19 October 2007

Social polarisation, the gap between the haves and the have nots – it’s something that the Labour Government has been grappling with for much of the past decade but it remains a long haul if two Reports on education and training over the last 10 days are anything to go by.

The first was the latest annual Report from Ofsted, released last Tuesday and in which the Chief Inspector warned that “the gap between the outcomes for those with advantages in life and those with the least is not reducing quickly enough.” The Report in fact dedicated one of its three new ‘ground breaking’ themes to the question of ‘how to narrow the gap’ especially for those from deprived backgrounds.

The second was a Report from the TUC in which the title says it all: ‘time to tackle the training divide.’ The divide in question being that between “the training haves and have nots in UK workplaces and in particular the level of discrimination faced by low skilled employees when it comes to accessing workplace training.” This is an issue being taken up in a detailed piece of research at present by the thinktank Demos under the heading ‘The Skills Paradox.’ Their Report is due out next March and both they and the TUC have identified the gap between the skill haves and the skill have nots as one of the key challenges facing the Leitch agenda.

To take the two Reports in turn, clearly the Ofsted Annual Report is more than a single issue piece of work. Rather it is an annual ‘state of the nation’ Report on quality and standards in the English education and training system, made even more extensive this year by the inclusion in Ofsted’s remit from April 2007 of both children’s social care and adult learning. As the Chief Inspector regularly reminds us, “at any one time, more than one in three people in England now benefit from the services we inspect or regulate.”

In her ‘state of the nation’ address previewing the launch of the 100+ page Report, the Chief Inspector picked out five key messages and three ‘buts.’ In truth, the messages were not that different to previous years, the Chief Inspector was on record last year as expressing concerns about the gulf between the best and the worst of what was then just schools provision but the overall upwards trend continues; “we are making progress” or as Andrew Adonis put it “great progress.”

Of the five key messages, one concerns children, 60% of childcare settings are good or understanding, one concerns children’s services, working well but with glitches in some areas, and three cover core school, college and adult learning provision.

Of state schools inspected last year, 94% were judged satisfactory and 60% good or outstanding. Compared to last year, the proportion of outstanding schools has risen 3% to 14%, although some special schools and Pupil Referral Units are not improving as fast, while the number of schools judged inadequate has fallen 2% to 6%. Most schools are working hard to implement the five outcomes for Every Child Matters but are hampered in many cases by weaknesses in literacy and numeracy. Teaching and learning is good or outstanding in 35% of all schools but in some subjects “teaching is formulaic and leads to dull lessons that fail to engage pupils.” Specific subjects mentioned in the Report include science, ‘more practical enquiry needed;’ maths, need a better understanding of the principles; English, that old problem of failing to reinforce the basics; ICT, “not improving;” MFL, need more ‘languages for all’ policies; and vocational provision, growing and improving.

For colleges, where Ofsted has continued to develop its proportionate approach, “the trend of improvement continues.” Of the 100+ different types of college inspected over the last year, 44 were good and 17 outstanding. “Too little use of data and a failure to set sufficiently challenging targets are frequently occurring weaknesses.” There’s still some concern that too many colleges are satisfactory rather than good or outstanding and that word ‘coasting’ creeps in again but three pluses stand out: improvements in college leadership and management; a steady increase in overall success rates including that oft derided area – work based learning; and with an eye on Leitch, “colleges are becoming increasingly responsive to community and employer needs.”

As for adult learning, an area previously under the tailored eye of the Adult Learning Inspectorate, a mixed bag – “the sector continues to improve …some significant challenges remain.” Success rates at 60% nationally are better for Apprenticeships but still ‘not high enough,’ while those for Train to Gain are reported as 75%. Once again, there are noticeable sector differences with leisure, retail and care with success rates below 50%.

The three ‘buts’ are wearily familiar, and although the Government can point to a battery of initiatives in each case, the comment in last month’s OECD Report to the effect that high levels of blanket spending don’t always guarantee results spring to mind. It’s about working smarter, stupid. Anyway the three are: a persistent rump of poorly performing schools, 10% in secondary; the need to raise aspiration and hence achievement for disadvantaged groups; the volume of disengaged 16 – 18 year olds.

But it’s the theme of the social divide that runs most prominently through the Report. Based on inspection evidence, the Report offers four, fairly obvious, strategies for trying to tackle the growing gulf: focusing on functional skills, raising aspirations, ‘intelligent’ assessment and strong support and guidance.

The problem is that unless divisiveness is tackled in the formative years, some children are left behind with problems exacerbated in adult life. The TUC Report for instance highlights that when employers provide training, and not all do (35% don’t according to the Report,) they offer it to highly skilled employers without a Level 2 first while those without qualifications don’t get much of a look in. To cite some figures, ‘latest data from the Labour Force Survey show that 41% of graduate employees participated in job related training in the past 3 months compared to only 12% of employers without any qualifications.’

There’s plenty more of the same in the TUC Report and while social mobility and the impact of polarisation remains a complex issue, politicians on all sides have expressed a willingness to tackle it. They could start by reading these Reports.

© Edexcel Policy Watch 2007. Steve Besley is General Manger of Education Policy at Edexcel. Policy watch is a service intended to help busy people understand developments in the world of education. Visit Edexcel at www.edexcel.org.uk