Christmas, in addition to mince pies, tinsel and repeats of Love Actually, is a time of reflection.

And there is surely no better way to get into the festive spirit than by considering where we are with education policy at the end of 2024.

To those saying “Yes, there is” and preparing to stop reading, I can only invoke another Christmas tradition by saying: “Oh no, there isn’t.”

To make this exercise interesting, let’s take a look at where we were last Christmas - and how things have changed.

A year is a long time in education

A consultation had just got under way on Rishi Sunak’s plans to launch an Advanced British Standard to replace A levels and T levels - something we at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) described as “headless-chicken policymaking” (and which was subsequently ditched by the new Labour government).

Gillian Keegan, then education secretary, had only just got around to issuing her remit letter to the School Teachers’ Review Body on the 2024-25 pay round, making it impossible to conclude the process in time for schools to plan their budgets.

Since then, the new education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has taken on board the sector’s concerns and issued her remit letter a great deal earlier, as well as announcing a 5.5 per cent pay award for the current year.

Meanwhile, the coroner in the case of headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life following an Ofsted inspection, issued a “prevention of future deaths” report that warned of a risk of further such tragedies unless action was taken. Along with our colleagues at NAHT, we called for inspections to be halted to allow time for the coroner’s concerns to be addressed.

Sir Martyn Oliver, the new Ofsted chief, did indeed pause inspections in the new year, and the Labour government scrapped single-word judgements in September.

Big steps forward

Now, I am not claiming that everything in the garden is rosy by any means, but it feels to me like there have been some big steps forward since last Christmas on a number of significant issues.

When you talk to anyone in education who gravitates towards the Westminster/Whitehall hothouse, they’ll generally say that the “tone” of government has improved, by which they mean that the new administration is more enthusiastic about having meaningful dialogue than its predecessor.

We’ve talked for years about “co-constructing policy” between the government and the education sector as being the best way to make sure that policymaking best serves children and young people and is implemented in a way that is effective.

Now we have a government that actually wants to do that, so it behoves all of us who engage with ministers and officials to do our bit to make the relationship work.

Big problems ahead

However, a change of tone only gets you so far. All that talking has to lead to things that make a tangible difference to children and young people, to schools and colleges.

And there is no issue more urgent than the huge and unsustainable pressure on the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system.

Everyone recognises this issue. There is no shortage of agreement that “something has to be done”. The problem is the absence of firm solutions.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies made the scale of the challenge clear earlier this month in a report that described the funding system for special educational needs as “broken”.

It concluded that major reforms are needed to expand SEND provision in mainstream schools and expand state-funded special school places, but that any transition to a new system would be costly and complicated.

This must be addressed in 2025. It is a matter of equity and it intersects with so many other issues - gaps in outcomes, system-wide funding pressures and the need to ensure that every child has the opportunity to realise their potential.

It would be naive to think that all this can be solved in the next 12 months. But when we look back from the vantage point of next Christmas, I hope we will be able to see that real and identifiable progress has been made.

I am sure this is a sentiment that will be shared by many readers of Tes. After all, it is you who deal with these issues every day, and provide the care and support these children need despite the difficult circumstances. You deserve better; they deserve better.

Have a good Christmas, enjoy a well-earned break and see you in 2025.

Pepe Di’Iasio is general secretary of ASCL

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