Nadhim Zahawi gives evidence to the Education Select Committee

The new Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, gave evidence this morning to the Education Select Committee. He was supported by DfE Permanent Secretary Susan Acland-Hood. 

Committee chairman Robert Halfon opened the session with questions about the special needs review. NZ said he hoped it would be published in the first quarter of next year, dovetailing with the white paper on schools. 

Mr Halfon pointed out that, by coincidence, today he was introducing a 10-minute rule bill, supported by amongst others, the Children’s Commissioner and Geoff Barton of ASCL. It argued for a triple lock before schools were closed: agreement from the Children’s Commissioner; a vote in Parliament; and a further vote to ensure Parliament was still happy with continued closures. NZ said he would “take a look at the bill” but deflected further questions. He had no plans to close schools again. He agreed the best place for children was in school. It was important to continue to vaccinate at scale and to use testing. 

Regarding a longer school day, NZ replied to Mr Halfon that decisions for extending the day should be based on targeting.  Susan Acland-Hood, Permanent Secretary at the DfE, said the department expected to publish the findings of the review of school days before the end of the year. Evidence gathered internationally and domestically clearly showed that quality was better than quantity, but combing the two was best. One size would not fit all, and so head teachers should be encouraged to consider the length of the school day in a way they had not done before. 

Replying to Kim Johnson, NZ said £800 million investment would be for the additional 40 hours for 16-19 year-olds. “We’ve got the funding to deliver the additional one hour per week, the tutoring, what the teachers’ unions have asked us for - to give flexibility to school leaders as to how they deliver the recovery for students.”

He added: “The chair (Mr Halfon) is asking, are we going to lengthen the school day? No, we are not on the whole. We have targeted funds to deliver.” He would not commit to pilot schemes, but would consider the strategy based on the evidence of best practice. Ofsted would help with that. 

On the question of BTECS, Mr Halfon pointed to the fact that BTECS led to better career prospects than A levels. So, until T levels were fully rolled out, would anyone who wanted to do a quality BTEC be able to do so? NZ gave a guarantee that “we won’t kick the ladder of opportunity away” from anyone. We will not be getting rid of of quality BTECS.  I want T levels to be as famous as A levels.” Susan Acland-Hood clarified that there had never been a proposal to do away with all BTECS. However, there was an area of difficulty when BTECS overlapped with T levels. This led to some confusion. The principle to focus on was there should be a good quality vocational technical qualifications available. 

Christian Wakeford (who is the chair of the APPG on T levels), said it was refreshing to hear the minister talking about level 2 qualifications for those who were not quite ready for A levels. His concern regarding BTECS was that some of the placements were just not there. NZ said all FE colleges would be doing BTECS by 2023. The government would ‘build on’ the incentive scheme for employers. To make this a success, engagement was needed from industry and business. He added that he would ‘consider very seriously’ a scheme for placements with MPs. 

Nicola Richards called on the government to encourage schools to make time to arrange proper work placements. NZ agreed that was important and required interaction with business. The biggest challenge was with SMEs. Simplifying the system was essential. 

Tom Hunt asked about the Ofsted framework and, in particular its role in assessing schools where there were children with special educational needs. NZ agreed there were challenges and it was important not to punish mainstream schools which had a large number of SEN pupils. 

On the disadvantage gap, NZ told Christian Wakeford the government was targeting disadvantaged children and the core schools budget gave more headroom for targeting. This should be done on a school by school basis. Focussing on early years was vitally important. In terms of in-school help, there were improvements with additional mentors.

Kate Osborne asked about anti-vaccination protests outside schools, pointing to a survey on the subject by ASCL. NZ said the government had given clear guidelines to schools to keep in touch with local authorities and the school vaccination team. The Home Secretary had committed the support of the police. Susan Acland-Hood thought the problem was small, but Ms Osborne said this was contradicted by evidence from the ASCL survey. Ms Acland-Hood said the department was working closely with the teachers’ unions to act on reported incidents. 

On the national funding formula to achieve fair funding for schools in deprived areas, Susan Acland-Hood said the NFF replaced a system that was convoluted and had not changed for some time. It was difficult to compare deprivation between areas and the formula reflected change over time in particular places.

Caroline Johnson asked about the attainment gap over the pandemic, especially for younger children. NZ said £17 million had been put into supporting education recovery, which was beginning to help the language skills of reception-age children. Susan Acland-Hood said the recovery was going well. 

Apsana Begum asked about regional schools commissioners and regional disparities. Evidence had shown a mixed picture. NZ said he was happy to look at evidence. His own experience was that the appetite for engagement was satisfactory. 
The subject of Holocaust education and antisemitism was raised by Nicola Richards, who said site-based learning had been most beneficial. NZ agreed Holocaust education was vital. He himself would be visiting Auschwitz next week on his first International visit as Education Secretary. 

Ms Richards also asked about home education. NZ said the department would publish by the end of the year its response to a consultation on non-school education. Mr Halfon interjected with a call for annual assessments, in particular for English and Maths. NZ said he was open-minded about what more was needed, but the first step was a register. Caroline Johnson was unsure why it was taking so long to create the register. NZ replied it was right to consult properly and delivery would be at pace.
Christian Wakeford (who is also chair of the APPG on literacy), said there were about nine million people in the country who struggled with reading. NZ praised the work of the National Literacy Trust in thinking through and delivering real outcomes. On numeracy, the Chancellor had announced funding that would help.

Replying to Mr Wakeford on the subject of curriculum report for PHSE, NZ said the government was always looking at ways to improve. 

Mr Halfon asked about skills, especially in the construction sector and wanted to know what was being done to improve awareness of the lifetime skills guarantee. NZ some ‘tactical interventions’ were needed because of the pandemic - things like Kickstart and Boot Camps. The strategic aim was to continue with apprenticeships, T levels and Level 2s. Susan Acland-Hood added there were some areas which had to be highlighted as priorities, including construction. 

On the question of underperformance by white working-class disadvantaged people, NZ replied to Mr Halfon that the government would be reviewing the pupil premium to assess the impact of reforms. The national funding formula was a good way to target money to the most disadvantaged children. 

On the question of the EBacc, Susan Acland-Hood said a change had been made in the curriculum from IT to computer science which had caused a dip, but numbers were going up. It would be kept under review.