Ed Talks: 100 days of Labour - what’s changed?

The challenges facing our education system

Just under two weeks after Labour took office, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) published its Annual Report which showed that disadvantaged pupils are now 10 months behind their peers at the end of primary school and 19 months at the end of secondary school. We also learned that this gap is twice as big in cities in the North as in London, with a 12-month gap in Leeds and 6 months in London. Other issues such as SEND, absenteeism, and teacher recruitment and retention have also become increasingly pertinent. It was poignant attending Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, a city where children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds are nearly two years behind their peer group, and a full year behind children in London who have the same social disadvantage.

With Labour mayors across The North of England promising to bring about regional growth and parity, my point is simple: there is no route to ‘Leveling Up’, ‘The Northern Powerhouse’ or unlocking ‘The Great North’ which doesn’t run through our education system, and closing those systemic, regional inequities.

Labour Party Conference reflections

For the first time in over a decade, Labour hosted its party conference while in power. Over the course of the four days, representatives from across the education sector flocked to Liverpool to join in discussions about the state of our education system and how we pave a way forward. Some key themes included: the attainment gap, SEND crisis, and teacher recruitment and retention.

On Monday, I was invited by the EPI to join their panel discussion about the continued impact of the pandemic on the education sector. As you would expect, there was a strong consensus that the pandemic continues to affect many areas of education, specifically attainment, wellbeing and absenteeism. I was pleased to hear from many educators about their positive experiences with the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), but there is still a lot more work to do.

In Bridget Phillipson’s address, she shared her vision for an education system which provides ‘opportunity for all our children’. Most of us working in education agree with this sentiment and share in the Education Secretary’s vision. Now, it is about understanding how we deliver it.

Delivering change

Addressing the many challenges facing our education system will undoubtedly take time. It will also require a combined, focused effort from across the education sector and beyond. While the Government has committed to invest nearly £1 billion in education through their education policies, there is one proven solution which is absent from their current plans: tutoring.

Tutoring is not a new phenomenon; parents have been turning to tuition to support their children’s learning for centuries. This is because high-quality tutoring programmes have a proven impact on the outcomes of young people. However, to ensure that the Education Secretary’s vision of an education system that delivers ‘opportunity for all of our children’, we need to ensure that tuition is available for all young people, not just those fortunate enough to access private tuition.

The Tutor Trust’s RCT proved that 12 hours of our tuition closes the attainment gap by three months. In a world where the average attainment gap is 19 months by the age of 16, if we can deliver seven of our programmes, each including 12 hours of tuition to young people between the ages of 5 and 16, we can eliminate it. As the Labour government starts to grapple with the scale of the challenges in education, this strikes me as exactly the kind of bold, ambitious change that the people who elected a Labour government for the first time in 14 years had in mind.

Last week, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) published its evaluation and reflections of the NTP. Overall, they reported favorably about the perceived impact of the NTP from school leaders and recommended that the Department for Education (DfE) “explore funding options to allow tutoring to be embedded more securely in schools”. We wholeheartedly support this recommendation.

In summary

Labour’s first 100 days have been a cautious reintroduction back into Government. They have shared their vision for transforming our struggling education system but have not yet committed to actionable steps on how we can achieve this.

At Tutor Trust, we know our tutoring works, which is why we are eager to work with the Goverment to put tuition firmly on the agenda in schools. Together with our peers and partners, we are ready to make a positive difference to the lives of young people in the North of England.