Policy Watch

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan gave evidence to the Education Committee for the first time this week, covering strike impact mitigation, the possibility of an undergraduate apprenticeship for maths and physics teaching, social mobility in grammar schools, and how conversations surrounding Rishi Sunak’s British Baccalaureate proposal are currently focused on maths to 18. She also announced that the Schools Bill will not progress any further.

The top story of the past fortnight was the appointment of a new DfE ministerial team, with Gillian Keegan becoming the fifth Education Secretary in four months. Joining her in the Education Department are veteran Schools Minister Nick Gibb, former Chair of the Education Select Committee Robert Halfon, existing Minister for the School and College system Baroness Barran, and Sunak supporter Claire Coutinho.

Policy Watch returns after a summer break, and against a continuing backdrop of political upheaval. Despite the rapid unravelling of Liz Truss’ premiership, it was a busy week in the education policy world with various data releases, funding announcements, and the Government’s response to the review of post-16 level 2 qualifications (which included an implementation delay of a year). With a new Prime Minister announced next week, we expect further changes in the DfE ministerial team – and so next Monday’s Education questions in Parliament could be the first and last for the current set of ministers.

Over the past fortnight, with Parliament still in recess, the education policy landscape has been dominated by the publication of reports and research papers, as well as the ongoing leadership campaigns of Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. Both have set out some thoughts on education policy, outside of the inevitable conversation around grammar schools.

In a relatively quiet week for education policy as activity winds down for recess, the Petitions Committee held a debate on BTEC qualifications after the Protect Student Choice campaign’s petition received more than 108,000 signatures. The debate featured arguments in favour of BTECs and applied general qualifications from MPs across the political spectrum. It will be interesting to see whether the new Prime Minister and their team of ministers will consider the weight of public and political support for choice at age 16.