AEIAG0077

                           Written evidence submitted by NASUWT

The NASUWT’s submission sets out the Union’s views on the key issues identified by the House of Commons Education Select Committee in the terms of reference for the Inquiry into Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG). The NASUWT’s evidence is informed directly by serving teacher and headteacher members and also by the work of its representative committees and consultative structures, made up of practising teachers and school leaders working in the education system.

Executive Summary

• Continuing to allow schools to offer careers advice that is limited in many respects to that they deem to be appropriate results in a narrowing of options, and access to professional careers advice being subject to unacceptable levels of variation, reflecting, in part, schools’ and academy trusts’ perceptions of their own self-interests and priorities.
• The Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) regime that has emerged over the past decade displays many significant shortcomings.
• In particular, patterns of careers education in England are not effective at promoting equality of opportunity in respect of race, gender and class. The current system also places too much emphasis on individual learners seeking out information for themselves rather than being supported by services independent of schools.
• The absence of a coherent independent system of support and information for young people results in variations in the levels of support to which young people have access.
• The Government’s attempts to improve the provision of CEIAG through the imposition of accountability measures, including those related to the Gatsby benchmarks, will not, of itself, secure the number of effectively qualified and independent careers advisors and educators on which an effective system depends.
• Independent analysis of compliance with the requirements of the so-called ‘Baker Clause’ on the provision of information about technical learning and apprenticeships to young people highlights the significant extent to which the requirement is being ignored in practice.
• The current policy interest in CEIAG creates an opportunity to consider how the levels of integration and multi-agency working that characterised previous models of provision could inform reforms to the current system. 

Introduction

1. The NASUWT welcomes the opportunity to submit evidence to the House of Commons Education Select Committee Inquiry into Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG).

2. The NASUWT notes that the terms of reference for the Inquiry are relatively broad. The Union’s evidence, therefore, focuses on issues of particular concern reported to it by teachers and school leaders who work in settings in which CEIAG is a relevant issue. The NASUWT would welcome the opportunity to explore these and other issues in more detail with the Committee in oral evidence.

Background and context

3. The Education Act 2011 removed the duty on schools to provide careers education to pupils between the ages of 11 and 16. This duty was replaced by a diminished duty on schools to secure access to independent and impartial careers guidance in areas that the school deemed to be appropriate to pupils in Years 9 to 11. The scope of this statutory duty was subsequently extended to Years 8 and 13.

4. While this duty is accompanied by statutory guidance setting out considerations to which schools must have regard, it continues to fall short of the breadth and depth of coverage in the regime that preceded it. This remains a significant shortcoming in the current CEIAG framework.

5. The statutory guidance sets out expectations on schools and colleges to take steps to ensure that CEIAG is impartial, sufficiently broad in scope and is such ‘that the person giving it will promote the best interests of the pupils to whom it is given’. There is also an expectation, first articulated in the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) 2017 Careers Strategy, that schools should work towards the eight benchmarks of good practice in the area established by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, although there is no statutory requirement on them to do so.  

6. The NASUWT remains clear that to continue to allow schools to offer careers advice that is limited in many respects to that they deem to be appropriate results in a narrowing of options. This narrowing takes place in a context where curricular breadth and balance continues to be compromised as a result of curriculum and qualifications reforms introduced over the past decade.

7. Access to professional careers advice is subject to unacceptable levels of variation, reflecting, in part, schools’ and academy trusts’ perceptions of their own self-interests and priorities.

The effectiveness of the current system

8. The CEIAG regime that has emerged over the past decade displays many significant shortcomings. A widely cited and comprehensive review of CEIAG in England, Failing to Deliver? Exploring the Current Status of Career Education Provision in England, published in 2017, highlighted important adverse consequences of CEIAG-related policy since May 2010.[1]  

9. This review found that patterns of careers education in England were not effective at promoting equality of opportunity in respect of race, gender and class. It also found that the current system placed too much emphasis on individual learners seeking out information for themselves rather than being supported by services independent of schools to explore the full range of opportunities available to them.

10. A key concern about the post-2010 CEIAG landscape is that the absence of a coherent independent system of support and information for young people results in high levels of unjustified variation in practice and provision. These concerns were set out in recent reports published by the All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) for Education and for Social Mobility, both of which emphasised the adverse implications for young people of a system in which disproportionate weight of responsibility for CEIAG is devolved to individual schools.[2]

11. The APPG for Education was clear that action including the reinstatement of mandatory meaningful work experience was critical to addressing these concerns. It made clear that the Government’s attempts to improve the provision of CEIAG through the imposition of accountability measures, including those related to the Gatsby benchmarks, would not, of itself, secure the number of effectively qualified and independent careers advisors and educators on which an effective system depends. The adverse implications of the current system for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) were particularly noted.

12. The Committee will further be aware of comments made by the Chief Inspector of Ofsted to its predecessor Committee in 2015 that careers education is a ‘disaster area’.

13. Ensuring that young people can gain access to impartial advice and information about the careers-related opportunities available to them depends to a significant extent on the amendment introduced by Lord Kenneth Baker to the Technical and Further Education Act 2017 (the so-called ‘Baker clause’). This provision in the Act required all state-funded schools to ensure that training providers and colleges had access to schools to inform pupils aged between eight and 13 on technical education and apprenticeship opportunities. However, an independent analysis of this requirement highlighted the significant extent of current non-compliance across the system.[3]

14. The Government’s 2021 Skills for Jobs White Paper sets out proposals that include implicit recognition of the flawed nature of existing policy. Specifically, it draws attention to the limitations of the National Careers Service (NCS) as a universal means by which young people can access independent, impartial CEIAG. The shortcomings in the role and remit of the NCS were highlighted by the NASUWT and others at the time of its establishment in 2012.

15. The Committee will have noted that the proposals in the White Paper aim to transform the NCS into ‘a single source of government-assured careers information for young people and adults’. The White Paper also seeks to improve ‘alignment’ between the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC), which has responsibility for supporting CEIAG in schools, and the NCS.

16. It is clear that the disjuncture between the roles of both bodies undermines coherence in the system. However, it is not evident that the proposals set out in the White Paper will ensure that effective connections are made between sources of independent advice and guidance available directly to learners, and the support made available to schools in this respect. In any event, the concerns highlighted above, particularly on the efficacy and impartiality of CEIAG provided or commissioned through the school and college system, are not addressed to any significant extent.

Towards a more effective and equitable system

17. The important role played by impartial CEIAG provided through and by schools is important. However, the NASUWT is clear that there is a distinction that must be drawn between such CEIAG and guidance offered to each young person confidentially and independently from their school and the careers education programme that each school provides. Secondary schools are the appropriate vehicle through which young people will be provided with a programme of careers education, appropriate information, and up-to-date reference materials related to career options as well as access to external careers advisers.

18. Good quality careers education can be a very important source of information for students but it is not the same as specifically tailored CEIAG. Schools can play a role as a gateway to accessing the facilities and external providers that will enable learners to be aware of the full range of options open to them. It is important to ensure that these roles continue to be recognised as discrete. Arrangements organised on this basis prevent schools experiencing pressure to undertake roles and responsibilities that would be best served by organisations that are at arm’s length from schools.

19. There is an obvious role for qualified teachers within the overall context of careers education to be able, on the basis of informed professional input, to advise learners about matters relevant to their subject specialisms. However, as a result of the changing nature of the requirements of further and higher education and employment, alongside rapid changes in education policy, the changing opportunities for work experience, employment and apprenticeships nationally and locally, and the funding and benefit systems for learners, young people must be able to draw upon the expertise of others who are able to provide information and advice about the full range of available options. It is not sensible or realistic to expect qualified teachers to be able to provide the totality of this information to students.

20. International evidence, including studies by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), confirms that when career guidance is provided by schools, it can be too remote from the labour market, too personal and too linked to the self-interest of particular institutions.[4]

21. As the OECD highlights, although CEIAG should be impartial, pressures may be generated in schools that lead to impartiality being compromised. For example, this may occur within collaborative partnerships of schools, when course viability is the key to funding or when pupil numbers are key to the viability of school provision. The need for an independent, external careers service is imperative. It is necessary that all learners have access to these services and that these external services must be high quality, effective and proactive in their responses to meeting the requirements of young people. CEIAG should be empowering, reflecting the needs of the learner, and comprehensive, allowing all young people an informed basis on which to assess the full range of opportunities available to them.

22. Opportunities should be provided to allow students to self-manage their learning and for them to recognise the motivational benefits of having informed choices. Developing aspirations amongst young people is a critical aim of policy and practice, but ensuring that all students are able to receive the CEIAG at times and in formats that reflect their needs is also essential.

23. Career guidance has a crucial role in challenging traditional stereotyping and occupational segregation. It is essential that all education provision challenges stereotypes and encourages students to consider learning and work options that are not traditionally associated with their gender, ethnicity, faith, learning or physical ability, or cultural or socioeconomic background.

24. The provision of face-to-face guidance for all pupils has reduced since the abolition of the Connexions Service in 2012, to concentrate on the pupils most at risk. It has been replaced increasingly by IT resources which, although they have a role to play and can be cost-effective in some specific contexts, are not a substitute for effective CEIAG.

25. The OECD reports that the most effective CEIAG is that delivered on a one-to-one basis by an appropriately trained professional careers adviser with whom the young person concerned has had the opportunity to develop a constructive and trusting relationship. Research has shown that individual face-to-face guidance has the greatest positive impact, followed by group counselling and classroom interventions. Computer-delivered interventions and other counsellor-free approaches are the least effective.

26. This combination of styles of delivery is most effectively secured through partnership working between schools and genuinely independent and well-funded services.

27. The development of policy in this area must be underpinned by recognition of the fact that high-quality, independent and impartial CEIAG, as well as work-related learning (WRL), is essential to the future wellbeing of young people and of the society of which they will become adult members. WRL, including careers-related IAG, should be regarded as a core educational entitlement for all pupils.

28. Primary-aged children should be engaged in career education, including projects examining what work is, tackling stereotyping, and helping children to understand the influences that can inform their futures. Such experiences provide a firm basis on which later CEIAG can be developed.

29. Genuinely independent careers advice should operate free from the control of schools. This is extremely difficult to secure to the extent identified as necessary by evidence through the service/provider model on which current patterns of provision are based. The tensions between the independence of CEIAG providers and the potential influence of schools that commission services could be addressed if there were to be a disinterested party, such as a local authority, to organise and co-ordinate the delivery of services to all young people, regardless of the status of the school. This would also help to maintain economies of scale in patterns of local provision and ensure the coherence and impartiality of services.

30. The operation of the former Connexions Service is instructive in this respect. The Connexions Service provided access to a skilled professional with whom the student could develop a trusting relationship and receive tailored and expert guidance, taking into account their family circumstances and any personal barriers to progress and achievement they might face.

31. Connexions was originally envisaged as a multi-disciplinary organisation intended to provide careers advice as one of a suite of areas of help for young people aged 13 to 25, although many additional areas of support were met through partnership working rather than by Connexions offering services directly. It typically worked closely with many other services, particularly those within local government, such as young offender teams, teenage pregnancy workers, housing associations and Job Centre Plus offices.

32. The Connexions Service was an example of CEIAG provision being located effectively within a broader children and young people’s services landscape, so that young people’s careers and other needs could be addressed holistically. The fracturing of integrated children and young people’s services over the past decade has undermined the ability of different, specialised services to work together and co-ordinate their support offers in tailored ways to meet the needs of individuals.

33. The current policy interest in CEIAG creates an opportunity to consider how the levels of integration and multi-agency working that characterised previous models of provision could inform reforms to the current system.

March 2022