for all, saying that “young people with SEND make less progress than their peers … we shall take steps to ensure that the curriculum and assessment system reflects high expectations for all and properly supports the progress and achievement of all young people.”

The Review interim report presented social justice as an important consideration and emphasised the need to address persistent attainment gaps – between students with SEND and those without, as well as between socio-economically disadvantaged students and their peers. The interim report used language identical to our own in saying that it “applies a social justice lens throughout its work, applying high aspirations for all.”

We will be providing an in-depth analysis of the Curriculum and Assessment Review in a special News Bulletin after it is published.

Sutton Trust report identifies the ‘double disadvantage’ for students with SEND from poorer family backgrounds

The Sutton Trust has published a new study which looks at the ‘double disadvantage’ that is faced by children both with SEND and who are from poorer family backgrounds.

Researchers surveyed 4,000 parents to understand why children who are from a lower socio-economic background and have SEND have some of the poorest education outcomes of all pupil groups.

Children with SEND from poorer homes are less likely to secure an education, health and care plan (EHCP) and access a special school place, and their parents “are less able to navigate the system than more affluent parents”. It is thought to be the first study to evidence the assertion that families from wealthier backgrounds can access the SEND system more easily.

40% of pupils with EHCPs are also eligible for free school meals; 68% of middle-class parents have spent money on their child’s EHCP application; 69 % of working-class parents spend no money on their child’s EHCP application; and 14% of parents of a child with SEND have gone into debt to pay for the support their child needs.

And the number of children with SEND is growing. Since 2014 the rate of growth has been faster for children not eligible for free school meals (FSM) in many categories of SEND.

Similarly, EHCPs are on the rise. Between 2016 and 2025, the number of English pupils with EHCPs has almost doubled from 2.7% to 5.2%. Children eligible for FSM are over-represented in every category of SEND and in the SEND cohort children eligible for FSM have lower outcomes at Key Stage 4.

The study makes a set of recommendations, including that policy makers should acknowledge the relationship between socio-economic background and SEND; and that

policy makers must acknowledge the double disadvantage for those who are eligible for FSM and SEND.

CLA welcomes the new findings from the Sutton Trust and the recognition – and evidencing – of this ‘double disadvantage’. Our own work – through our annual Report Cards – to uncover an Arts Entitlement Gap and an Arts Enrichment Gap, and expose the socio-economic factors at play in the access to Arts subjects. chimes with this new work. We look forward to seeing how the Schools White Paper due in the new year will address the findings of this important report, and also the blueprint for SEND reform from IPPR.

Signals for Arts education from Bridget Phillipson in her latest speech at the CST conference

In a speech to the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) – the sector body for academy school trusts – on 16 October, Bridget Phillipson set out the core principles of the upcoming schools white paper which the associated DfE press release described as laying the path for the renewal of schools in England.

There were sections within the speech with particular relevance for arts education, for our Capabilities Framework, and for our mission to ensure an Arts-rich education for all.

Phillipson talked about the best schools preparing “children not just for work but for life. Not just achieving but thriving too. The best schools understand their role in shaping not just the workers of tomorrow, but the citizens of tomorrow, the society of tomorrow.”

She talked about her “moral mission” to restore opportunity to communities across the country and talked about wanting “A school system that values richness. Just as much as it values rigour. A system that values partnership. Just as it values excellence. That builds communities. Just as it shapes individuals. That provides stretch. Just as it provides reward.

Where children leave not only with a world of opportunity ahead, but with experiences that will last a lifetime behind them. And a generation of young people. The engineers, the artists, the doctors of tomorrow.”

Phillipson talked about broadening horizons: “Schools are here to teach maths and English and music and geography and so much more. But not only that. And in our best schools it’s never only been that. The best schools prepare children not just for work but for life. Not just achieving but thriving too. The best schools understand their role in shaping not just the workers of tomorrow, but the citizens of tomorrow, the society of tomorrow.” She described these as “mutual, reinforcing goals.”

“The sports teams, the debate clubs, the visits to the museum, the trips to the theatre. They don’t take away from academic achievement; they add to it. But they have been optional extras for too long. Nice to haves for those lucky enough to get them. Now they must become a fundamental part of the education of every child. So our children’s school experience must be broad. Broad in who we see in our classrooms too.”

CLA welcomes these statements from Phillipson in the run up to the publication of the final report and recommendations from the Curriculum and Assessment Review – which she says she commissioned to make the curriculum fit for the future: “I’m confident that the recommendations are going to help us deliver a curriculum, an education that is rich and broad. That’s how we take children from forgotten to included. How we expand their learning from narrow to broad. How we make sure they’re no longer withdrawn but now engaged. How we get them learning, achieving. How we raise their attainment.” And she also talked about the pupils of today being the “artists, creators, engineers, scientists, partners and parents of tomorrow”.

Phillipson’s emphasis on a broad and balanced education, on achieving and thriving, and on a system delivering skills for life and work, reflect many of CLA’s ambitions. Our Blueprint for an Arts-rich education sets out our ambition to see a future-facing curriculum with an emphasis on a rounded learning experience for the personal development and wellbeing of the ‘whole child’ for the present as well as for the future.

Phillipson sees that schooling shapes individuals who go on to become the “engaged and thoughtful citizens our country will need as we head towards the 22nd century” and that transition is mirrored in our Capabilities Framework, which sets out seven capabilities as being personal benefits to the child which become societal benefits as they enter the workforce.

There are helpful signals for the Arts in this speech, but until the Curriculum and Assessment Review final recommendations are published, we will not have a sense of where Arts subjects will fit or be promoted within the curriculum – although we are currently optimistic that the Arts will be valued within the Review.

However, it’s important to note that aside from curriculum and assessment issues for Arts subjects, the biggest obstacle for Expressive Arts subjects for the past 15 years has been their exclusion from accountability measures, so we are very keen to see that accountability will be effectively addressed through the government’s response to the Review.

Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper

This Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper has now been published, following a speech in the Commons by Bridget Phillipson on 20October. The government press release can be found here.

The ambitious White Paper is jointly fronted by the Department for Education, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Department for Work and Pensions and spans proposals to address the number of NEET young people to widening access to postgraduate study. It addresses three key areas: joining up skills and employment throughout the system including through Skills England and funding reform; reforms in the further education/college sector; and reforms in the higher education sector.

The main areas for change are:

• The introduction of V levels: These are new vocational qualifications “tied to rigorous and real-world job standards” which will replace other post-16 Level 3 qualifications such as BTECs, to sit alongside T Levels and A levels, offering a vocational alternative to these academic and technical routes. They will provide a clear option for young people who want to get on in the world of work, university or apprenticeships but want to explore different key sectors, which could include engineering, agriculture, digital or creative, before choosing where to specialise. Unlike T Levels, which are equivalent to 3 A Levels, young people will be able to take a mixture of V Levels and A Levels – offering more choice and flexibility. V-levels won’t be introduced until 2027, and we currently don’t know what subjects they will be in. Pearson, the exam board that delivers BTECs – says it will continue to deliver all its current vocational qualifications, while it joins the consultation with the Department for Education and Ofqual as part of the creation of the new courses.
• Removal of T Level Foundation year: this will be removedas part of the reform totechnical education. The removal will take place after the 2026 to 2027 academic year as part of the plans for new courses and the restructuring of existing qualifications. 
• Closing the post-16 disadvantage gap: Young people will also be supported to get the vital pass they need in English and maths GCSEs and end the demoralising treadmill of repeated resits. A new qualification will be targeted at students with lower attainment to better prepare them to re-sit these GCSEs. This will support white working-class pupils in particular. More than six in ten White British pupils eligible for free school meals do not achieve a grade 4 or above in English and maths by the end of Key Stage 4, meaning they are more than twice as likely to need to re-sit these exams post-16 than their more affluent peers.
• Post-16 targets: There will be a new target for two-thirds of young people to participate in higher-level learning – academic, technical, or apprenticeships – by age 25, up from 50%. A sub-target will ensure at least 10% of young people pursue higher technical education or apprenticeships by age 25 by 2040, a near doubling of today’s figure. This will be supported by the “automatic backstop” (a new Youth Guarantee) to ensure all young people have access to high-quality routes that meet employers’ needs, enhanced by local skills planning to drive growth across England. 
• Universities: Tuition fees will rise in line with forecast inflation for the next two academic years. Legislation will then be brought forward to enable automatic increases to fee caps in future years in line with inflation – but only for institutions that meet tough new quality thresholds set by the Office for Students. Higher education emerges as a “strategic asset” – but one in need of reform to create “a more sustainable, more specialised and more efficient sector, better aligned with the needs of the economy.” There are five objectives for the sector: economic growth, a high-quality experience, national capability via specific research and skills development, regional impact, and an increase in international standing. 
• Flexibility in FE and HE: Higher and further education will be more flexible and accessible for people at every stage of their working lives, supported by the introduction of a lifelong learning entitlement. A consultation in 2026 will look at introducing new “break points” within degrees, so students can gain recognised qualifications as they progress through higher education. 
• A new national Access and Participation Task and Finish group: Chaired by Access and Participation Champion Professor Kathryn Mitchell (Vice-Chancellor of the University of Derby), the Group will tackle regional university ‘cold spots’ and break down systemic barriers that disadvantaged students face when trying to access higher education.

Consultation process

The Department for Education (DfE) is seeking specific feedback on the planned design and implementation of the new pathways for 16 to 19-year-olds announced in the Post-16 White Paper, including:

• V Levels as a third, vocational pathway at Level 3
• Two new pathways at Level 2: simplifying the current offer and providing a clear line of sight to both further study at level 3 and skilled employment through the Further Study pathway and Occupational pathway

Feedback can be submitted here and the deadline for submissions is 12 January 2026.

Comment

There is a great deal of comment on the new Post-16 proposals in FE week and Schools Week. You can also see detailed responses on the Higher Education policies from Wonkhe and Universities UK, and further general coverage in The Guardian and from BBC Education.

There has been much confusion in the post-16 landscape in recent years, and we have seen how abrupt changes can drive falls in take-up. As we address in our 2025 Report Card, Entries into post-16 Expressive Arts vocational and technical qualifications were increasing prior to 2021/22, particularly for Crafts, Creative Arts and Design but they fell after the former government announced its plans to scrap BTECs – 4% for Performing Arts; 17% for Crafts, Creative Arts and Design; and 9% for Media and Communication.

We are particularly interested in the response from the Fair Education Alliance (FEA) which is pleased – as are we – to see announcements that reflect long-standing asks around core qualifications – in particular, the introduction of the new Level 1 ‘stepping stone’ qualifications in GCSE English and Maths. As the FEA says these represent a move away from a one-size-fits-all model towards a more equitable and responsive system. 

The FEA also welcomed the clarity and support that new V-Levels present for young people and employers and the increases in funding attached to the new stepping stone qualifications indicated in the White Paper.

In CLA’s response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review call for evidence in November 2024 we referenced the ASCL blueprint for a fairer education system. We have known for a long time that children and young people require a more humane system that does not consign a ‘forgotten third’ of young people to a cycle of retakes in post-16 education where many again fall below the Grade 4 benchmark. Their failure has been baked into the system because it is based on comparable outcomes, so the percentage of pupils achieving each grade is kept largely consistent from one year to the next.

We have joined others in recent years in calling for a new style of English and maths qualification which can be taken at the point of readiness, which builds confidence and does not represent a built-in cliff edge. This will help many learners – particularly those in need of additional support through SEND, disadvantage or EAL.

DFE cuts teacher training bursaries and scholarships for Arts subjects

Guidance for Initial Teacher Training (ITT) to achieve QTS (Qualified Teacher Status) published by the government for 2026/7 reveals a complete cut of funding for four subjects – including two Arts subjects – while five others have had reductions to the funds available ranging from 23% to 80%.

Bursaries for those training to teach next year in Music and Art and Design (which were anyway significantly lower than those available for most other subjects) have been completely cut, as have those for English and Religious Education. The full picture is as follows:

Source: DfE bursary and scholarship data

Initial teacher training recruitment data for the 2024-25 academic year shows that the government hit just 62 per cent of its postgraduate ITT (PGITT) recruitment target for secondary subjects. But this marked an improvement on the previous year, when just 48 per cent of the PGITT target was reached. 

The PGITT target has not been met since 2012-13, except in 2020-21 which saw a significant spike in interest amid the pandemic. Data showing how recruitment has fared for the 2025-26 academic year is due to be published in December.

Forecasts earlier this year suggested secondary recruitment was expected to be around 85 per cent of its target – the highest since the 2020-21 Covid recruitment boom. Subjects such as Maths, Chemistry and Biology are all expected to over-recruit. While recruitment has risen, the DfE has also cut its targets for the 2026 academic year by almost 20 per cent, amid “more favourable forecasts” for teacher retention.

Fresh analysis by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) estimates the new cuts could lead to a significant drop in trainees next year. “We estimate that these cuts, on their own, could lead to around 2,400 fewer trainees next year, which seems counterproductive for the Government’s 6,500 teacher target,” said NFER workforce lead Jack Worth.

Emma Hollis, CEO of the National Association of School-based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT) said: “It is time for government to stop thinking purely in economic, transactional terms and start thinking in moral and ethical ones. We need a stronger message about the importance of teaching and its impact on the development of young people, as well as on society and growth.” She renewed NASBTT’s call that “no trainee, no matter what subject they teach, should be expected to take on additional debt to train to teach in our state schools”.

You can see the Schools Week coverage here.

DfE has shared the following: “We review ITT bursaries annually to take account of recruitment to date, forecast economic conditions, and teacher supply need in each subject. In music and art & design, demand for trainee teachers has fallen due to higher ITT recruitment in these subjects and improved teacher retention overall. We will continue to monitor teacher supply in these subjects.”

Comment

Arts subjects still appear to be marginalised through teacher training bursaries, through which ancient languages remain prioritised. The optics on this short-term approach are extremely poor just as the government is about to respond to a Curriculum and Assessment Review which we hope will place a new emphasis on Arts subjects within the curriculum after 15 years of their exclusion from the EBacc, during which time there was a 42% decline in Arts GCSE take-up.

Overall, as we set out in our 2024 Report Card, the number of Arts ITT recruits in 2023 remained well below where they were in 2010: the number of ITT recruits for Art & Design fell by 19% between 2010 and 2023, while the number for Music fell by 56%.

Our 2025 Report Card revealed that recruitment to Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in Arts subjects was a particular concern in the 2023/24 academic year. Comparing 2023/24 to when ITT recruitment was particularly strong in 2020/21 (during the Covid-19 pandemic), the number of recruits for Art & Design had fallen by 84%. There were also dramatic falls in the number of new ITT entrants in Music (76%), Drama (60%) and Design & Technology (45%) over the same time-period. From 2022/23 to 2023/24 alone, falls in Expressive Arts ITT recruitment averaged 30%.

It is important to take a long view on what has happened to the Arts teaching workforce since 2010. If the Arts are to be revalued within the Curriculum and Assessment Review when it is published, then the Arts teaching workforce erosion of the past 15 years is going to be a significant problem, and we will need to understand how the government is going to approach recruitment and retention for Arts specialists.

New report examines who gets to be an artist in the UK today

The Social Purpose Lab of the University of the Arts London, and Artquest, which works to make the art world more accessible and equitable for artists, have jointly published a new report which considers whether access to a career in the arts industry is equitable and accessible.

According to data from April 2024-March 2025:

• Artists attended private school at 3x the rate of the general population, and 92% attended university
• Just 41% of artists regularly earned money from their practice, and69% cited lack of income as a barrier to their career
• Over half of artists lived in London and the South East, some of the most expensive areas to live in the country
• Amidst the rising cost of living, nearly a third of artists had taken on more debt in the last year and nearly 15% had accessed a foodbank
• A third of artists had seen an increase in employment outside of their creative practice in the last year, while just over a quarter had taken on work outside of their practice for the first time
• 28% of artists did not have enough savings to last them one month, and only 8% had enough to last them one year
• Discrimination is a barrier for artists; based on age (32%), social background (22%), and ethnicity (17%).

The report illustrates how financial insecurity, unequal access to creative education, and persistent regional disparities continue to shape and to limit who can comfortably sustain a career as an artist.

The report is published at a time the UK Government has committed to growing the arts sector as part of its Creative Industries Sector Plan – but its recommendations conflate creative education and Arts subjects – a confusion we are trying to unpick in our series of Latest Thinking articles (see the latest here) on how the arts and creativity are not the same thing.

An entitlement to Arts subjects (not creative subjects) within a broad and balanced curriculum – in which Expressive Arts subjects have parity with other subject areas – will go a long way to addressing the inequity in the sector revealed by this report and the Arts Entitlement Gap and Arts Enrichment Gap we reveal in our 2025 Report Card. We will have to wait a little longer to how the upcoming Curriculum and Assessment Review addresses the matter of an entitlement to an Arts-rich education for every child.

Why the Arts are important in developing the skills needed for the era of AI

On 17 October, the BBC Radio 4 Today programme interviewed Peter Howitt, Professor of Economics at Brown University, as part of its themed range of interviews about the impact of AI.

Professor Howitt is a 2025 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics, shared with two others for their work on the impact of new technologies and “the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction”. At the close of the interview, he was asked about what he would study now and what skills might be needed in the future: “What would you study now to set you up for the future?” to which he answered, “Well, probably I would study economics because I love it.”

But when pressed on what his advice would be to someone if they wanted to acquire a set of skills that would equip them for the modern AI era Hewitt replied: “I think the skills most valuable … will be what we would call people skills. Skills of getting along with people, leadership skills and skills of communication. Things you can’t do by asking an intellectual task to be performed by a computer.”

We’re always interested in perspectives from other sectors that align with the capabilities we set out in our Arts Education Capabilities Framework. Collaboration, communication and empathy are all capabilities we identify under the broad pillar of ‘relating’ in the Framework, all of which are vital as personal and societal benefits; they are important for teamwork, for working effectively with others, for interpersonal skills, and social bonding.

We’re in the process of mapping the evidence from Rapid Evidence Reviews (RERs) produced in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) onto the Capabilities Framework. These RERs span Dance, Drama and Music, and have been supported by Midlands4Cities, an AHRC-funded Doctorial Training Partnership that brings together eight leading universities across the Midlands. We will also be working with a refresh of the existing Art and Design Rapid Evidence Review.

The RSC and CLA are poised to co-publish the RERs this autumn. The RER researchers have reviewed a huge number of studies across the disciplines, and they are providing the extensive research evidence for all our seven capabilities. Watch this space!

Changes to CLA’s Advisory Panel

The CLA Advisory Panel was formed some years ago before CLA became a charity. Now that we are emerging from our charity start-up phase, one of the Advisory Panel purposes – convening members to share sector information – is no longer required. This now happens through the webinar series we introduced earlier this year, and we are now able to share this content – and these speakers – with a much wider audience.

When we need to consult members through consensus workshops or roundtables, we realise that we cast our net widely within our membership, drawing in Advisory Panel members and members more broadly.

More than a year of intense consultation work since the new government was elected has focused our thinking about the arts education knowledge, experience and deep expertise that we have, that we require, and that we lack.

We are delighted to have just appointed three school leaders to our Board. In recognition of the current landscape – and given our focus on the upcoming final report of the Curriculum and Assessment Review – we have worked with our new Board members to recruit a small group of Advisers with particular expertise in a range of areas pertaining to the Review.

We now propose to work with Advisers with particular expertise in different areas as and when the need emerges. These small Advisory Groups may be time-limited ‘task and finish’ groups or may assume a more regular standing role over time. In light of recent current policy and funding announcements we also plan on taking the same approach for youth and enrichment work.

We have therefore stood down our Advisory Panel effective as of 30 October. CLA is changing, but all our former Advisory Panel members are still very much part of our active Alliance – which extends from our Board to our Associates, our future Advisers and out into our wider membership.

We have particularly been extremely grateful for Advisory Panel member contributions to our discussions, consultations and calls for evidence over the years and look forward to engaging them in our work into the future. We are extremely grateful for their support and look forward to growing CLA’s expertise as we move into a pivotal period of policy change.

We will announce our new Advisers (Curriculum, Assessment and Accountability) very soon.

News in brief

ASCL and Ofsted

The Association of School and College leaders has shelved plans to ask leaders to quit as Ofsted inspectors following opposition to the new inspection framework and grading plans, but has now vowed to “explore legal action” against the reforms.

Cuts to Higher Education posts and departments continue

New analysis from the University and College Union (UCU) has found that universities have collectively announced more than 12,000 job cuts in the last year. Additional cost savings announced in the same period are equivalent to a further 3,000 jobs, the union says, but universities have not confirmed whether these savings will be made by cutting staff. Four in 10 English universities are now believed to be in financial deficit, according to the Office for Students. CLA will continue to monitor cuts to Arts courses.

Oak Academy judicial review restarts

A judicial review over the decision to turn Oak National Academy into a government quango has restarted, after condemnation of its “detrimental impact” on competitors continued to grow. Oak is an online platform that provides free digital curriculum resources.

The British Education Suppliers Association (BESA), the Publishers Association and the Society of Authors were granted permission to proceed with the legal review of the controversial quango two years ago. Before a trial was due to be held last year, the bodies confirmed they had “agreed to a stay of the proceedings”, while discussions with the DfE took place, but this month they announced the legal action was back on. You can see comment from the Publishers Association here.

Critics see what started as a constructive and collaborative charitable venture during the pandemic having been appropriated as a vehicle for a government-approved curriculum. The Arts in Schools: Foundations for the Future report in 2023 reported on the intense debate around something that was seen as providing a government-approved lesson-by-lesson curriculum and issues around teacher agency.

Covid Inquiry looks at the impacts on children and education

Details of the experiences of children and young people during the pandemic have been published by the Covid Inquiry and Schools Week has reported on the Inquiry unearthing more school pandemic chaos. As we have reported in the past, Arts subjects were hit particularly hard during the pandemic and GCSE results are predicted to be still affected by the Covid pandemic well into the 2030s; the same Nuffield Foundation research has concluded that socio-emotional skills are equally as important as academic skills for pupils’ GCSE achievement.

---