For the first time in several months, the Department for Education has a ministerial team with some understanding of the sector.

Education secretary Gillian Keegan brings experience from her time as skills minister, while Nick Gibb needs little introduction, having served for the best part of a decade in the department - most notably as a variation on a schools minister theme from 2014 to 2021.

Robert Halfon, meanwhile, has been chair of the Commons Education Select Committee for five years and so is well versed in many of the complex debates at the heart of education - as his regular Tes columns attest.

So, what will this triumvirate mean for education?

Skills and vocational courses

Of Keegan, we know a little. Most notable is the fact that she did an apprenticeship aged 16, instead of A levels, and went on to have a stellar career before entering politics.

Given this, Tes columnist and former teacher Laura McInerney says it seems likely that “technical education may be a key part of her early speeches” and will continue the link from Hinds and Williamson on trying to link technical and vocational education to the “levelling up” agenda.

This also chimes with reports in The Times that prime minister Rishi Sunak wants to have a great focus on vocational and technical educational routes.

It’s speculative right now, but installing Keegan as education secretary certainly lends weight to this, as Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, tells Tes.

“She is someone who probably can do more than the rhetorical stuff around the importance of vocational technical because she has lived through it,” he notes.

“I think that probably reinforces a sense this is a government - particularly post-Brexit, and with the need to grow the economy - that recognises we have to grow our own skills better than we have done in the past.”

It also marries up with the appointment of Halfon, who has been a long-time advocate for more vocational technical education and skills - something he has written about for Tes.

“We must champion the undoubted value of skills in helping learners climb the educational ladder of opportunity,” he said.

Given such past pronouncements and work in this area, McInerney says Halfon will have plenty of support for any reforms: “He already has a great network and is well liked.”

It’s a view shared by Sir David Carter, former national schools commissioner: “[Halfon is] very big on vocational and apprenticeships so this fits with the brief,” he tells Tes.

Halfon could also use any work here to drive an even greater focus on careers education in schools - something he wrote about for Tes only last week: “Preparation for work is an urgent cause for young people and should be one of our collective goals, too,” he argued.

You’d imagine Keegan would be open to this too, given the crossover, and they seemingly have the backing from the PM. Watch this space, then, for potential reforms in this area.

Returning to tradition

But what about Nick Gibb?

Those who know him suggest that, as the “traditionalist” of the three, he won’t deviate much from his standard interests.

“Gibb will focus on curriculum and reading, as he always does,” says Sam Freedman, who worked with him during his time as an adviser in the DfE.

Sir David concurs: “His areas of interest will be teacher recruitment and quality, CPD and development of classroom practice, and he won’t change his views about knowledge-rich [curricula].”

Given this, Sir David says it will be interesting to see how Gibb ”squares this with a shift in tone to a more technical and vocational feel”.

McInerney, however, believes the aim may be to use Gibb to “steady the ship” in more academic areas that he has long favoured, such as phonics and strict behaviour policies, to balance out these other areas of focus.

“It makes sense to have him champion and talk about school most often, and then the education secretary can prioritise further and higher education,” she adds.

EBacc clashes?

Of course, that idea of different ministers complementing each other and dovetailing together sounds great in theory - but it could also lead to clashes.

For example, Gibb has always been a vocal champion of the English Baccalaureate - even in the face of languishing take-up.

In fact, so much faith does he put in the EBacc that when asked by Tes about how take-up could be improved, he suggested not reform or lowering targets but making it so that any school below the national average for EBacc uptake could not receive a “good” grade in Ofsted in inspections.

Notably, though, in the same article, Halfon said a better option would be to reform the EBacc in order to “create a parity of esteem for vocational and skills-based subjects” and stop them being dropped in favour of purely academic subjects.

“Subjects like design and technology and computer science are being squeezed out, with entrances for DT GCSEs down by 65 per cent from 2010,” he noted.

Such a difference of opinion on a core component of education reform over the past few years underlines the opposing views each will bring to the table and is, as Sir David deftly puts it, something Keegan will have to watch closely.

“He [Halfon] and Gibb are from very different ends of the policy space and how Keegan manages that will be key.”

This is no small detail, either: reports suggest a new “British baccalaureate” is part of Sunak’s plans for education, so it’s definitely an area to watch.

Reinvigorating policies from the Schools Bill

However, many will be hoping that, before they start on any such plans, the new team might at least finish off some of the work their predecessors started before moving into new areas - not least the Schools Bill and its various aims.

For example, McInerney says she thinks Keegan will work to push through the 32.5-week plan.

“I would expect to see her pushing to ensure that legislation mandating schools to stay open for 32.5 hours per week is also pushed through to stop schools reducing to four-day weeks.”

Halfon has also backed this - “I was also encouraged by the department’s commitment to introduce a standardised minimum length of the school week of 32.5 hours” - and it would be surprising if Gibb didn’t too, so the three could well reinvigorate this as a separate policy.

Halfon has also said he welcomes plans to move more schools into multi-academy trusts: “I am supportive of MATs and have no objections to more schools becoming part of academy trusts”.

Hardly the most ringing endorsement, but he’s clearly a willing backer, and Gibb probably will be too - after all, he joined the David Ross Education Trust (DRET) board of trustees only two months ago, so it would be surprising if he said anything different.

Keegan has less form in this area - but it would seem unlikely she would rock the boat and look to drive the sector away from academisation.

What’s more, with many claiming that there is too much fragmentation in the sector and that things have been allowed to drift here for too long, they could well find plenty of early conversations steered in this direction.

Some, though, say they hope the new team will think carefully about this before committing to anything.

“Our hope is that the new team will take their time to consider their approach carefully and that we can move forward with any plans in more agreement than we have in the past,” says Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT.

Time and money

Time, though, is something in short supply, with at most two years before a general election must be called. Given this, Barton says, real change in terms of qualification reform seems unlikely.

“They are very, very constrained with time,” he says.

“[For example], to introduce a baccalaureate, to change A levels…It’s something [former prime minister Tony] Blair balked at doing when he had a lot of time on his hands, so I think probably there will be more aspiration around this than the ability to deliver.”

Freedman is even more matter of fact: “They’re not going to have time to do much new.”

Time may not be on their side but nor is it on the side of schools, especially when it comes to funding, with numerous reports laying bare the bleak financial reality facing schools.

As such, plans for post-16 reform or refreshing the Schools Bill are all well and good - but the reality is that Keegan and her team’s immediate attention will likely be drawn to the funding crisis.

How forcefully they can make that argument remains to be seen - although from comments floating around that Sunak sees education as a ”silver bullet in public policy” to improve lives, they may find more willing ears than past education secretaries have.

Of course, it depends on how forcefully they speak out against their own colleagues in the treasury. For Keegan and Gibb, it’s hard to know how far they’d go.

Halfon, though, is more used to being able to criticise the government through the Commons Education Select Committee (on topics such as the National Tutoring Programme), and so falling into line - especially knowing an election looms and that he will want to demonstrate to voters that he has fought for things like school funding - may be harder.

“For Halfon, this is a big step up and he has positioned himself as a ‘friend’ of the system, so he will now need to present some hard messages. Can he do that?” asks Sir David.

It’s a point that Vic Goddard, co-principal of Passmores Academy in Harlow, Essex, makes too - not least because Halfon is his local MP and someone he has often discussed the funding situation with.

“Rob has shown he has listened about the catastrophic funding situation we are in but he has always been a loyal party member on voting so I think it may curtail his ability to speak up,” he says.

“I have always found Rob to be accessible and I hope that continues.”

Striking out

Even that may not be enough, though, if brewing strike action boils over and draws battle lines between teachers and government.

Can Keegan resolve this? McInerney says this will have to be a key area of focus as she takes charge - but not necessarily in the manner in which schools hope.

“She is self-avowedly a Conservative because of her experiences of unions during the 1980s in Liverpool…She may not be sympathetic if [strikes] go ahead.”

As such, it may be that, for all the big concept ideas and plans for major reform that are touted, the economic reality trumps all and dominates the agenda - as has happened elsewhere in government recently.

Which, in some ways, is a shame - because, as Barton at ASCL notes, the team put together in the DfE is one of the most knowledgeable and interesting trios in some time.

“It does feel like the kind of team who you would hope to have appointed at the beginning of a parliamentary session, because that would give you the time not just to put the ideas together, but to actually have a plan for implementation.”

Dan Worth is senior editor at Tes