Welcome to Impetus Insights... a place where we discuss ideas, articles and interesting reading about education and employment policy - and what we think it means for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. We'll be sharing this every month alongside news and updates about our own policy work. We'd love to hear what you think of this edition, and what you'd like to see in future newsletters.

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After the unexpected change of pace with a July election, routine lovers like me are reassured that the familiar rhythms of the year are reasserting themselves. It's August so at the time of writing we've had two sets of exam results, with the final set due before you read this email – congratulations, everyone. September is conference season. 30 October is a fiscal statement. November we get a new leader of the opposition. Then December is Christmas. That's the rough outline of the rest of the year.

Obviously lots more is happening than just those waymarkers. Thursday 5 September is the launch of the Who's Losing Learning report from IPPR, part of the coalition of activity we are part of alongside them, The Difference, and Mission44. Doors open 4.30pm, RSVP at the link above. There's wine! Then on Monday 16 September I'm speaking at on a panel at the Lib Dem Conference on tutoring with our friends at EPI, Action Tutoring, and Get Further. That one's at 11.30am, in Meeting Room 1C, Brighton Centre if you're about. I assume there's wine, but this will actually be my first Lib Dem conference so I don't really know. Tips welcome.

Enjoy reading,

Ben

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In this issue

• Our thoughts on the last month's news and announcements including Demos on youth hubs, the National Audit Office on education, and Rachel Reeves
• Some things we enjoyed reading on exam results, developmental experiences, and good news from the charity commission
• Some things to look forward to over the next month including the social outcomes conference, an event on using data in policymaking, and Employability Day
• If you get to the end, I'm asking if you can put a toaster in the dishwasher

News and views

Our focus here, as at Impetus, is on the outcomes that we know work to improve the life chances of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds – educational attainment, access to higher education and sustainable employment.

• I know the debate around the government's economic inheritance is everywhere, but I have seen relatively little chat about the important announcement that "spending reviews will take place every two years, with a minimum planning horizon of three years". It'll be interesting to see how long this lasts as an idea, but in principle it sounds like it will be much easier to plan and sequence policy work in the years ahead.
• Well done Demos for doing the first new look at youth hubs for a while. Lots to like in here, from proposals for three year funding agreements to making them open access to anyone who comes in needing help, which has always felt like a no brainer. It all chimes with our previous work developing a blueprint for youth hubs. It will be interesting to see if Ministers end up reinvigorating them or ultimately letting it wither on the vine.
• The National Audit Office isn't sure DfE's spending to improve education outcomes for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds is value for money and wants the department to develop "more evidence of what works, and look strategically across its interventions and how it allocates its funding". No complaints here, although I had an interesting discussion with ex DfE advisor David Thomas on X/twitter about the tension between "trust schools" and "tell schools what to do" – I think the later approach likely leads to better outcomes on average.
• Almost as soon as we had finalised last month's email, Liz Kendall made her first speech as Work and Pensions Secretary. A focus on economic inactivity and helping people into jobs, rather than just reducing the benefits bill, is very welcome (see youth hubs above) but the promised "youth guarantee" from the manifesto makes an appearance – a reminder that the Youth Employment Group, which we co-chair, has set out exactly what that should look like.
• RIP The Advanced British Standard, Rishi Sunak's 10-year vision to replace A Levels not even making it to the white paper stage. We'll always have that wonderful day we spent together at the stakeholder consultation event… In all seriousness, I'd expect some of the ideas (e.g. more teaching time in 16-19) to resurface at some point because some of the underlying problems (e.g. narrow curriculum) are real ones. Related: British Academy report on student choice post-16 reminds us all that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to do STEM subjects and more likely to do arts subjects. Periodic reminder we need to extend the pupil premium post-16 too – EPI have a report on that.

Top reads

Here's our roundup of some of the most useful and thought-provoking reads across a range of interesting areas...

• For all the data on level 3 in England, Education Datalab have you covered in this blog. Interesting that the completion rate for T levels is higher, and as noted not a surprise given a) it's a newish qualification and b) the lower attainment profile of people who do it but boy has it really been only six years since the actual skills Minister admitted she wouldn't get her kids to sit them until they'd settled in a bit more?! Lots has happened since then…
• We don't really cover Scotland, but the attainment gap there is widening and they managed to accidentally email some people blank emails, instead of their results. Lots of sympathy for anyone on the receiving end of that, fortunately resolved fairly quickly. Fingers crossed GCSE results passes without a hitch…
• These results translated into 32.1% of all English 18-year-olds being accepted into university - with 75.7% of applicants being accepted into their first choice university - but the gap between the most and least disadvantaged 18-year-olds in England is widening. I think some of this is the Covid era grading shenanigans working their way through the system. With questions about the financial sustainability of the whole system not going anywhere EDSK have looked at the lack of progress implementing the Augar review on post-18 education.
• A mixed bag of wider "development experiences" stuff… The SkillsBuilder framework remains the best evidenced way to think about this stuff, their new report focusses on policy options for rolling it out… Speakers for Schools have looked at work experience in the context of highly competitive courses at Russell Group universities – in short it's overlooked as a driver of lower access rates… And as a former Scout it gives me some discomfort to give a thumbs down to their report with Demos on the link between being a Scout and employability. There doesn't seem to be any focus on young people from disadvantaged backgrounds (who are generally less likely to do this kind of thing) and the stat "53% of those who were in Scouts felt prepared to start work for the first time, compared to 37% people who didn't take part in any extracurricular activities" is not a meaningful benchmark without considering that.
• The Charity Commission's review of charity campaigning during the election period is worth a look. Age Concern Wolverhampton had to issue a cease-and-desist letter after their chair endorsed a candidate on an election leaflet. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the Trussell Trust as they debated whether they could keep £12k of donations from a satirical fundraising campaign after Rishi Sunak spoke about going without as a child – going without Sky TV. (They're keeping the money, fortunately). Related: charities are second only to doctors among the most trusted groups in society.

Look ahead

Thursday 5 September is the launch of the Who's Losing Learning report from IPPR. You are welcome to join us – doors open 4.30pm

Thursday 5 and Friday 6 September are the Social Outcomes Conference 2024 in Oxford

Thursday 12 September is the IPPO event "How Data Can Be Used Best for Smart Policymaking"

Unlucky for some, Friday 13 September is Employability Day! The theme for #EmpDay24 is "Employment Support for Every Citizen"

Monday 16 September we have an event at Lib Dem Conference on tutoring with friends at EPI, Action Tutoring, and Get Further. 11.30am, Meeting Room 1C, Brighton Centre if you're about!

Thursday 19 September is the NFER reception

And finally...

I have a bit of a backlog of interesting things for this section, but since August is silly season I wanted to ask, can you put a toaster in the dishwasher? I imagine readers think I have lost the plot and the answer is obviously not, but this blog has an interesting take. There's lots of conventional wisdom out there which turns out to be plain wrong – and it turns out, toasters might well be ok in dishwashers. So I suppose the question is, what's the conventional wisdom around education and employment that's probably wrong? Answers on a postcard (literal or virtual).