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January 31st 2008
More money for school playing fields
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls today announced a further £30m investment over the next three years to help the most needy sports colleges build new pitches, install floodlights and provide better drainage so facilities can be used all year and round the clock.
Speaking at the Specialist Sports Colleges Conference in Telford he said he wanted to see floodlit artificial turf pitches installed - so pitches could be used at night - and better drainage so grass pitches would not become waterlogged during winter.
He urged more councils to end the ‘no balls game’ culture and help give children and young people out-of-school sports provision by opening up local facilities such as parks, playgrounds, basketball and tennis courts for longer hours.
March 5 2008
£27MILLION FUNDING BOOST FOR DISADVANTAGED YOUNG PEOPLE
Ed Balls and Beverley Hughes today presented disadvantaged and vulnerable young people with a boost as they announced a package of over £27million of funding and business support for five major charities.
The money will help Kids Company, Speaking Up, Fairbridge, UK Youth and Leap expand the innovative work they do in helping young people who face difficult issues such as substance misuse, teenage pregnancy, coping with disability and homelessness, and will ensure that thousands more vulnerable young people have access to support when they need it most.
March 12 2008
£200M FOR NATIONAL CHALLENGE TO RAISE STANDARDS IN SCHOOLS - At least 30% of pupils in every school to achieve five good GCSEs including English and maths by 2011
Ed Balls today welcomed a new £200m package over the next three years to raise standards in secondary schools, with a particular focus on those whose pupils are low-attaining at GCSE.
Budget 2008 provides new funding to bring forward by a year to 2011 the Government's ambition for no school to have less than 30 per cent of its pupils achieving 5 A*-C at GCSE, including English and maths. The Prime Minister previously committed that this would happen by 2012.
The new National Challenge programme will empower more of the best head teachers to help turn around schools which are ‘stuck’ in patterns of low attainment; create new trusts and federations based on successful schools; and, in areas of greatest need, drive forward a faster expansion of the Academies programme. National Challenge is a national strategy for all schools to learn from each other and so to help all pupils progress to the best of their abilities.
March 17 2008
NEW REFORMS TO IMPROVE THE DELIVERY OF SKILLS FOR ADULTS AND YOUNG PEOPLE
The Government today set out the details of the transfer of £7 billion to local authorities to help colleges and sixth forms deliver the reforms needed to raise the education and training leaving age to 18.
At the same time, Government will direct £4 billion a year through a new agency to provide training and skills for adults, transforming the system to be responsive and demand-led.
The proposals are published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in a White Paper, Raising Expectations: enabling the system to deliver.
The plans will mean the dissolution of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) by 2010 and instead make local authorities responsible for offering all young people in their area a full menu of choices - both the new Diplomas and Apprenticeships alongside GCSEs and A levels.
May 14 2008
Draft Queen's Speech includes new education bills
Children, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls said today that the Government’s Draft Legislative Programme will help to transform the lives of children and families, support parents, drive up standards in underperforming schools, maintain high standards in the exams system, and help children, whatever their background, to achieve their full potential and deliver excellence for all.
Central to the Bill will be new powers for the Secretary of State to ensure local authorities intervene early to address underperforming schools where there is cause for concern.
The Education and Skills Bill would:
• establish an independent regulator of examinations and tests (Ofqual) and a development agency for curriculum, assessment and qualifications (QCDA), which will continue to maintain high standards and confidence in the exams and qualifications system;
• provide for a new reserve power for the Secretary of State to ensure that local authorities use their powers appropriately to intervene on a timely basis in seriously underperforming schools;
• reform Pupil Referral Units and strengthen local partnerships to provide better support for vulnerable children and improve behaviour and attendance. A White Paper will set out proposals and explore different ways of providing alternative education, including new structures to provide high quality vocational education;
• strengthen Children’s Trusts to take responsibility for improving children’s lives by joining up local services, with a particular focus on supporting children with additional needs;
• streamline arrangements for 14-19 education and training including transferring funding and responsibility to local authorities for 16 – 18 education;
• reform to strengthen the accountability of schools to parents, giving them a bigger say on how to raise standards and whether new schools are needed in an area;
• as announced in the Children’s Plan in December, we will take steps to ensure that new and existing performance management arrangements for teachers are utilised effectively;
• set out how pupils who are falling behind will receive targeted support to help them keep up, including, where appropriate, one to one tuition.
We want parents to be supported as partners in their children’s education and will shortly seek the views of parents on these proposals and other ideas. If necessary we will legislate to do this but initially plan to consult on:
• how to engage parents better in their children’s schools and their learning;
• improving access to information from their child’s school - on the school and on their child’s progress, behaviour and attendance;
• plans that every child at secondary school will have a personal tutor who knows them well and is the main point of contact for parents.
June 10 2008
Failing schools given deadline to improve or face closure
Almost one in five secondary schools in England have been given a "no excuses" warning to improve their GCSE exam results or face closure. Schools Secretary Ed Balls has launched a £400m drive to raise results in the lowest-performing 638 schools. Schools that do not achieve the target of at least 30% of children getting 5 good GCSEs must improve or they will be closed.
An extra 70 academies, costing £195m, will spearhead this reform, so that almost one in 10 secondary schools will have academy status by September 2010.
June 25 2008
Government outlines new ways to lift children out of poverty and increase social mobility
A package of new initiatives to help families and end child poverty as part of a renewed drive to increase social mobility will be announced by Children’s Secretary Ed Balls, Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Yvette Cooper today.
The pilots will build on already successful initiatives – such as offering new services in children’s centres as well as testing new approaches to improving families’ incomes. They include:
October 14 2008
Strengthening school accountability
Labour's Education Secretary Ed Balls has announced major reforms to strengthen schools’ accountability to parents and the public, raise school standards and reform pupil testing and assessment
The reforms will strengthen the role of Key Stage 2 national tests for 11 year olds, radically reform Key Stage 3 testing and introduce a new, simpler and more comprehensive way of reporting to parents on primary and secondary school performance.
October 21 2008
£350m to support small businesses
John Denham announced that £350 million of funding for workplace training is being priortitised so that small businesses in the private sector can get access to the money they need to train their staff with the minimum bureaucracy or delay. This includes relaxing the rules so SMEs will be able to give their staff “bite sized chunks” of training, and enable them to take new courses at a level they’ve already achieved.
October 27 2008
Apprenticeship commitment doubled
Ministers today called for urgent action from the public sector to increase apprenticeship numbers during the global downturn. They argue that this is key if more people are to get the jobs they want in tougher times.
Over 1,000 apprentices will work in central government departments and agencies this academic year, more than double the original target, Skills Secretary John Denham and Schools Secretary Ed Balls announced today - but they call for a further expansion.
In January 2008, civil service employers committed to expanding the number of apprenticeship places available in the public sector with 500 new apprentices beginning their training in government departments and agencies from September this year through a pathfinder, co-ordinated by their sector skills council, Government Skills.
The new apprentices span sixteen government departments, including: the Department for Innovation Universities and Skills; the Department for Children, Schools and Families; the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Justice.
November 11 2008
Billions for new schools
Labour's Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls has given the green light to a new generation of primary schools by approving building plans worth £3.55 billion . The planned rebuilding and refurbishment of 1,500 schools across England can now start.
This announcement means that Labour’s Primary Capital Programme – which is investing at least £7 billion to rebuild or refurbish half of all primary and primary-age special schools by 2022-23 - will now start in earnest.133 local authorities today received the go-ahead for their primary capital strategies. Additionally the Labour Government will provide specialised support for 15 local authorities to help them improve their plans within three months to enable funding to be released..
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