Your guide to the new government’s priorities

Jul 25, 2024 | Home Featured, Opinion, Sector & policy

The new Labour government means there are potential changes to policy that could impact the early careers world. ISE’s Stephen Isherwood considers what we can expect over the coming months.

On 5 July Kier Starmer became prime minister and started to wield his strongest lever of power, the power to appoint government ministers.

Government departments are far too large to be managed by the PM and his office, so authority is devolved to ministers who wield a considerable amount of control over their departments.

New ministers

The top jobs in the Department for Education that are most likely to impact ISE member priorities went to:
• Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education
• Baroness Jacqui Smith, Minister for Skills, Further & Higher Education (Robert Halfon’s old brief)
• Catherine McKinnell, Schools Minister.
• In the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Sir Patrick Vallance was appointed Minister of State for Science, which makes him responsible for research within universities.

As ministers take their seats the reality of high office is no doubt setting in. Politicians in opposition don’t have to implement their ideas, in government they do. What were promises on the campaign train, ministers and their department teams need to turn into deliverable policies.

And plans can be derailed by an unexpected turn of events. Seema Malhotra was supposed to take the skills brief but was instead moved to the Home Office, probably because Jonathan Ashworth, who was shadow Cabinet Office minister, unexpectedly lost his Leicester South seat to an independent.

So, what changes to policy that could impact the early careers world can we expect over the coming months?

And how will government action align with the three overarching ISE member priorities contained in our 2024 election manifesto?
1. Education structures that enable students to develop work related skills and learn about careers, that place equal value on vocational and academic routes, and facilitate employer and student interactions.
2. Social impact policies that provide employment opportunities and remove barriers to success for all students, whatever their social background or personal circumstances.
3. Labour market structures that work in the interests of employers and the students they hire.

Potential apprentice levy and skills policy reform

The greatest impact we are likely to see in the student jobs market is through changes to skills policy. Labour have said they are keen to increase investment in skills and David Blunkett’s recent report on skills for labour is worth a read. In it, he recommends that government:
• Create a new agency, Skills England (this is a devolved issue), and a National Skills Taskforce, tasked with delivering skills reform
• Change the apprenticeship levy into an ‘Apprenticeship and Learning Levy’ to rebalance spend towards support for 16–25-year-olds
• Allow the levy to be used for other ‘specified training costs’ (courses approved through Skills England), not just apprenticeships
• Improve apprentice support to SMEs through the acceleration of shared apprenticeships with larger employers and a skills tax credit
• Decentralise and devolve decision making on skills activity and spending to a regional and sub-regional level
• Substantially enhance the role of further education to create a seamless link with higher education, apprenticeships and progression within work
• Mandate that a trained Careers Leader is embedded in every school and that all educational institutions become part of a Careers Hub
• Create an assessed ‘Learning and Skills Passport’ to be built on throughout an individual’s working life
• Reintroduce the Education Maintenance Allowance for 16–19-year-olds, including support for those undertaking apprenticeships in the same age group
• Reform public procurement guidance to ensure contracts include mandatory clauses relating to upskilling
• A new Right to Retrain entitlement to upskill adults with higher level qualifications through free access to courses from an approved provider

No relief for cash constrained universities

Less clear are the changes government want to make to HE policy. Despite the profile of student tuition fees, the perilous state of some universities’ finances, international student levels, and the student cost of living crisis, Labour’s manifesto said almost nothing about HE.

Blunkett’s report did make reference to HE’s role in delivering skills: ‘Degree apprenticeships should be significantly expanded, and higher education institutions should integrate more project-based learning and employer engagement into their provision’.

Education expert Sam Freedman and WonkHE editor Mark Leach, have both speculated that the government could raise tuition fees (they have barely increased since the £9,000 cap was introduced in 2012). Linking fees to inflation would no doubt create some unpleasant headlines, but it would at least stop the year-on-year real income reduction universities face.

Equally troublesome for the headline watchers in government are international student numbers. Year-on-year international student applications fell 17% from January to June, which will place significant financial pressure on some universities.

The ISE manifesto suggested that students are taken out of the migration stats altogether as the majority return to their home country, but such a move could be politically toxic. The government are unlikely to impose new restrictions on the graduate visa route, but are also unlikely to reverse the decisions made earlier in the year.

Whilst the new government is unlikely to continue the previous administration’s rhetoric on low-value courses and woke campus environments, ministers have limited tools to relieve the core funding pressures faced by university leaders.

Should HR re-write employment contracts?

Labour’s ‘New Deal for Working People’ received a fair amount of election coverage, often for what the policy proposals did or didn’t say. Employment contracts and HR policies may need a re-write if full employment rights begin on day-one of employment.

Most students employed by ISE members are on full-time contracts when they start. But employers may be required to make flexible working opportunities available when new-joiners start. Although more likely to impact a student’s part-time work rather than a graduate programme or apprenticeship, zero-hours contracts could become obsolete.

The government have also said they will deliver a ‘genuine living wage’ that accounts for the cost of living and… remove the discriminatory age bands.

This could impact employers who use the national living wage to determine salaries for early careers roles.

Labour have also said they want to look at the impact of technology on our working lives. Employees may be given the ‘right to switch off’ and the use of surveillance technology could be limited.

But although we know what ministers want to review, we’ll have to wait for the consultation and legislative process to understand exactly how the employer and employee relationships could change.

Signposts from the King’s speech

Last Wednesday’s King’s speech gave us a strong indication of the government’s immediate priorities (the speech is written by government and sets out the programme of legislation they intend to pursue in the coming session).

The speech detailed 40 bills, the highest number to be announced since 2005. The two to follow are:
• Skills England Bill – this will create Skills England, the structures that surround it, and reform of the Apprentice Levy
• Employment Rights Bill – this will cover employment rights and contracts

Labour has an effective working majority of 181 in parliament which will help ministers create and pass the legislative reform they seek. As always with government policy, the detail in the legislation will indicate the new frameworks, rules and regulations that impact employers, educators and students themselves.

As civil servants set to work turning pledges into workable legislation, ISE will continue to work with members to understand their ideas and needs, develop the relevant research and insights, that in turn influence policy makers.

Who’s who in government

Here is a summary of the departments and a who’s who of ministers with responsibility to deliver on the policies we’re interested in.

DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION
Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education
Responsible for the work of the Department for Education, including: higher education, further education, apprenticeships and skills, school curriculum & school improvement, academies and free schools
Baroness Jacqui Smith, Minister for Skills, Further & Higher Education
Technical qualifications including T-levels, careers advice & NEETs including the Careers & Enterprise Company, apprenticeships including the growth & skills levy
Catherine McKinnell, Schools Minister
School improvement, teacher training & retention, teacher pay & pensions, core school funding, qualifications, curriculum & assessment
Stephen Morgan, Minister for Early Education
Early years education, independent schools, education estates

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY
Sir Patrick Vallance, Minister of State for Science
Domestic science and research ecosystem – including university research and public sector research establishments, Horizon Europe, place and levelling up

DEPARTMENT FOR WORK & PENSIONS,
Liz Kendall, Secretary of Sate for Work & Pensions
Providing support through the state pension and working age benefits system to people of working age, employers, pensioners, families and children, disabled people

DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS & TRADE
Jonathan Reynolds, Secretary of State for Business & Trade
Delivering economic growth opportunities, promoting British business & attracting investment, creating competitive markets whilst protecting consumers

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