Expecting schools to provide more support to help pupils to secure a post-16 destination – potentially policed by Ofsted – “looks untenable” without “sustained investment”, the government has been warned.
Downing Street announced on Tuesday that schools would be “tasked with ensuring every pupil has a clear post-16 destination, supported by Ofsted, with a guaranteed college or FE provider place available as a safety net”.
However, on Wednesday a watered-down press release instead said that schools would “play a greater role in ensuring every pupil has a clear post-16 destination”.
The Department for Education has said it would “revise guidance so that schools routinely provide targeted support” for those at risk of ending up not in education, employment or training (NEET).
This would help them “choose their next step and successfully transition into post-16 education and training”.
But it has not said whether this guidance will be statutory.
Just under 950,000 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK were NEET in April to June (12.8 per cent), government data shows, up from 11.2 per cent in 2019.
‘Sustained investment needed’
The DfE said its new approach would allow schools and multi-academy trusts to better support positive post-16 transitions “with a tighter focus on identifying and improving underperformance”.
But Tom Richmond, a former DfE adviser, said that expecting schools to provide specialist support to every young person at risk of becoming NEET looked untenable “unless the schools receive sustained investment to build their capacity and expertise in this area”.
Schools already have a legal duty to provide careers advice, but they are not expected to find pupils a specific post-16 pathway.
Local authorities, on the other hand, have a duty under the “September guarantee” to find education and training places for 16 and 17-year-olds.
It is not clear to what extent schools’ new duties will overlap with councils.
Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of the ASCL school leaders’ union, said schools already put a lot of work into supporting pupils with post-16 transition, but had to do this within available staffing and resources.
“If the government wants them to do more it begs the question of where the funding and capacity will come from.”
‘Don’t make it another accountability measure’
John Yarham, the chief executive of the Careers and Enterprise Company, said the new policy was an “increased attention on the role that schools are playing in securing outcomes”.
But there are sparse details on the role Ofsted will play.
Asked for more information, the DfE said Ofsted’s “renewed framework is built on the standards and requirements that schools are expected to meet, and will therefore reflect these strengthened requirements”.
But Ofsted’s framework for inspections from November is already finalised. Any new guidance for schools would have to be reflected in a future update.
“Under the renewed framework, we will consider how well pupils are supported to be ready for their next phase of education, training or employment,” a spokesperson for the watchdog said.
“The framework is designed using the standards schools are required to meet by government. Annually, we will make updates to reflect changes to government policy.”
However, Richmond said he would “question” whether Ofsted inspections were the right way to hold schools to account on pupil destinations.
Di’Iasio added that “making this yet another accountability measure policed by Ofsted isn’t really a sensible answer to that question. We’d suggest more investment in local careers services.”
Schools don’t have power to create places
The DfE has said that under the new model, pupils without a post-16 study plan will be “automatically allocated a place at a local college or further education provider”.
They will be “contacted by the provider to be given a place and have the wraparound support provided to ensure they remain in education or training”.
A series of pilots will involve designating a “default provider in a local area with the expertise to support young people with diverse needs”.
But Yarham pointed out schools did not have the power to create places in other establishments. He suggested the role of career hubs could be built upon to help provide support between education transitions.
Sir Keir Starmer told the Labour conference this week he would scrap the Blair era target of 50 per cent of young people attending university.
The government would “replace it with a new ambition, that two thirds of our children should go either to university or take a gold standard apprenticeship”.
Your thoughts