The education secretary has rejected a one-year delay to the implementation of the new T-level qualifications, it has emerged.
In a letter to the Department for Education’s permanent secretary, published today, Damian Hinds said he was “convinced of the case to press ahead” with the original plans, which means the first T level subjects will start being taught in September 2020.
This followed a letter to the education secretary from permanent secretary Jonathan Slater, in which he said the delivery of the T-level programme to the timetable set out was “ambitious”.
“As things stand today, it will clearly be very challenging to ensure that the first three T levels are ready to be taught from 2020 and beyond to a consistently high standard,” he wrote.
He added that accounting officers like him had to consider the ”‘regularity, propriety, value for money and feasibility of public spending”. “If these were the only considerations, you are aware that I would advise deferring the start date to 2021 in order to mitigate the feasibility and consequential value for money risks.”
‘We must keep up the momentum’
He said it was “perfectly legitimate” for Mr Hinds to bring other considerations to bear, “namely the high priority that the government attaches to the programme in light of the urgency of the task of improving technical skills”. “And on this basis, you can quite legitimately decide that we should stick to 2020,” he added.
Mr Hinds said he had considered that advice in detail, but was “able to draw on a wider range of considerations than the guidance to accounting officers, and I am convinced of the case to press ahead”.
He added: “Alongside our apprenticeship reforms, T levels are central to reforming technical and vocational education and training, to improve workforce skills and drive productivity growth.
“We must keep up momentum behind the Sainsbury reforms, of which T Levels were a key part; the Sainsbury report and government response were published in July 2016, almost two years ago.”
He added that none of the advice had indicated that teaching from 2020 could not be achieved. “Indeed, we have discussed at length the robust plans we are putting in place, and the collaboration already underway with employers (on both subject matter and work placements), colleges and other FE providers,” he said.
Nuclear option
In a post on Twitter, former policy adviser to Michael Gove Sam Freedman said this was “the first ministerial direction at the DfE in decades”. “Essentially, this means the civil service want proof they told ministers that a policy was undeliverable but have been overruled. Not a good sign for skills reform.”
He added: “Don’t be fooled by the politeness of the letters this is a nuclear option for a [permanent secretary]. The last direction I can think of in this space was from the cabinet office [permanent secretary regarding the] Kids Company getting more cash.”
