Education and Skills Funding Agency advertise for new CEO

The Education and Skills Funding Agency are searching for a new chief executive, according to a post on the Civil Service Jobs website. 

The ESFA is an executive agency of the Department for Education and is responsible for funding education and skills for children, young people and adults.

They said they are looking for somebody to lead what they called “one of the most high-profile and high-performing agencies in government”.

The job pays £125,000, and whoever takes the role will be able to do flexible working, full-time or a job share, and will be able to work from a number of locations across the UK. 

“This high-profile and high-impact role requires someone who is visionary, inventive and rigorous,” the job advert said.  

“You must not be afraid to advocate ideas and exploit new opportunities; and will have the ability to build trusted relationships to secure practical change.”

Whoever takes on the role will be personally accountable to parliament for safeguarding public funds and ensuring value for money for the taxpayer. 

“As Accounting Officer, the CEO supports the permanent secretary at the Public Accounts Committee and engages directly with the National Audit Office,” the job advert said. 

Other key responsibilities include leading the establishment of the new agency following the recent review of the ESFA and the Future DfE reorganisation of the department.

The new chief executive will be expected to develop a commitment to a “renewed vision for the ESFA” and harness the “strong pride that ESFA staff exhibit in their work”.

It was recently announced that the DfE is taking back policy responsibilities from the ESFA.

The DfE said that it will absorb post-16 policy and delivery functions from the agency from April 1, 2022.

The recent review of the EFSA said that the agency should focus on it’s “core funding role” and that that the DfE should form a single “consolidated” unit for all post-16 skills policy.

The new chief executive will replace John Edwards who was appointed interim chief executive and accounting officer of the agency in July 2021. 

He was appointed to the role after the then chief executive, Eileen Milner, stood down in June 2021. 

When Milner left, she sent a letter to staff saying there was an “important role for me to undertake in the area that I call home and that feels important to do, to try and make a contribution, most especially in the context of recovery from the pandemic”.

She had joined the ESFA from the Care Quality Commission, where she was an executive director.

Ukraine invasion sees Turing placements cancelled

College students are having their Turing and Erasmus international placements cancelled in the wake of the crisis in Ukraine, FE Week has learnt. 

The British Council told FE Week that trips to Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are suspended for the time being and wouldn’t be eligible for funding. Trips planned to the broader region have also been affected. 

FE Week spoke to one college who said they have cancelled Turing trips for 12 students, who were travelling to the Czech Republic, due to parents’ fears about safety. 

However, the exact number of cancellations across international placement schemes is uncertain, and the Association of Colleges stressed it is too early to say whether there will be widespread mobility cancellation as a result of the crisis. 

Emma Meredith, international director at AoC, told FE Week that some planned trips are not going ahead, and that others will “no doubt need to be cancelled – particularly to the broader region”. 

“It is a concern for colleges trying to plan visits about whether they can go ahead. In many cases, they may decide to postpone or cancel trips, if they feel it’s too risky for that to go ahead, because they wouldn’t want to compromise student safety. 

“It’s about being mindful of what the partners on the ground are saying as well. They may say, ‘Look, even if we are 1,000 miles from the border, it’s not a good time’.” 

Meredith stressed that colleges should follow Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office travel advice when making decisions on whether trips should go ahead. 

She noted that some mobility trips may be scheduled for later in the spring or summer and not necessarily due to take place immediately. 

She also said that FCDO travel advice can change quickly and colleges will adapt accordingly. 

At the time of publication, FCDO advice was that travellers should not visit Ukraine, Russia or Belarus. 

“We advise against all travel to Ukraine and that British nationals should leave Ukraine immediately if they judge it is safe to do so,” a spokesperson from the FCDO told FE Week.

The Department for Education told FE Week that all Turing Scheme participants should comply with FCDO travel advice. 

The British Council, which currently helps runs the Turing scheme, told FE Week that the scheme is the UK government’s programme and so the delivery partner will always follow their guidance on such issues. 

The delivery partner’s guidance to participating organisations states that FCDO travel advice must be adhered to. 

This will mean that Turing Scheme trips to the Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are suspended for the time being and wouldn’t be eligible for funding. 

FE Week asked the DfE for data about how many placements would be cancelled as a result. They said they were unable to provide this information, in part due to the sensitive nature of the situation. 

Trips to the broader region cancelled 

The Turing scheme is a student exchange programme established by the DfE in 2021 as a replacement for the European Union’s Erasmus Programme following Brexit. Last year, when it opened, 110 colleges and training providers were awarded funding under the scheme. 

Greater Brighton Metropolitan College confirmed they had taken the decision to cancel an upcoming trip to Prague through the Turing Scheme in response to concerns from students’ parents about their safety. This affected 12 students on travel and tourism and business courses. 

“In terms of Erasmus, we have a two-year transnational project with a college in the Czech Republic and one in Finland. In collaboration with the principals of these two colleges, we are assessing whether we should delay the remaining activities for this academic year to next year,” a spokesperson for the college said. 

Other colleges said they are keeping a close eye on the situation and prioritising student safety. 

“Oldham College has plans for a group of digital students to visit Aachen in Germany as part of the Turing Scheme,” a spokesperson from Oldham College in Greater Manchester, told FE Week. 

“We are not planning to cancel anything at this time as our learners are not due to visit until June. However, we are watching the situation closely as their safety is our top priority.”

Sheffield College said it had two Turing Scheme trips planned to the Netherlands and Portugal which are due to take place this summer. 

“We will continue to monitor the wider situation. The safety of our students and staff is our utmost priority,” they said. 

The Turing Scheme recently opened registrations for schools, colleges and universities for the second year of the scheme. 

The opening of registrations for the 2022/23 academic year, enables organisations to begin planning their applications to secure funding that enables students, learners and pupils, including those from disadvantaged and non-traditional backgrounds, to undertake study or work placements around the world.

London launches VIP adult education quality mark

A new quality mark for London’s adult education providers could give them the edge in future bids for capital and education funding.

On Wednesday, the Greater London Authority (GLA) launched its own quality mark designed to recognise high-quality courses in the mayor’s six priority sectors.

The Mayor’s Academies Quality Mark is now open for applications for all types of education and training providers that deliver publicly funded courses to Londoners. The GLA hopes that the new scheme will incentivise high-quality provision and make it easier for employers and learners to find the best courses.

Quality marks will be awarded at sector level, so providers can apply for more than one if they meet strict criteria. The sectors that have been chosen for the scheme are creative industries, digital, green, health and social care, hospitality, and construction.

Most London colleges and training organisations eligible to apply for the quality mark will have already achieved the required grade two or above Ofsted inspection judgment. However, GLA-appointed assessors will be looking for a wealth of evidence to satisfy the criteria spanning 25 application questions. 

To be successful, providers will have to submit evidence that proves courses in their selected sectors are of high quality, support under-represented groups, are well supported by employers and embed key principles around fair pay and good work, net-zero, and diversity and inclusion.

London’s deputy mayor for planning, regeneration and skills, Jules Pipe, described the quality mark as “an important step in recognising and showcasing good practice, allowing Londoners and employers to access the best training London has to offer”.

The quality mark builds on a similar existing scheme in the capital, the Mayor’s Construction Academy Quality Mark, which has been awarded to 25 providers that are listed publicly in a dedicated course directory on the GLA’s website.

The new quality mark could be more than just a badge of recognition.

The scheme’s application guidance indicates the GLA’s intention to prioritise providers that have been awarded one or more quality marks in future funding rounds for capital and programme pots.

According to the guidance, “going forward, the quality mark and its wider principles will be reflected in the application process for other GLA employment and skills programmes, such as skills bootcamps”.

It also states that “the mayor expects to launch an opportunity to access funding for investment in estate, facilities and equipment for providers that hold the quality mark”.

London appears to be the first authority with a devolved adult education budget to introduce its own quality mark scheme of this kind.

In addition to possible VIP treatment in future funding rounds, holders of the quality mark will be appointed to networks to “tackle sector-wide challenges” to collaborate more with employers.

The GLA also plans to host an awards ceremony to promote adult, further and higher education in London as part of its efforts to celebrate excellence and promote learning opportunities through its recognised provider base.

Providers have until April 14, 2022 to apply, with successful bidders set to be announced in May.

We desperately need parents to control student device use at night

Parents want us to help their struggling child – but worrying habits at home are the biggest problem, writes Emma Boulton Roe

We are fighting a losing battle.

Another student of mine is struggling. Lethargic, desperately trying to focus and depressed. Not meeting his potential. In fact, he is far from being the best version of himself.

I try hard to find ways to help this student, with regular one-to-ones, a support plan, counselling referrals and trying out different techniques to engage him in sessions.

It turns out that there is a very easy fix for these issues.

The student in question is a gamer. He doesn’t sleep until 4am and his diet consists of junk food and energy drinks. 

This, unfortunately, is not an isolated incident. I have multiple students who seem to be surprised that the reason they are tired, feeling depressed and struggling with their workload is that they are not getting enough sleep.

The reason that they have headaches and can’t focus is that they are exhausted and have a poor diet. We have water fountains across the college yet they seem to be relying on fizzy drinks and high-caffeine energy drinks. 

When I asked one of my groups what limits they had imposed on their use of tech at home they all said none. The consensus was that they are responsible for managing their own time, and the consequences are theirs to deal with.

It seems that technology develops faster than most of us can keep up with. Parents may not be aware of the types of challenges their children are facing.

Today’s devices are more advanced than the ones we grew up with.

Internet safety, blue light disruption of the circadian rhythm, melatonin suppression, hours spent scrolling aimlessly through a multitude of social media apps, connection online to other gamers at all hours.

These are real and potentially damaging problems. 

The parent or guardian’s job, which is to set a regular bedtime and good sleep hygiene, is easier to implement with younger children.

The difficulty arises when you have young adults (16 years upwards) who work and are supposed to be independent learners in charge of their own timetable.

These students can eat chips and sweets for lunch every day if they like. They can spend their money on giant cans of energy drinks bought from the local shop. They might not listen to their parents ̶ they are nearly adults, after all.

Teachers are faced with many challenges when trying to engage learners in sessions. We spend precious time trying to negate the fallout from these bad habits.

Often, the full picture doesn’t come to light until further down the road.

Parents have complained to me that we aren’t supporting their child enough, yet I can have absolutely no control over what happens in their home. 

The pandemic has had a lasting effect on our students, not least on their mental health. Teachers have been similarly impacted, yet the push for progress and high grades is ever present.

I am single-handedly waging a war on energy drinks

Families face rising living costs and may be working extra hours, relying on their college-age kids to help out at home and take on more responsibility for themselves.

Perhaps the best place to implement healthy change would be within the tutorial programme.

Advice for parents on limiting screen time could be delivered in tandem with sessions for students, going back to basics on diet and sleep. (Perversely, there are apps for this very purpose.)

I advise on healthy eating. We talk about good bedtime routines. I am single-handedly waging a war on energy drinks. My team is in a unique position where we can combat some of the physical impacts of poor posture with warm-ups and yoga.

We try, at least, to instil a positive routine and work ethic into those we teach.

But until parents monitor their children’s device use, embed healthy sleep and food patterns, we are fighting a losing battle. 

The government must act quickly if targets for electrical vehicles are to be met

We are on countdown to 2030, when no more new petrol and diesel cars will be allowed – but apprenticeships are lagging, writes Sue Pittock

At the conclusion of the Commons passage of the skills bill, the government said the new “future skills” unit within the Department for Education will give schools data to show the opportunities apprenticeships can offer to students.

The bill also gives statutory backing to the local skills improvement plans (LSIPs).

These will be additional recipients of the apprenticeships data and we can confidently predict that green apprenticeships will feature strongly in nearly all areas’ plans.

That’s despite there being currently, and wrongly, no formal requirements in the bill for LSIPs to consult the independent providers that offer them.

However well-intentioned these measures are, I felt a little sceptical about their real value, as I showed shadow skills minister Toby Perkins and local MP Dame Margaret Beckett around Remit’s two automotive academies in Derby this week.

Many of our 1,900 apprentices are now being trained in our academies to help fill the huge skills gap in electrical vehicle (EV) maintenance for cars, vans and trucks, in addition to their core light- and heavy-vehicle programmes.  

The reason for my scepticism is that we don’t need to be told by government that in six to 12 months’ time there will be huge demand for qualified EV technicians – we already know!

Local and national sector skills forecasts have been available from commercial suppliers for many years.

Global brands, especially truck manufacturers, are knocking on Remit’s door now for support.

Some are investing heavily in their own training to keep trucks and vans on the road, and Britain supplied with the food and goods it needs.

According to the Institute of the Motor Industry, only six per cent of the current 250,000 technicians in the automotive sector are EV qualified.

But the country needs 90,000 qualified by 2030, when no more new petrol and diesel vehicles will be allowed on the country’s roads.

On the face of it, this might appear to be good news for us as a provider wanting to keep our academies full.

But the government really needs to wake up to the implications of all this for apprenticeships.

The government really needs to wake up to the implications of this target

Many leading car and truck manufacturers would prefer to see more apprenticeships as the solution to filling the EV skills gap.

However, a lack of urgency in the government’s response to the issue means that training providers and employers are choosing to train with alternative EV qualifications instead.

Faster action is therefore required to introduce apprenticeship standards that are much more tailored to meet the demand for EV technicians. This is particularly needed for heavy vehicles.

The incomplete funding band review for apprenticeships by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education is already two years old.

The spectre of high inflation means that government must act now to lift funding rates to cover significantly increased operating costs.

These costs include higher salaries for automotive tutors when demand for their experience and expertise is soaring.

Independent training providers in the automotive sector do not receive any capital funding from government to support the substantial investment needed for state-of-the-art training academies – even further education colleges are struggling to make training for the sector sustainable.

More investment in facilities and up-to-date equipment will dry up if operating and eligible costs are not addressed properly by the funding rates.

In short, £4,000 for each apprentice per year simply is not enough to meet running costs and make the required capital investment.

Why does this matter? Remit could scale down its automotive apprenticeship programmes and concentrate instead on commercial training.

Just as Toby Perkins said during the skills bill debate, we believe that apprenticeships are “the gold standard”.

Our vehicle manufacturer customers want the choice of their technicians gaining the knowledge, skills and behaviours within a high-quality apprenticeship programme.

So, if the government is serious about green apprenticeships, it needs to worry less about plans and future skills forecasts and act on what really matters.

Otherwise, if ministers are happy to simply rely on commercial training, the 2030 EV target poses a considerable risk to keeping vehicles roadworthy.

How can we recruit more talented post-16 and FE teachers?

A new government website and marketing campaign won’t be enough to tackle rising staff vacancies, writes Geraint Jones

We’ve seen a lot of justifiable hand-wringing of late about the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention.

It comes after the latest government figures showed a worrying 24 per cent fall in applications to initial teacher training in a year.  

Yet within the debate, there has been surprisingly little attention given to the current situation in post-16 and further education – where things are equally dire.  

As far back as 2019, the Augar Review reported that over 40 per cent of lecturers and leaders in the sector intended to leave the profession, and the mood in colleges up and down the country has arguably not improved.  

More than half of college principals find recruitment difficult, a Department for Education survey for last year’s Skills for Jobs white paper revealed. 

Meanwhile vacancy rates in “crucial” subject areas, such as engineering, and construction, were as high as five per cent. Overall, vacancies within FE colleges were 32 per cent higher last year than they were in 2020, according to recruiters Morgan Hunt. 

This is a crisis that cannot continue. As the country shapes its industrial strategy for a post-Brexit world, the demand for a highly skilled workforce sharpens.

This is a crisis that cannot continue

Rightly, government is coming forward with measures designed to bolster post-16 vocational and technical education. These include T Levels, qualification reform and, recently, its “Teach in FE” campaign.  

Indeed, who could argue with its aspiration to encourage 4,000 additional teachers into FE by 2025?  

But a marketing campaign and new website alone won’t achieve this.

At the heart of government’s campaign is acknowledgement that we need more industry professionals in FE, with up-to-date skills and knowledge of their sector and craft.

And so the idea of the “portfolio career” was born.  

This is nothing new: practitioners have always lectured in FE colleges, and these relationships form the backbone of our vocational education today.  

What would benefit these staff, however, is excellent training in the actual craft of teaching. This involves: how to break down learning, plan lessons and make a course engaging; how to assess, coach and stretch students; how to manage a class and spot pastoral problems.

In essence, we need training that shows staff how to blend first-class industry practice with the gift of teaching.

Acquiring these skills while maintaining a viable portfolio career is currently very difficult, as few professionals have the luxury of stepping away from work while they train.  

At the National Institute for Teaching and Education we have plans under way to launch a targeted PGCE post-16 and FE course that is delivered online. It will be available via apprenticeship or tuition fee routes. 

The course will follow our existing “any time, any place” model. It is hoped this will enable aspiring lecturers, who often already have successful careers, to balance their working lives with studying for a fully accredited teaching qualification. 

Alongside recruitment, the government needs to address retention. Removing the qualification requirement to teach in FE was a blow to the sector’s status.

Lower-on-average pay rates have also done very little to bolster morale.  

It is critical that wherever students learn, they have access to high-quality teaching. 

This includes aspiring graphic designers, electricians, veterinary nurses and other professional and vocational students training in sixth forms and colleges, everywhere from Cumbria to Cornwall.  

For them, having the opportunity to learn their craft from an experienced professional is essential; and that’s why we need practitioners who can deliver engaging learning, accessible subject knowledge and positive coaching.  

This means encouraging highly skilled talent into the sector, training them in the craft of teaching, and creating the conditions that make them want to stay.

How can student engagement with Ukraine go beyond a flag on Facebook?

College leaders are increasingly having to develop thoughtful responses to the Ukraine conflict and other highly politicised issues, writes Stuart Rimmer

On a global scale the world looks east to the Ukraine conflict and the humanitarian fallout. But more locally in colleges, the conflict raises questions. How should we react and act?

It has always been easy to argue that teaching and, more broadly, education is in itself a political act. What we teach, how we teach it, what we fund, how we are inspected, who we include and exclude is driven by political choices.  

Through the pandemic we saw how government often made political choices rather than moral ones about how our sector was treated.

On more than one occasion, leaders were forced to make ethical decisions. We have also had to adopt a position on matters usually way outside the education arena.  

Increasingly, global events such as the pandemic, conflict, sustainability and any of the other impending horsemen of the apocalypse will force colleges to take moral positions and act accordingly. We must be ready for these debates and, importantly, action.  

The Russia-Ukraine conflict will likely affect students and staff in every college. In this case, backing the position of our government and the EU against the international aggression seems straightforward.  

FE adopting a stance in itself won’t have Putin shaking in his jackboots. Nevertheless, some students are reporting they wish to understand the conflict better, or are fearful of the conflict getting bigger. 

Many students and increasingly many staff won’t recall the Cold War or the Troubles and will be experiencing a conflict close to home for the first time. So there is a great opportunity for doing what we do best ̶ engaging and teaching.

We should be able to teach without our own bias and through factual presentation. We can use it to reinforce messages around British values, which we’ll have already done through induction and tutorial.  

The conflict creates real opportunities to discuss the rule of law, liberty, respect and democracy.

(Such lessons are likely much needed post “party-gate” and the recently reported governmental corruption.)  

We can also proactively seek out staff and students with familial connections in Eastern Europe who might be experiencing particular distress, and put in place specific support.

One Ukrainian student in my college, Vanessa, is worried about family and friends she has in Richka, a village in western Ukraine.

She says some students are “shocked” but also said that many students feel “it doesn’t affect them”.  

Meanwhile one of my amazing ESOL tutors, Oksana, is Ukrainian and her family is in Kiev. She is personally impacted but is bravely using it in her teaching.

She says, “It’s scary to get the news and to continue is hard… but it’s my job.”

She says she is not only proud of her nation’s response but is experiencing empathy from her students from Iraq and Afghanistan, who know conflict. I am sure this is being replayed in colleges across UK.

So this is a live debate in our student communities. It means there is an opportunity to talk about student activism through petitions, demonstration, fundraising and engagement. 

Controversially, making space for the Russian historical perspective may be required to create balance and empathy.   

Making space for the Russian historical perspective may be required to create balance and empathy

We should also discuss the differences between being humanistic and empathetic, without unnecessary virtue signalling.

We can discuss how students can show their concern through real action rather than just plastering a yellow and blue flag on their Facebook page.

For example the ‘Good for Me Good for FE’ campaign has mobilised quickly with Red Cross to support fundraising for Ukraine. 

There are economic implications that will play out all over the world, whether this is petrol pump prices or the cost of gas (mostly Russian!). By recognising these issues, we help create global citizens.  

So we’ll need to stretch beyond our classrooms, and beyond the constraints of one unit in a technical qualification specification. Encouraging students to think critically and to take action where they feel moved to feels like a good first step.

College staffing crisis hits two-decade high, claims AoC

Colleges are calling on government to boost their funding to help improve staff pay after a survey found there are around 6,000 job vacancies in the sector.  

According to the Association of Colleges (AoC), which carried out the research, this is the highest number of vacancies seen in “two decades” – a claim that is based on assumptions from experienced senior leaders since there is a lack of comparable data. 

High levels of persistent vacancies were found in government priority areas such as construction, engineering, health and social care and science and maths. 

The AoC has now called for a “concerted national push to tackle the recruitment and retention problem before it worsens”, namely by increasing funding rates which have been cut over the past ten years. 

Their concerns about the “staffing crisis” have been echoed by staff unions, including the University and College Union (UCU) and Unison.  

“The issue for colleges around recruiting and retaining staff has been building for some time. It is a symptom of the decision to freeze or reduce colleges’ funding for over a decade and has left the sector struggling to keep pace on pay,” said Kirsti Lord, deputy chief executive of AoC.  

 “In relation to schools, college pay doesn’t even come close, and when potential staff can earn far more in their specific industry, it makes it increasingly difficult for colleges to attract the people they desperately need.” 

The survey of college HR directors was carried out in December 2021 and had responses from 48 per cent of all colleges.  

The colleges that responded reported 3,293 vacancies. The report said this implies a total of 6,000 vacancies across the sector, a vacancy rate of 5.5 per cent.  

It found that the average number of vacancies per college was 30, with one reporting 162 vacancies.  

Some 1,853 of these vacancies were in support areas, with high levels of persistent vacancies in learning support roles, student services and facilities and estates roles.  

The current level of vacancies is creating increased pressure on existing staff according to 96 per cent of survey respondents. 

And 61 per cent said that vacancies were having a significant impact on the amount they are having to spend on agency fees. 

Speaking on the reasons for the high numbers of vacancies, the AoC noted that the sector had been hit by a “decade of cuts and endless reform”. 

“As it stands, teachers in schools are currently paid over £9,000 more than college lecturers on average, despite many college lecturers being more specialist and having brought real-life industry experience to their roles,” the organisation said in a statement. 

The AoC is also now calling on the government to take “important short-term actions, including adjustments to the 2021/22 adult education performance rules and providing sufficient flexibility in 16-18 funding for 2022/23”. 

They also want the government to commit to action on whole-college funding, including increases and reform, action to reduce external bureaucracy and improvements to teacher training routes. 

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “This report clearly demonstrates the consequences of underfunding the college sector with 6,000 posts lying empty and a yawning chasm in pay remaining between those who teach in our colleges and school teachers.” 

However, Grady argued that college leaders are “not blameless in all of this” and had repeatedly used a lack of government funding as an excuse to hold down staff pay. “Employers can and must pay staff more, and the government must ensure increases in funding are sustained and not one-offs,” Grady said. 

“Failure to do so will leave the blame for the continued recruitment and retention crisis at the feet of both college leadership and government.” 

Unison head of education Mike Short said colleges have had to axe thousands of jobs in the absence of sufficient government cash. “Ministers must invest in further education or young people won’t get the education they deserve. The economy will also miss out on the skilled workers it craves,” he said.  

Jerry White, deputy principal of City College Norwich, told FE Week: “Across the sector we are all struggling with the levels of funding that we receive and have received over the last decade to pay rates that are, in many cases, competitive to the sectors you are trying to recruit people from.” 

A Department for Education spokesperson said that FE teachers are needed across many subject areas. “That is why we have launched a national campaign to encourage industry professionals, particularly those in priority sectors such as construction and engineering, to teach in FE,” the department told FE Week. 

“We will be investing an extra £1.6 billion in 16-to-19 education and training by 2024/25, compared with the 2021/22 financial year, which includes funding for colleges. This includes an up-front cash boost which will see the rate of funding per student boosted by over eight per cent in 2022/23.” 

Former education secretary Gavin Williamson knighted

The former education secretary Gavin Williamson has been knighted, the government has announced.

It comes less than a year after he was unceremoniously sacked in a reshuffle by prime minister Boris Johnson.

Williamson – also a former chief whip and defence secretary – had faced heavy criticism for his handling of the pandemic’s impact on education providers, most notably 2020’s exams fiasco.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said leaders and parents alike would be “surprised” by the decision. Williamson’s tenure was “one of endless muddle, inevitable U-turns, and even threats of legal action to override local decisions”.

Sam Freedman, a former DfE adviser, accused the government of “waiting for a major war to sneak out the knighthood” because of their embarrassment.

Honour shows ‘contempt’ for children and staff

Williamson’s dismissal also followed criticism over chaotic school, college and provider closure and reopening plans, as well as the BTECs debacle.

Lib Dem education spokesperson Munira Wilson said people would be “outraged”, adding: “The only award Gavin Williamson should be given is the one for worst education secretary in history.”

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said the honour showed “utter contempt” for students and staff.

Last year Williamson was accused of endangering the health of hundreds of thousands of pupils by scientists, who warned fully reopening schools, colleges and providers without robust mitigation measures” was “reckless”.

Knighthood was left out of new year’s honours

Williamson’s name was conspicuous in its absence from the new year’s honours list, having been tipped for a knighthood in 2021.

The Telegraph reported that a government source said it was due then but delayed over the Sue Gray report, before being approved once police decided against investigating a DfE gathering.

A brief statement released by Downing Street today said the Queen was “pleased to approve that the honour of knighthood be conferred” upon Williamson.

Anyone can nominate individuals for honours, but who receives one and which honour they receive is typically decided by committees of civil servants and independent members.

These recommendations go to the prime minister, who then recommends them to the Queen.

A new system of awarding of honours for parliamentary and political service was only introduced relatively recently under the Conservatives in 2012.

A House of Commons Library report in 2017 noted it was a “controversial part of the honours system”, because of public suspicion it could be dished out for political support – or for “just doing the day job”.

Chief government and opposition whips serve on the parliamentary and political service committee – meaning its former members include Williamson himself.

Barton said problems under Williamson’s tenure as education secretary were “not all Williamson’s fault”, however, with Downing Street partly at fault. Covid would have been “challenging for any education secretary”.