It has been quite the period of upheaval at the Department for Education: after Nadhim Zahawi’s appointment as chancellor and Michelle Donelan’s 36-hour stint in post, James Cleverly has now become the third education secretary in less than a week.

The DfE was also hit by the resignations of schools minister Robin Walker and children’s minister Will Quince, as Boris Johnson faced mounting pressure to step down as prime minister.

Education leaders, meanwhile, warned that the incoming education secretary would face “considerable challenges” in their new role.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that education “is a vital public service and a complex sector, which requires deep understanding, knowledge and continuity”.

He highlighted how, for example, Nadhim Zahawi had introduced the Schools Bill, which has now had a large section withdrawn because of concern that it would create an “unacceptable centralisation of power” - adding that Zahawi’s replacement would face “a considerable challenge in taking forward these proposals”.

And Lee Mason-Ellis, chief executive of The Pioneer Academy, said he hoped that the new education secretary would ”work even more closely with the education sector, taking time to fully understand the key issues we all face today”.

So, what exactly are the key issues that are sitting at the top of Cleverly’s in-tray as he starts his new role? Here are six ongoing challenges for him to tackle.

1. Schools Bill struggles

Cleverly has taken over just as the government’s Schools Bill has run into serious difficulty.  

The legislation is aimed at helping create a system where all state schools are in, or run by, multi-academy trusts (MATs) by 2030.

The government wants to create new academy standards and create powers of intervention for MATs that are judged to be failing.

However, it has now had to withdraw large swathes of its own bill amid concerns among peers and academy trust leaders that the legislation would have given the education secretary too much control over MATs and the day-to-day running of schools.

The bill is set to be redrafted, and a major priority will be developing a coherent vision for how the government will oversee school trusts. It will need to be one that wins support both in Parliament and among school leaders.

2. Teacher pay

The cost of living crisis and long-term concerns about the erosion of teacher pay, in real terms, could bring this issue to a head later this year, with two major teaching unions already raising the prospect of strike action.

The NEU teaching union has said all teachers should have an inflation-plus pay rise, while the NASUWT teaching union is calling for 12 per cent.

The turmoil in government has created an unusual situation in which Cleverly will now be making the case for teacher pay to the former education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi.

So far, he has only committed to the government’s existing plan on pay, which will mean a 5 per cent rise over two years for more senior teachers. Will Cleverly want to secure more and will he be able to convince the new chancellor?

3. Education recovery

Amid the political chaos in Westminster this week was a real insight into the Covid pandemic’s impact on children’s learning, provided by the 2022 Sats results.

They showed that the percentage of key stage 2 pupils meeting the expected standard in all three areas of reading, writing and maths was 59 per cent this year - down from 65 per cent in 2019. The government target is to get this up to 90 per cent by the end of the decade.

This is against a backdrop of concern about the delivery and take-up of the DfE’s National Tutoring Programme. Helping ensure pupils’ education recovers from the pandemic is likely to be one of the biggest tasks for Cleverly and the government.

4. SEND review

Cleverly not only has the Schools Bill in progress but also an ongoing SEND Green Paper consultation proposing a major overhaul of the way children with special educational needs and disabilities are supported.

The government’s plan has received some praise for identifying key problems with services, but there are also concerns that it could result in reduced funding and make it more challenging to get an education, health and care plan.

The last set of SEND reforms, in 2014, is widely acknowledged to have failed on delivery, so ensuring the latest plan actually works is a major challenge for the DfE.

And Cleverly’s task is also made more difficult by the departure of children’s minister Will Quince, who had been praised for the way he had engaged with the sector on the SEND Green Paper.

5. Initial teacher training

Another controversial area of government reform under way is its plans for the initial teacher training sector, which has seen providers having to reapply for accreditation.

After only just over a third of participating teacher training providers gained accreditation in the first round of the process, headteachers and experts have warned about teacher supply problems as the sector awaits the outcome of the second round of applications.

6. Teacher recruitment and retention

The pay and ITT challenges both feed into another major one: ensuring that schools have enough teachers.

Data is consistently showing that the recruitment boost provided by the economic downturn of Covid is over, and the government has been warned by headteachers’ leaders that the country is facing “an actual crisis” in teacher recruitment.

Mr Barton said: “The actual crisis facing schools and colleges is the fact that there is a very serious problem of teacher shortages, which is making it difficult for them to recruit the teachers they need.”