Powell hires Get Further boss as special adviser

The boss of a further education tutoring charity has been appointed a special adviser to education secretary Lucy Powell.

Sarah Waite, founder and chief executive of Get Further, advised Powell in opposition, working as a political adviser when the Manchester Central MP was shadow education secretary between 2015 and 2016.

Powell was appointed education secretary last month, replacing Bridget Phillipson in prime minister Andy Burnham’s first cabinet.

Waite began her career teaching maths in Leeds before becoming head of policy at the Social Mobility Commission under Alan Milburn’s chairship, where she developed the concept of Get Further. She also worked on the devolution of the education budget for the Greater London Assembly.

She founded Get Further in 2017, winning the Teach First Innovation Award the following year. The charity delivers small-group tuition in English and maths to students resitting GCSEs in post-16 settings, and has campaigned for disadvantaged learners to receive a student premium equivalent to the pupil premium in schools.

Alice Eardley, Get Further’s deputy chief executive, will take over as interim CEO.

Waite joins two special advisers already appointed to Powell’s team.

Donjeta Miftari previously worked on communications for Andy Burnham, spent a short time as a foreign policy special adviser in Downing Street under Keir Starmer, and advised Shabana Mahmood in opposition. Ant McCaul has returned after serving as Powell’s special adviser when she was leader of the House of Commons, a role that ended when she left cabinet last September.

Special advisers are temporary civil servants appointed personally by ministers and paid from public funds. Unlike permanent officials, they are exempt from political impartiality rules and offer party political advice, brief the media and push their ministers’ policy priorities within the department. Their appointments end automatically when the minister who hired them leaves office or when parliament is dissolved.

Powell used an article in The Times this weekend to reveal a review of what schools teach and blamed the former education secretary Michael Gove for the million young people now outside education, employment and training.

She wrote that a one-size-fits-all system had left too many pupils branded a failure instead of realising their potential, and argued high-quality vocational options should carry equal esteem rather than being treated as a second-class choice.

Her in-tray also includes the transfer of 16 to 19 funding to mayors, Burnham’s technical education pathways for 14 to 16-year-olds and the introduction of new V Level qualifications next year.

Waite and see… Get Further boss and her insights on Powell and Milburn