ASCL asks for education

More than one million young people were not in education, employment, or training (NEET) as of January to March 2026, a truly shocking state of affairs which leaves a swathe of the young population of the UK feeling as though they have no future. We must do far more to tackle the issues behind the statistics: improving mental health and wellbeing, better supporting young people with special educational needs, closing attainment gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, and building great education, training, and employment routes which young people are supported to navigate.

Successive governments have placed a host of new duties and expectations on schools and colleges while squeezing the amount of funding available to them, and while failing to do enough to address a staffing recruitment and retention crisis. The government must first be clear about what it expects schools and colleges to provide and then commit to properly resource those expectations. Any new government requirements must be backed up with fully costed plans which set out the resources required to deliver them and how those resources will be provided.
 

Morale among teachers and leaders is at rock bottom as a result of underfunding of the education system, ever-increasing expectations from the government, the resulting impact on workloads, and an accountability system which is excessive and punitive. However, in all the reams of policies and guidance which pour out of Whitehall, there is little about supporting the wellbeing of the education workforce, despite this workforce being the essential foundation for delivering every objective. The government must work with sector bodies and wellbeing experts to develop a strategy to better support our education staff.
 

Ofsted’s new inspection system promised to provide better information to families and be less damaging to the wellbeing of education staff. In practice, it is penalising schools that serve disadvantaged communities and causing worrying levels of stress and anxiety to leaders and teachers. Meanwhile, league tables continue to judge school performance on the basis of exam and test results, placing at a disadvantage schools which support large numbers of children who face the greatest challenges. The accountability system must be overhauled to ensure it is fairer and more inclusive.

There is a deeply ingrained perception in our society that academic routes have greater esteem than technical and vocational routes. This is undermining our ability as a nation to build the skills base we need for the future and it is failing to fully realise the talents of many young people. A national campaign is needed to promote existing and emerging technical and vocational routes, and we must ensure that every school and college is able to draw on high-quality careers guidance and work experience. If vocational and technical qualifications are genuinely valued alongside academic subjects, this must be reflected in school performance tables, including in the changes being considered to Progress 8.
 

Around one third of students fall short of a Grade 4 GCSE in English and maths each year at the age of 16 which leaves them with a sense of failure and consigns them to retakes in post-16 education where they continue to fall short. This happens not by accident but by design. It is the product of an exam system in which we insist upon ranking students. Instead, we should assess students against a predetermined standard – similar to a driving test – at the age of readiness, building their confidence and supporting them to achieve. The current plans for a new stepping-stone post-16 qualification will not solve this problem.
 

The attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers remains higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic, and in fact, increased last year in the early years and key stage 4. Disadvantaged children are on average already nearly five months of learning behind their peers when they start school. We need to redouble our efforts to close the gap at all phases, beginning with being clear that government early years policies should prioritise and support educational development alongside childcare. 
 

The number of pupils in England’s schools is forecast to fall by 726,000 over the next five years exposing many schools to severe financial risks as they see a consequent drop in their funding but no let-up in the breadth of educational provision they must cover. The impact of falling pupil rolls is already being felt by many primary schools and this is set to deepen and expand to secondaries over the next few years. There is an opportunity, however, to reinvest the overall ‘saving’ from this drop in numbers into the education system – improving funding rates, providing schools with more financial resilience, and supporting great provision.