ALLFIE’s Campaigns & Policy Briefing – December 2015
Dear Friends
Although we are close to the festive season, this Government isn’t giving us much in
the way of good cheer for 2016. We are now having to deal with a cocktail of
education policies and funding priorities that will make it much harder for disabled
students to be supported in all levels of mainstream education including
apprenticeships. After the Comprehensive Spending Review announcements,
education providers with an inclusive ethos will find themselves with fewer resources
to provide disabled students with the support they need. Education institutions will
also find themselves penalised if they do not meet the prescribed pupil/student
academic standards and targets or progression destinations.
The evidence is there, the DFE’s own SEN statistics have reported a steady
increase of disabled pupils attending special schools, whilst SEN units and local
authority universal (mainstream) SEN provisions and services have been withdrawn
or cut to the bone.
Whilst the future of inclusive education looks so bleak, we have to continue fighting
for what we believe in – that inclusive education must be a right and not a struggle –
education not segregation!
In solidarity
Simone Aspis
(Policy and Campaigns Coordinator
Contents: this briefing includes information on:
Apprenticeships
Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review
Coasting Schools Update
Disabled Students Allowance Update
London Mayor Elections
Relevant consultations
Introduction of EBacc
National Reference Test
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ALLFIE’s Campaigns & Policy Briefing – December 2015
Apprenticeships
ALLFIE recognises that apprenticeships provide a very good opportunity for disabled
students who want to engage in vocational education in a learning environment
where disabled and non-disabled students work and learn alongside each other. So
therefore ALLFIE welcomes the Government announcement that they intend to
create three million more apprenticeship opportunities for young people over the next
five years.
The Government is required to publish reports on their progress towards securing
opportunities for these three million apprenticeships, but there is no evidence that
the Government has given any thought to how these apprenticeship placements will
be inclusive for disabled people. This is particularly important as it comes at a time
where disability-related support provided by both Local Authority’s Social Care
Funding and the Department for Work and Pensions Access to Work budgets have
been slashed.
ALLFIE’s interest in apprenticeships began in 2009 when the Labour Government
introduced a statutory Apprenticeship Scheme. Its aim was to develop industry wide
apprenticeships standards that would be overseen by industry experts and which
would be part of the Apprenticeships Offer.
It also developed a scheme of what was required in the apprenticeship scheme. This
was the Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England (SASE). Under the
scheme, all apprentices are required to have an equivalent of 5 GCSEs including
Maths and English before embarking on a statutory Apprenticeship Scheme.
Minimum grades of E and C are required for intermediate and advanced
apprenticeships at level 2 or 3. Thereafter, apprentices must successfully complete
SASE that includes:
- relevant vocational qualifications,
- functional skills or GCSE Maths and English.
- employee rights and responsibilities
- personal learning and thinking modules.
- They are also required to undertake on and off the job training in the
workplace.
Specific industry requirements, not necessarily linked to the educational
requirements listed above, also raise questions about the inclusivity of statutory
Apprenticeship Schemes for disabled apprentices. Whilst in 2009 we were
successful in securing amendments to the apprenticeships legislation so that
disabled individuals could provide a portfolio of work instead of meeting the
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qualifications requirements, the campaign for the rollout of inclusive apprenticeship
opportunities continues. During 2012, Peter Little in his “Creating Inclusive
Apprenticeships Offer” report affirmed our concerns and showed that there has been
a steady decline in the numbers of disabled people participating in apprenticeships
since the introduction of statutory Apprenticeships Schemes. Functional skills and
Maths and English GCSE stand-alone qualifications are reported to be a major
barrier that prevent the participation of disabled apprentices.
The Government wants to go further by requiring all apprentices to be studying for
functional skills/ Maths and English qualifications at GCSE A*-C level even if they
have gained entry into an intermediate apprenticeship level course with a lower
equivalent award. This isn’t a problem for those disabled young people who can
access the GCSE process, but for a number of disabled young people achieving a
“low” level GCSE or functional level 1 pass may in itself have been a struggle.
Increasing the pressure by being required to undertake a higher Maths and English
course could well affect their ability to focus on the vocational and practical
requirements of the apprenticeships award.
ALLFIE has identified two opportunities to lobby for more inclusive apprenticeships
opportunities.
Welfare Reform and Work Bill
The Bill requires the Government to publish annual reports on their progress of
reaching the target of creating three million new apprenticeship opportunities for
young people by 2020. There is no requirement on the Government to report on
progress or a lack of it with the uptake of apprenticeship opportunities by disabled
young people. Without having a duty to report on disabled young people’s uptake of
apprenticeships we fear nothing will be done to address their exclusion. Instead
disabled young people will be steered toward separate ‘supported internships’ or
other segregated educational provision for disabled people. Both the House of
Commons and the House of Lords have debated the Government’s reporting
arrangements on creation and uptake of apprenticeships. ALLFIE has been
successful in gaining the cross-party support of Baroness Campbell, Baroness
Grey–Thompson, Lord Young and Lord Addington in a proposed amendment to the
Welfare Reform and Work Bill aimed at removing the barriers that disabled people
face in accessing mainstream apprenticeship opportunities.
Enterprise Bill
Whilst the reporting on the uptake of apprenticeships is important, it is not enough:
there also needs to be reporting on changes to the actual statutory apprenticeships
scheme. We are therefore using the opportunity in the Enterprise Bill to lobby for
technical changes to the Conservative Government’s statutory apprenticeships
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schemes. Whilst the Bill focuses on making it a criminal offence for training providers
(this includes colleges and other further education institutions) to offer apprenticeship
courses that don’t conform to the Government’s Trailblazer Apprenticeships
Standards, we are taking every opportunity to lobby for all unrelated specific industry
requirements to be removed from the apprenticeships certification process.
The Government could remove the functional skills / English and Maths qualifications
requirement from the Trailblazer Apprenticeships Standards without amending the
Enterprise Bill. We anticipate that making apprenticeships schemes more inclusive
will be a long term piece of work requiring the involvement of organisations that
promote equality for disabled people in the workplace.
Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review
The Government Comprehensive Spending Review at the end of November included
some worrying announcements about additional special school placements. The
Government has promised additional new special school placements whilst slashing
education budgets including a reduction in Education Service Grants, funding for
SEN expertise such as behavioural support, therapies, supporting students who
truant and specialist teachers for deaf students and those with specific learning
difficulties such as dyslexia. These Government cuts amount to over £600 million
and will have a significant effect on the support disabled students need to access
mainstream school and post 16 education.
Whilst the funding per pupil will be protected in cash terms, there is no guarantee
that there will be inflation increases and therefore it means a cut in real terms. It’s
clear that the Government’s agenda is a bias towards segregated education despite
their duty under The Children and Families Act 2014 and their UNCRPD obligation to
promote mainstream education.
Coasting Schools Update
ALLFIE has now submitted our response to the Government’s consultation on the
Coasting Schools guidance. We made it absolutely clear that labelling schools as
‘coasting’ will have a detrimental outcome for those mainstream schools with a
developing inclusive ethos, regardless of what formula is used.
For ALLFIE’s response see www.allfie.org.uk
We anticipate that the Education and Adoption Bill will become law in early 2016.
Disabled Students Allowance: Update
As expected, the Government have now confirmed the implementation of their DSA
reforms under the tag line of “rebalancing the responsibilities between BIS and
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universities”. From September 2016, universities will be expected to improve their
inclusive practice, and students with specific learning difficulties will be expected to
fund the first £200 towards the cost of a computer. Whilst there were some
concessions that DSA will continue to cover the purchase of IT peripherals (this
includes the cost of paper and printing), digital recording equipment and private
accommodation, nevertheless the DSA reforms will affect students applying for
university from the academic year 2016-2017. The DSA will continue to fund
specialist non-medical help such as British Sign Language and specialist study skills
support. See ALLFIE Briefing number 47 for more details http://www.allfie.org.uk/pages/work/press.html .
However the Government does acknowledge that:
“We expect that in most cases institutions will have a duty to meet the
additional cost of accommodation, aids and services which are no longer
being met by DSAs. We do though accept that there is a risk institutions may
take a different view of what those duties might look like, or might simply fail
to meet their duties. The impact of that risk is that disabled students may find
themselves without the appropriate support from institutions and at the same
time find DSAs are no longer available. The result of that might be that
students fail to achieve the outcome they are capable of, withdraw from their
course or decide not to enrol for study at all. Whilst the risk of institutions
failing to discharge their duties has been recognised, we are unable to
quantify the extent of that risk.” (BIS’s DSA reforms Equality Impact
Assessment December 2015)
As with all other Government education policies, the higher education institutions
that will shoulder the biggest financial burdens are likely to be those universities with
a long tradition of recruiting and retaining disabled students and promoting an
inclusive ethos. The Government is planning to consult on the exceptional
circumstances where DSA can be used to fund non specialist, non-medical help in
situations where it is not considered reasonable to expect the university to do so
under their Equality Act 2010 duties. This is likely to be in areas such as note-taking
in lectures. As explained in previous briefings, the cuts in support are most likely to
affect students with specific learning difficulties, particularly those with dyslexia and
dyspraxia. We need to keep a careful eye on how these changes will affect students
with social and communication difficulties such as Asperger’s and autism and the
growing number of students with mental health difficulties.
The National Union of Students (NUS) are continuing with their campaign work
involving students’ actions and monitoring of university provision. In the past few
weeks the NUS has lobbied parliament against cuts to welfare benefits and
education grants including the DSA at the Department for Work and Pensions.
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Please see flyer alongside this briefing for the NUS demo planned for the 16th
December in London – ALLFIE is supporting the event!
London Mayor Elections
Together with Inclusion London and Transport for All, ALLFIE is gearing up for the
2016 London Mayoral Election in May 2016. One of our major tasks will be to lobby
hard for the mayoral and assembly members to Asks set out in the Disabled
People’s Manifesto. We are planning to hold a Mayoral Hustings on April 5th 2016 so
pencil this date in your diary. In the New Year we will be publishing a special
Campaigns Briefing. This will contain lots of information about the Mayor’s role and
the need for the Greater London Authority to promote inclusive education and
inclusive apprenticeship opportunities and will give clear guidance on what you can
do to help in this campaign work.
Government Consultations
Arrangements to implement the National Reference Test
The qualifications regulator OFQUAL is introducing a national reference test (NRT),
which will provide additional information for examination boards in deciding the
GCSE grade boundaries. OFQUAL will trial the test in March 2016, and the first NRT
will take place in March 2017. OFQUAL wants 15,000 randomly selected pupils from
300 schools to participate in the one hour Maths and English tests. The aim of the
NRT is to provide additional information on what the distribution of grades should be
for pupils with varying abilities to reflect the school year cohort.
Launch Date: Monday 30 November 2015
Closing Date: Friday 22 January 2016
ALLFIE’s view
We are concerned that the intention of this new National Reference Test is for GCSE
grading to favour norm-referenced assessments whereby the percentage of pupils
achieving a particular GCSE grade will be fixed regardless of pupils’ performances.
Apart from the NRT itself, we are concerned that this will disproportionately reflect
the performance of non-disabled pupils as the pupil selection will be done on a
random basis, especially as there has been a decline in the number of disabled
pupils enrolled in mainstream schools.
Implementing the English Baccalaureate (EBacc)
Currently, to achieve the EBacc, pupils need to attain grade A*-C in English
language GCSE and any grade in English literature
GCSE grade A*-C in mathematics
GCSE grade A*-C in either history or geography
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GCSE grade A*-C in a language
GCSE grade A*-C in core and additional science
GCSEs grade A*-C in double science award; or
Pupils need to enter three single sciences and achieve grade A*-C in at least two of
them (the single sciences are biology, chemistry, computer science and physics).
The DFE would like your views on:
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what factors schools should consider when deciding that a pupil shouldn’t
take all the GCSE subjects for the English Baccalaureate (EBacc)
proposed changes to the range of data they publish about school
performance
the challenges of implementing the EBacc, including teacher recruitment
the impact of these proposals on pupils with protected characteristics under
the Equality Act 2010
ALLFIE’s view
The Education Select Committee chaired by Graham Stuart was highly critical of the
EBacc and recommended its withdrawal. The Department for Education also
received a lot of criticism about the EBacc proposals that led to a quiet climb down.
So we were surprised to see that these proposals are back on the Government’s
agenda as a performance measure for schools. Introducing EBacc will lead to two
tier system of subjects. Non EBacc subjects such as the practical and creative
subjects: music, drama, music and PE will be deemed as second-rate subjects to be
avoided or completely withdrawn by schools as they will add no ‘value’ to their
league table performances. Interestingly special schools may be exempted.
ALLFIE wants to know what factors should be taken into account in deciding whether
pupils should be entered for the EBacc curriculum in the first place. All pupils benefit
from a broad and balanced curriculum and this must include a wide variety of
subjects including both traditional academic subjects and those that require
creativity. What the Government has failed to ask is how can schools’ make the
EBacc available for all of their pupils?
Launch Date: Tuesday 3 November 2015
Closing Date: Friday 29 January 2016
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