Overall national education strategy and key objectives 

Current Conservative Government 2020

Following the general election held on 12 December 2019, the Conservative Party was returned as the largest party, with an overall majority in the House of Commons.

The Queen’s Speech, outlining the Government’s policies and proposed legislation for the new parliamentary session, was made on 19 December 2019. It contained the general statement:

‘To ensure every child has access to a high-quality education my Ministers will increase levels of funding per pupil in every school’.

The background briefing notes set out more specific priorities which include:

• increasing per-pupil funding for primary and secondary schools
• moving towards delivering this funding directly to schools, through a single national formula
• expanding the free schools programme
• increasing teachers’ starting pay to £30,000 (€32,540*) nationally by September 2022
• renewing the focus on further and technical education to ensure that the post-16 education system is well-funded, and organised in a way that enables young people and adults to gain the skills required for success and to help the economy
• supporting continued preparation for T Levels and their initial delivery from September 2020
• investing in the creation of a ‘National Skills Fund’ and in a rebuilding programme to upgrade the further education college estate
• establishing 20 Institutes of Technology – collaborations between further education colleges, higher education institutions and employers, offering higher technical education and training in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects
• delivering better value for students in post-18 education through more options that offer the right education for each individual, and providing the best access for disadvantaged young people.

*Exchange rate used: €1 = £0.92, ECB, 11 September 2020

The Government continues to pursue the overall vision set out in the Department for Education’s single departmental plan, last updated in June 2019 under the previous Government and covered in the next section.

Conservative Government 2017-2019

Following the general election held on 8 June 2017, the Conservative Party was returned as the largest party, but without an overall majority in the House of Commons. The Conservative Party subsequently reached a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and was able to form a government.

Single departmental plan 

The single departmental plan guided the work of the Department for Education under the 2017-2019 Conservative government and was last updated in June 2019. The plan set out the department’s vision:

'world-class education, training and care for everyone, whatever their background. It will make sure that everyone has the chance to reach their potential, and live a more fulfilled life. It will also create a more productive economy, so that our country is fit for the future.'

The reforms and plans to achieve this vision were guided by seven principles:

‘World-class education:

• ensure our academic standards match and keep pace with key comparator nations
• strive to bring our technical education standards in line with leading international systems
• ensure that education builds character, resilience and well-being

To achieve this we will:

• remember that in education and care, by far the most important factor is the people delivering it – so we will strive to recruit, develop and retain the best
• prioritise in all we do the people and places left behind, the most disadvantaged
• protect the autonomy of institutions by intervening only where clear boundaries are crossed
• make every pound of our funding count.’

The plan also included commitments to:

• improve the capacity, quality and resilience of the further education sector
• work with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, to support the implementation of the Industrial Strategy (see below) and reform the skills system to deliver the skills demanded by employers, and needed to boost productivity.

In the Queen’s speech following the October 2019 appointment of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister (just before the December 2019 election), the Government set out its priorities for education. These priorities formed the basis for those in the Queen’s Speech made under the new Government in December 2019 (see the section ‘Conservative Government 2019’ above).

Industrial Strategy 

In November 2017, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published a White Paper, Industrial Strategy: building a Britain fit for the future. This sets out a long-term plan to boost productivity through helping businesses to create better, higher-paying jobs with investment in the skills, industries and infrastructure of the future.

In December 2018, BEIS published Forging our Future: Industrial Strategy - the story so far, exploring progress made over the previous year, including the commencement of reforms to technical education and the increase in higher level apprenticeship starts.

BEIS’ single departmental plan, updated in June 2019, includes a commitment to deliver on the Industrial Strategy by taking actions including working with the Department for Education (DfE) to establish a world-class technical education system and National Retraining Scheme, and to promote science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills.

Conservative Government 2015-2017 

Key documents issued by the majority Conservative Government elected in May 2015 set some targets extending to 2020. These included DfE strategy 2015-2020: World Class Education and Care, published in March 2016, which outlined the Department for Education strategy for 2015-2020. It included 12 strategic priorities:

• recruit, develop, support and retain teachers
• strengthen school and system leadership
• drive sustainable school improvement
• embed clear and intelligent accountability
• embed rigorous standards, curriculum and assessment
• ensure access to quality places where they are needed
• deliver fair and sustainable funding
• reform 16-19 skills
• develop early years strategy
• strengthen children’s social care
• support and protect vulnerable children
• build character and resilience.

Educational Excellence Everywhere was also published in March 2016. This White Paper built on and extended the Government’s reforms to schools in England. It included aims to convert all schools to academies by 2022, ensure that most schools form or join multi-academy trusts, and open 500 new free schools by 2020. In October 2016, the Government withdrew its plans to require all schools to become academies and/or to join multi-academy trusts.

The single departmental plan (see the section on the Conservative Government 2017-2019 above) was first published at the start of 2016 for the period 2015 to 2020.

Overview of the education reform process and drivers

The education policy making and reform process is complex, bringing together the Government’s political objectives with evidence and the views of experts and stakeholders.

Evidence and data 

Evidence-based policy making is embodied in the Civil Service code. All civil servants in the UK civil service are expected to carry out their role with a commitment to the core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality. Objectivity is defined as basing advice and decisions on rigorous analysis of the evidence.

Across central government, the Government Social Research (GSR) Profession provides and procures social research to support the development, implementation, review and evaluation of policy.

The Government also regularly commissions policy reviews by independent experts to inform and strengthen its policy making.

In addition, research and analysis commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) since 2010 is publicly available online.

Information from international surveys of student attainment provides comparative performance measures for school education. England has participated in OECD PISA since it began in 2000 and participates in TIMSS and PIRLS. Information on national results in these surveys is available from the Department for Education.

HM Treasury, the Government’s economic and finance ministry, provides guidance for central government policy makers. This includes the Green Book, which advises on how publicly funded bodies should prepare and analyse proposed policies, programmes and projects to obtain the best public value and manage risks. It also covers the evaluation of policies, programmes and projects after they have been implemented, to find out how well they have achieved their original objectives and how well they have delivered within their original budgets to planned timescales.

The Cabinet Office has particular responsibility within government for helping to ensure the effective development, coordination and implementation of policy. It has established the following initiatives:

• the Open Policy Making toolkit, which provides tools and techniques to create more open and user-led policy
• the What Works Network, which aims to improve the use of high-quality evidence in policy decisions about public services. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Sutton Trust are jointly designated as the What Works Centre for educational achievement.

Equality duty 

The public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010 requires public authorities to have due regard to a number of equality considerations when exercising their functions. An equality impact assessment may be used to demonstrate compliance with the law, but is not mandatory.

Scrutiny and audit

Parliamentary Select Committees provide an important means of scrutinising policy making.

• The Education Committee monitors the policy, administration and spending of the Department for Education and its associated arm’s length bodies, including Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills).
• The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) examines the value for money — the economy, efficiency and effectiveness — of public spending, and generally holds the Government and its civil servants to account for the delivery of public services.

The National Audit Office (NAO) works closely with the PAC and reports on whether government departments have used public money efficiently and effectively.

Accountability

The education system is shaped by accountability and funding frameworks, including the inspection framework established by Ofsted (the inspectorate) and the measures published in the school and college performance tables.

Article last reviewed September 2020.