Consultation Hub

We asked for views on proposals to reform how local authorities' school improvement functions are funded.

While many responses indicated that they understood the rationale for these proposals, we recognise many also raised concerns. These centred on whether schools and councils would be able to absorb further funding pressures; what would happen if schools forums did not agree to de-delegation for core school improvement activity; and the desire for further clarity on what is considered core school improvement. Others noted the challenging implementation timescales. We address these concerns in our government response.

We recognise that there is concern, particularly from councils and the maintained sector, about removing this additional source of funding. However, one of the key rationales of these proposals is to create greater parity between how school improvement is funded in the maintained and academies sector. Therefore, after careful consideration of the responses, the government intends to proceed with implementing the proposals.  

As such, we will (1) reduce the grant by 50% for the FY 2022-23 and bring it to an end in FY 2023-24 and (2) include provision in Part 7 of Schedule 2 to the School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations for FY 2022-23 which would allow councils to de-delegate for all improvement expenditure, including all core improvement activities. We will monitor the impact of the changes during the year. 

We asked for views on the report and recommendations produced by the expert advisory group appointed to review the ITT market for courses leading to qualified teacher status.

Many respondents were supportive of principles of the Quality Requirements but noted logistical and resourcing challenges to implementing them in practice, particularly for the requirements on intensive practice placements, minimum time allocations and mentoring. Respondents were concerned about providers' ability to prepare their applications for accreditation in the time available, given the indicative timeline set out in the consultation document.

We have accepted the report's central recommendation that all ITT courses leading to qualified teacher status should adhere to a set of Quality Requirements, and that all providers of these courses should go through an accreditation process taking place in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 academic years to ensure they can meet the new requirements on an ongoing basis.

Based on the consultation feedback, we have amended the Quality Requirements proposed by the expert advisory group to address the potential challenges to implementation identified by respondents. We have also extended the timeline for first delivery of the Quality Requirements by one year to September 2024 and will be providing funding to support providers and their partners to implement them into their ITT courses.

Our full response to the report’s recommendations, including the results of the consultation, can be found in on the GOV.UK website.

We asked for views on amending regulations in relation to: 

• Ofsted’s minimum frequency of inspections of children’s homes; and
• The minimum frequency of inspections for children’s social care provision more generally from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022

The majority of respondents agreed with our proposal to amend the minimum frequency of Ofsted inspections for Children’s homes, so that minimum inspection frequencies are based on the judgement from the given current inspection year and not from the judgement from the previous inspection year. Most considered that the current safeguards in place were sufficient, specifically highlighting the importance of intelligence gathered through the monthly visits by an independent person.

Most respondents also agreed that we should amend the minimum frequency of Ofsted inspections for children’s social care more generally, so that Ofsted should comply with the minimum frequency of inspections ‘so far as reasonably practicable’ for the period 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022.

The results of the consultation have been set out in a report on the gov.uk website. Based on these results, the department has decided to amend Ofsted inspection frequencies for children’s care homes and to enable Ofsted to comply with minimum inspection frequencies ‘so far as reasonably practicable’ for the period 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022.