In education, summer is a time for reflecting and recharging before it all starts up again in September.

Not this year. Education ministers - briefly teased with the prospect of an early summer break - have been flat-out right up to parliamentary recess. After tense negotiations with the Treasury, education secretary Damian Hinds has finally announced a funded pay rise for teachers. By that I mean schoolteachers - heaven forbid that colleges should be given early notice of any extra funding for paying their staff come September.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton hasn’t had it any easier. Last week, legal documents arrived at Sanctuary Buildings from the Federation of Awarding Bodies - the first steps towards a potential judicial review of T levels. The Department for Education has 14 days to respond. There goes the prospect of a relaxing summer for the officials concerned.

Independent thinking

But to return to the idea of reflection, I was reminded of its value last week when chairing a session for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Skills and Employment with Lord Forsyth. The peer now chairs the Lords Economic Affairs Committee, whose report on post-school education (bit.ly/PostSchoolReport), published last month following a year of evidence-gathering, offers some radical, wide-ranging and insightful recommendations.

Lord Forsyth observed that the government’s ongoing review of post-18 education and funding would not result in a report and recommendations penned by the independent review panel, led by Philip Augar. Rather, the panel’s interim report will advise the government, which will itself be carrying out the overall review. There is no surer way of ensuring a report says what you want it to than writing it yourself.

Here’s hoping the DfE will allow the panel the independence to report freely and frankly. If its recommendations are half as interesting as those produced by Lord Forsyth’s committee, the exercise will have been worthwhile.

@stephenexley