SHARING INNOVATIVE APPROACHES AND OVERCOMING BARRIERS IN
DELIVERING 16-19 STUDY PROGRAMMES PRINCIPLES
“INNOVATION IN 16-19 STUDY PROGRAMMES”
Seminar, 20 January 2015
Context for the Seminar
Professor Alison Wolf’s Report, in March 2011, was received very well by almost all who read it,
including the Secretary of State for Education. The exceptional nature of this achievement meant
that each of the 25 recommendations of the Report was accepted: each has been implemented.
The premise of the recommendations is the Report’s finding - “Far too many 14-16 year olds are
doing courses with little or no value because performance tables incentivise schools to offer these
inadequate qualifications….many of England’s 14-19 year olds do not, at present, progress
successfully into either secure employment or higher-level education and training. Many of them
leave education without the skills that will enable them to progress at a later date”.
The asserted aims of reform were;
 First, our system has no business tracking and steering 14 year olds, or 16 year olds, into
programmes which are effectively dead-end,

Second, we should tell citizens the truth. That means providing people with accurate and useful
information, so that they can make decisions accordingly,

Third, the system needs to be dramatically simplified, as a precondition for giving people good
and accurate information, to free up resources for teaching and learning, and to encourage
innovation and efficiency.
It is nearly four years since the Report was published, and we are in the second full year of
implementing the ’whole programmes of study’ that the report foresaw. During the first year, Ofsted
reviewed the early implementation of these programmes – and found progress to be slow, with very
few providers surveyed having made the best use of the flexibility created by the changes to the
funding arrangement, to provide individualised study programmes tailored to learners’ career plans
and their developmental needs. In addition to the lack of innovative programmes being tailored to
individual needs, Ofsted found that there was not enough being done to address progression,
learning below level 3, work experience, maths and English GCSE and effective IAG.
The DfE has made funds available to identify and share good practice in whole programmes of study
and to do so with efficiency and impact. ACER is steering two pieces of work in response: one with
its focus on maths and English; and this one, which addresses the wider issues of implementing the
Wolf Report reforms in full.
Purpose of the Seminar
This seminar would disappoint anyone who thought now was the chance to explain why the reforms
won’t work – just at it would those who may just want to say Ofsted is wrong. It should delight
anyone who wants to identify with the aims of the reforms, show what is working and consider how
best we share this so that greater impact for young people happens soonest.
ACER, Suite 1 Lancaster House, Meadow Lane, St Ives, Cambs PE27 4LG
ACER produced a report in 2014 that outlined the early successes with the opportunities associated
with whole programmes of study. This report was well received and covered a wide range of the
developments in place to address the reforms, indicating a number of organisations which had
clearly decided on the spirit of the reforms being the driver and were not about to be bogged down
by the letter. (click here for link to the Report)
Representatives of these organisations will be present at the seminar, together with representatives
from DfE, Ofsted, EFA and Local Authority – and representatives from organisations which are
demonstrating new ideas in practice of the reforms (but were not involved in the 2014 ACER
project).
The focus of the seminar will be to understand how innovation is working with respect to the overall
programmes and to the elements of maths and English; enrichment and individualised programmes;
working with employers; the use of ICT in new Programmes of Study. The intended outcomes of the
seminar are:
1. Each person having a better idea how the wide range of reforms are working in practice
2. Better understanding of how IAG and Level 1 provision that leads to progression can work
3. An agreed basis for the ACER 16 -19 Study Programmes Regional Conference, 26 March 2015
to be planned: Who do we want to invite? What are desirable outcomes for this?
Structure of the Seminar:
A. Introductions
B. Overviews:
I.
ACER:
II.
DfE
III.
Ofsted
IV.
EFA
C. Working groups:
I.
What is working and why
II.
What is working in IAG and Level 1 and why
III.
What are the key issues for focus on 26 March?
D. Confirming the outcomes
Andrew Thomson
CEO, ACER
7 January 2015
01480 468198
All
Andrew Thomson
Sue Clarke
Paula Heaney
Annette Nott
Whole group
Attendees
Wendy Wilkinson
Julia Smith
Andrew Thomson
Penny Fawcus
Alan Jones
Andy Sanders
Steve Dale
Rick Boreham
Sue Clarke
Sue Cook
Annette Nott
Paula Hornett
Mark Wood
Alex Burghardt
Vivian Bond
Steve Dann
Paula Heaney
Nikki Witham
Lewis Field
John Driver
Cath Gunn
Lindsey Johnson
Lesley Graham
ACER Associate
ACER Associate
ACER
Cambridge Regional College
Cambridge Regional College
Cambridgeshire County Council
Colchester Institute
Colchester Institute
Department for Education
East Norfolk Sixth Form College
Education Funding Agency
Essex County Council
Great Yarmouth College
Huntingdonshire Regional College
Key Training Group
Long Road Sixth Form College
Ofsted
Peterborough Regional College
SCL Limited
Seevic College
West Herts College
West Suffolk College
Writtle College