Consultation Hub

We asked for feedback on the planned design and implementation of the new pathways for 16 to 19-year-olds announced in the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, including:

• A third, vocational pathway at level 3: creating V Level qualifications. V Levels will sit alongside A levels and T Levels and will offer a vocational alternative to these academic and technical routes.
• Two new pathways at level 2: simplifying the current offer and providing a clear line of sight to both further study at level 3 and skilled employment through the Further Study pathway and Occupational pathway.

We received over 750 responses on Citizen Space and emails from individuals and organisations spanning a range of stakeholders, including FE and HE providers, awarding organisations and teachers. The responses gave views on the details of the design and implementation of the new pathways, including on the size of the qualifications, the subjects, the content, and the branding.

The responses have informed the government response to the consultation, which was published on 10 March 2026 and is available on GOV.UK. We have also published a transition plan which sets out how we will support providers to move towards the reformed qualification landscape. We will publish an implementation plan by June 2026 which will set out further details.

DfE asked stakeholders to submit information about the pedagogical underpinning of initial teacher education (ITE) and professional development (PD) programmes for Further Education (FE) teachers. 

A total of 37 responses were received from individuals and organisations spanning a variety of stakeholders, including FE colleges, universities, other learning providers, and representative bodies. Responses cited sources of evidence and gave views on the essential elements of high-quality teacher training.

The responses received – along with other sources of evidence gathered – have informed the work of an Expert Advisory Group tasked with supporting DfE to develop new guidance on curriculum content for FE ITE programmes. If parliament approves the relevant legislation, we expect to publish statutory guidance ahead of the 2026 to 2027 academic year.

This consultation invited views on our proposal for new post-qualifying standards (PQS) and extended early career support for child and family social workers. 

A total of 126 responses were received.  

There was broad support for what we proposed in the consultation: 

• a majority of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that the proposed domains (76%) and outcomes (91%) contained within the revised new PQS set a reasonable expectation regarding what a newly qualified social worker should know by the end of the second year 

• a majority of respondents (67%) agreed that the ‘knows’ and ‘does’ statements in the PQS were appropriate 

• a majority of respondents (54%) either agreed or strongly agreed with our proposals regarding a 2-year programme of support for NQSWs  

• all of our proposals to support employers to deliver the 2-year programme of support received a positive response from the sector  

The government response is available here: Children’s social work post-qualifying standards and induction - GOV.UK  

Based on the responses to the consultation, the Department for Education will proceed with the following actions: 

• proceed with the publication of the new revised PQS – now called the early career standards (ECS) – with them becoming the standard against which newly qualified social workers are assessed against when the 2-year support programme launches in September 2027 

• proceed with proposal to develop a 2-year social work development programme to replace the current one-year programme of support, the child and family assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE)

Following consultation feedback, we have made the following changes to our proposals: 

• we changed the name from post-qualifying standards (PQS) to early career standards (ECS), to better reflect their focus on building strong foundations at the start of a social worker’s professional journey 

• the ECS has been significantly shortened and revised to reduce complexity – with a focus on core learning and application 

• revised outcome statements have been reduced from 26 outcomes to 20 for simplicity and usability 

• the term ‘domain’ has been replaced with term ‘standard’ for clarity and alignment with professional language 

• the terms ‘knows’ and ‘does’ has been replaced with ‘learn that’ and ‘learn how to’ statements, making expectations clearer and more actionable 

• there is a strong focus on anti-discriminatory practice, which is retained as a separate standard  

The early career standards are available here: Child and family social worker early career standards - GOV.UK