King’s Speech 2024: What’s in it for FE and skills?

How Labour's first raft of new laws on devolution, teachers and employments rights could impact FE providers

How Labour's first raft of new laws on devolution, teachers and employments rights could impact FE providers

17 Jul 2024, 13:12

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Labour will use its first term in government to devolve even more skills powers to local areas alongside its high-profile plans for a new national skills body, Skills England.

King Charles III officially opened this parliamentary session this morning with the customary speech from the House of Lords. The King’s Speech outlined 40 new pieces of legislation that the government will seek to pass in the next 12 months.

He said: “My ministers will seek to raise educational standards and break down barriers to opportunity. Action will be taken to get people back in employment following the impact of the pandemic. A bill will be introduced to raise standards in education and promote children’s wellbeing.”

Here’s what you need to know about legislative plans for FE and skills:

Teacher bans back

Labour could be about to revive plans to impose lifetime bans on teachers guilty of serious misconduct in colleges and training providers. 

A children’s wellbeing bill was announced in today’s King’s Speech that will extend teacher misconduct rules and allow regulators to investigate cases “regardless of when the misconduct occurred” and “the setting the teacher is employed in”.

The Department for Education consulted on widening teacher misconduct rules to FE providers in 2022. The last government planned to include legislation in its schools bill, but the bill was dropped.

Under previous plans, FE colleges, special post-16 institutions and independent training providers will have a legal duty to decide whether to refer cases of serious misconduct for the Teacher Regulation Agency (TRA) to investigate. The TRA has powers to issue prohibition orders – preventing someone from working in teaching. 

The broadened remit for the TRA would “reduce the risk of a prohibited person trying to work between [pre and post-16] sectors”, the DfE said when it consulted.

FE Week has asked the DfE to confirm if this measure in the King’s Speech will apply to post-16 settings.

Qualified teachers?

New teachers in FE, as well as schools, could be required to have or work towards teaching qualifications.

The children’s wellbeing bill announced today will “recognise the status of the teaching profession” by mandating qualified teacher status.

The last government removed requirements for FE teachers to have or work towards qualified status in 2013. Since then, individual colleges and providers have been allowed to decide for themselves what, if any, teaching qualifications they expect from their teachers.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said last week Labour’s manifesto commitment for 6,500 new “expert” teachers will apply to schools and colleges. In its manifesto, Labour said it will also introduce a teacher training entitlement as well as returning to mandatory qualified status. 

DfE has been asked to confirm whether new qualified teacher requirements will apply to FE settings.

Wake me up, before you devo

Labour’s pre-election promises to give local leaders, like mayors, more powers over skills and employment support will be part of an English devolution bill. 

Details emerging from the King’s Speech are scarce, however Number 10 said the bill will introduce an “ambitious standardised devolution framework” with “greater powers” in return for new local growth plans. 

According to Labour’s manifesto, the plans will involve employers, colleges and universities setting out how they will support local growth sectors. It’s not clear whether these will replace existing local skills improvement plans. 

The government will also speed up devolution settlements in areas currently without one. For established devolved areas, “advanced mayoral settlements” will be created “where there is capacity and ambition to do so”.

MCAs and the Greater London Authority will be responsible for 62 per cent of the adult skills fund budget in academic year 2024/25 and “further devolution is planned”, a Number 10 press briefing announcement said.

Employment rights

Proposals to introduce minimum service levels, which the last government said would limit the impact of strikes, have been dropped. 

Labour’s workers’ rights drive will also see new laws banning zero-hours contracts and giving employees the right to sue for unfair dismissal from the first day of employment. 

An employment rights bill will be introduced to give employees immediate access to parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal.

Since 2012, employees don’t obtain “full” employment rights until they have clocked up two years of consecutive service. 

Pay reporting

Organisations with over 250 employees will be required to report on the pay of their ethnic minority and disabled staff. 

A draft equality (race and disability) bill will be introduced by the government, mirroring existing requirements for reporting on gender pay gaps

“Surfacing pay gaps will enable companies to constructively consider why they exist and how to tackle them,” Number 10 said. 

What’s next?

Politicians will begin six days of debates on the King’s Speech tomorrow. 

Baroness Jacqui Smith, the new minister for skills, further and higher education, will make her debut maiden speech in the House of Lords on Friday introducing the education elements of the King’s Speech.

After the debates, bills will begin to be introduced and make their way through both houses of parliament.

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