Department for Education

No teaching experience? You’ll fit right in at the DfE

The dangers posed by generalist civil servants who have never stepped inside an FE college

DfE launches consultation on fully-funded digital functional skills qualifications

The Department for Education is calling for views on the content for new digital functional skills qualifications that will become available for first teaching and free of charge from August 2021. They will replace the existing functional skills qualifications (FSQs) in ICT, which will stop being available from July 2021. The legacy ICT qualifications are […]

DfE consults on extending teacher pension survivor rights to civil and same-sex partners

The Department for Education has launched a consultation into plans to extend survivor benefits under the teachers’ pension scheme to civil and same-sex partners. The change, one of three proposed to the scheme, comes after the Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that the husband of former cavalry officer John Walker was entitled to the same […]

Awarding bodies may call for new independent funding approval process citing ‘lack of transparency’

Awarding organisations are considering calling on the government to create an independent process for qualification funding approvals in a bid to stop decisions being driven by short-term political goals. Their representative association, the Federation of Awarding Bodies, has floated the idea of setting up an “Independent Commission for Qualification and Apprenticeship Funding Approvals”. The federation […]

English and maths GCSE resit policy helping tens of thousands

The policy requiring students to continue studying English and maths if they fail the subjects at GCSEs at age 16 continues to bear fruit, as revealed in FE Week’s analysis of the government’s latest attainment figures. The controversial “condition of funding” policy, introduced in 2014, means that colleges must help students who narrowly failed to […]

DfE launches consultation on improving SEND funding arrangements for colleges

The Department for Education has today launched a consultation on how to improve funding arrangements for learners with high needs. The department is seeking views on what “may be adversely influencing local authorities, mainstream schools, colleges and other education providers” in their support for young people with special education needs and disabilities (SEND). “We welcome […]

English and math GCSE resit policy is proving successful but remains misunderstood

As we report this week, the latest DfE attainment figures reveal that since the introduction of the ‘condition of funding’ rule there has been a massive increase in those at first failing, but subsequently achieving English and maths GCSE by the time they are 19. In fact, calling it a massive increase is probably an […]

Former college staff get a chance to challenge FE Commissioner reports

Former employees or governors criticised in FE commissioner reports can now read and challenge the report before it is published. Updated guidance on FE commissioner visits, released in April, explains how reports written by Richard Atkins’ team will shared ahead of publication. FE Week understands that Department for Education officials changed the policy on legal […]

New DfE Skills Index shows significant decline since 2012

The overall added-value of the FE and skills system in England has fallen from a baseline of 100 in 2012 to just 73, new government data shows. The Department for Education today published for the first time a ‘Skills Index’, which shows how the aggregate value of the skills supplied by apprenticeships and classroom-based learning […]