This week I highlight publication of the Education Select Committee’s Report on CEIAG, revised statutory guidance on home to school travel and the risk of further strike action.

Publication of Education Select Committee’s Report on CEIAG
Yesterday the Parliamentary Education Select Committee’s Report on Careers Education,
Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) was published. It follows the Committee’s inquiry into the quality of CEIAG delivered in schools and colleges and makes some key recommendations as follows:

• Develop and publish an updated Careers Strategy in consultation with other Departments and relevant stakeholders by the end of 2024. This should include clear, measurable outcomes and dates by which these should be achieved, including targets for increasing the number of schools achieving the Gatsby benchmarks in full.
• Ofsted must have a strong focus on CEIAG provision when inspecting schools, in particular looking at schools’ achievement of the Gatsby benchmarks.
• All schools and colleges should be part of Careers Hubs by the end of 2024 and the DfE must provide the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) with the appropriate resources and funding to achieve this.
• DfE statutory guidance should be updated to suggest an appropriate proportion of time that Careers Leaders should be given to fulfil their role and should require schools to publish information on the time they have allocated to the role on their website.
• Pilot a programme of funding careers advisers directly through the CEC, rather than requiring schools and colleges to buy in this support from their existing budgets.
• Make one-off developmental funding available to schools and colleges who have the lowest record of achieving the Gatsby benchmarks to support them to improve their CEIAG provision, setting out clear objectives and conditions of receiving this funding.
• Make the National Careers Service appropriate for under-18s or provide an alternative.
• Evaluate the current primary school career pilot after one year and extend it across England if successful.
• Develop tailored benchmarks for careers education in primary schools and provide guidance and resources to support schools to meet them.

Revised statutory guidance on home-to-school travel
In July 2019, the DfE launched a consultation on home-to-school travel and transport for pupils. The consultation’s outcome has been published this week, alongside revised statutory guidance on the topic. The new guidance includes improvements on considering if a parent can be expected to accompany their child; encouraging independence for children with disabilities and managing children’s medical needs.

Risks of further strike action
Media reports are claiming that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to reject the School Teacher Review Body’s (STRB) recommendation for a 6.5% increase for teachers’ pay in 2023/24. Leaders of the NEU, NAHT, ASCL and the NASUWT have all condemned the report and warned of its future consequences for industrial relations.