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In this issue

• Our thoughts on the last month's news and announcements including the launch of our attendance report, Inclusion for All campaign launch and (whisper it) some potentially hopeful news from Ofsted on oracy
• Some things we enjoyed reading from the Work and Pensions Select Committee on Jobcentres, the Poverty Strategy Commission on solving poverty, and Education Datalab on young people missing out on key GCSEs
• Some things to look forward to over the next month – let's face it, it's mostly party conference whether you look forward to canapes or not
• If you get to the end, we're talking about managing people managing nuclear reactors

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 – school engagement, educational attainment, and sustained employment.

• Listening to, and learning from, young people in the attendance crisis, our new report with Public First is now published. Its major finding - that daily attendance is no longer a given, with many pupils making an active decision each morning about whether to attend - presents a real challenge to everyone trying to get young people back into classrooms. Pupils told us they need connection, not just compliance and, as our whole system rests on young people getting out of bed and going to school, I urge policy makers to listen and act. (Carlie Goldsmith, Senior Policy Advisor)
• Alongside our partner The Difference, we launched Inclusion for All, a call on government to adopt a broad definition of inclusion in the upcoming Schools White Paper. Listen to Motherland and Line of Duty star Anna Maxwell Martin talk about why we need mainstream schools able to meet the routine and predictable needs of most children at the earliest opportunity here (from 2 hours 36 mins). This is a growing movement, so get in touch if your organisation wants to join our efforts. (Carlie Goldsmith, Senior Policy Advisor)
• This new report from the Learning and Work Institute (LWI) – one of our Youth Employment Group (YEG) co-chairs – finds that out of over 800,000 young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), just one in four are receiving help from the employment support system. LWI also finds that despite one in five of these young people being deemed too ill to work and claiming Universal Credit (UC), they are rarely offered help to move toward a job or gain skills. Meanwhile some 400,000 of young people are not claiming benefits, meaning they are "off the grid" and largely unreachable. With the new Secretary for Work and Pensions saying getting more young people into work is his "first priority", LWI's report couldn't be more timely. We've been banging the drum for a youth guarantee for years, so it's great to see concrete recommendations for how it might succeed, including changing performance measures for work coaches and reforming the UC system to make it more complementary. (Ayesha Baloch, Senior Policy Advisor)
• Like all good political nerds, I love a good reshuffle, though this one was particularly busy with changes to basically every Ministerial role Impetus cares about and a shift in skills responsibilities. Having worked closely with Ali McGovern as Minister for Employment alongside the Youth Employment Group, we're sad to see her go, though her replacement Diana Johnson is an experienced Minister and there are no signs that the change in personnel is intended to bring a change in policy. The entire junior Ministerial team at DfE has been moved on; FEWeek's 15 facts about the team are worth a read, although it's missing the most interesting fact (Georgia Gould wrote the foreword to the Youth Jobs Gap London report). More usefully, SchoolsWeek's detail of who has responsibility for what. (Ben Gadsby, Head of Policy and Research)
• Ofsted launched their long awaiting new inspection framework. First the massive win. Oracy is set out as a key foundational skill in the new framework and is given the same weight as numeracy and literacy and (there's more) Ofsted has adopted the Oracy Education Commission's definition of oracy, which means for the first time there is a consistent and shared understanding of oracy across the education sector. It's huge, with massive props going to everyone who has made this happen, but particularly to our portfolio partner Voice 21 and my brilliant colleague Ayesha Baloch. On inclusion things are less cut and dried. Inclusion is a category in the new report card. Tick. At an event I attended shortly after publication, school leaders cautiously welcomed the change. Tick tick. However, the move hasn't been universally embraced, with some warning the opportunity to embed inclusion in all aspects of school life has been missed. We will watch closely how it impacts what schools do as inspections resume. We want schools to be data-driven in their approach to inclusion, and for inspectors to pay as much attention to the young people missing or disengaged from classrooms - who are disproportionately from disadvantaged backgrounds - as they do to those present. For anyone interested, I found this episode of the Inside Your Ed podcast a helpful listen. (Carlie Goldsmith, Senior Policy Advisor)

Top reads

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

• A few months ago we submitted evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee inquiry on Reforming Jobcentres, and I've been waiting for their report to be published. The overarching message – that issues with Jobcentres stem from their link with the benefits system – is unsurprising. Currently, only people claiming benefits can access Jobcentres, while work coach appointments (lasting as little as 10 minutes) focus on checking benefit conditions rather than employment support. The use of the ‘ABC' (first Any job, then a Better job, then a Career) approach to employment also leads to cycles of low or no work. I was really pleased to see the Committee acknowledge these well-established pitfalls and recommend meaningful changes. For example, a more personalised approach to conditionality that encourages and supports claimants to find suitable work; allowing claimants longer to find a ‘good job'; reviewing the work coach model; and most significantly, a different approach to sanctions, which we know are ineffective in encouraging people into work. In 2021, when we supported the DWP with the rollout of Youth Hubs by developing a blueprint for the initiative, our work uncovered the importance of a "culture of hospitality" - to be a welcoming space where people want to go to receive genuine employment support – so it's great to see the Government catching on! (Ayesha Baloch, Senior Policy Advisor)
• The final report of the Poverty Strategy Commission sets out an ambitious set of changes that show what it will really take to make a proper dent in reducing poverty in this country. Interesting to see a cross-party group recommend the introduction of a "basic minimum" social security safety net that would offer protection from deep poverty to those who meet agreed expectations around work and, as part of this, the scrapping of the two-child limit. Signs – including the current SoS for education, co-chair of the poverty taskforce and deputy leadership contender Bridget Phillipson describing the limit as "spiteful" – are that campaigners, who have fought long and hard for this reform, might be about to get their way. Not before time, in my view – as Sam Freedman said on the IFS podcast recently, it'll probably make more difference to young people's outcomes than any education policy. (Carlie Goldsmith, Senior Policy Advisor)
• The Children's Plan from the Children's Commissioner's office is a must-read. Drawing on the largest-ever survey of schools and colleges in England, it offers a treasure trove of insights we – shockingly – haven't had access to before. The data on GCSE pass rates, levels of children's need, and school grades is a real eye-opener. It shows that while school quality matters, attending an Outstanding school does not guarantee that young people with the greatest needs will achieve the passport qualifications that set them up for a fulfilling life. And what keeps school leaders up at night? For secondary heads, attendance comes a close second only to funding, with 63% identifying it as a priority concern. Overall, the report reveals a postcode lottery of a system - particularly for the most marginalised young people – that cannot be justified or allowed to continue. Instead, it argues: "We need an education system that is inclusive by design, where all schools, and all classrooms, are equipped and supported to meet the needs of all children. We need a system that's built on what children tell us they want: to go to a good school and spend time with their friends. To learn and have fun. To get a great job. To feel safe and happy." Hear, hear. (Carlie Goldsmith, Senior Policy Advisor)
• Education Datalab's blog looking in detail at young people who missed out on getting those key grade 4s in English and maths is well worth a read. Optimistically around a third of those who miss out only miss one subject and another sixth miss both by only one grade. Less optimistically, half are multiple grades away. The implication, boring in how repetitive I am about it: we could make a real dent in outcomes with a laser like focus on a group of young people who are close to success; but we probably need to think differently about a large group of people who are going to need something more. It's too long to put on a placard; which is part of the reason this is not a placard wielding organisation. (Ben Gadsby, Head of Policy and Research)
• The Education Committee report on SEND was published this month. It calls on government to make SEND an "intrinsic part of the mainstream education system" but notes that achieving this will require "root and branch transformation." I understand that SEND is a burning platform, but there's a risk that if government doesn't set a vision for a system that is inclusive for all children, including those with SEND and children facing other challenges – like those living in poverty – English school will continue to experience stubbornly high levels of lost learning through absence and exclusion that will cast a long shadow over the lives of the children we exist to support. (Carlie Goldsmith, Senior Policy Advisor)
• A brilliant paper by Tom Richmond for the Social Market Foundation discusses something I've been thinking about a lot: the impact of AI on how young people learn. There are well-documented advantages to pupils' use of Large Language Models such as ChatGPT or Gemini, with early findings suggesting improvements in academic performance. However, research has long shown that "deep processing" of information (for example, by handwriting, teaching others, summarising in your own words etc) enhances long-term memory retention. Unsurprisingly, reliance on AI tools has the opposite effect, leading to "shallow processing". Early studies have found this leads to evidence of poorer critical thinking, problem solving and even collaboration skills, alongside students producing lower-quality reasoning and argumentation than peers who are not using AI. We also know that technological advancements often run the risk of increasing the disadvantage gap, our bread and butter here at Impetus. A Sutton Trust report earlier this summer indicated the potential emergence of this trend, with teachers in more advantageous positions pushing ahead with new technology, while others are potentially left behind. Both papers ultimately highlight the fact that action is needed to ensure the education system takes into account the potential risks to learning – particularly for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. It's certainly something I'll be keeping an eye on! (Ayesha Baloch, Senior Policy Advisor)

Look ahead

The team is at Labour Party Conference (Sunday 28 September – Wednesday 1 October) and Conservative Party Conference (Sunday 5 October to Wednesday 8 October). Let us know by reply if you want to meet up!

Monday 29 September is our Labour Party Conference event with LabourList, on attendance. 12.30-13.30pm in Revolucion de Cuba with Helen Hayes MP and Sarah Smith MP

Thursday 9 October is the results of the phonics screening check

Thursday 23 October is the absence stats for the spring and autumn term last year (and also the next edition of Impetus Insights)

And finally... managing people managing nuclear reactors

If I make a mistake at work potentially someone goes to a meeting at the wrong time. If the people managing nuclear reactors make a mistake, potentially many people never go to any meetings ever again. So, you'd assume that management processes might be pretty good, and maybe we could learn something – and you'd be right. Asterisk's article is both anecdote rich and has practical advice. I particularly enjoyed the point that "too many people let the job set the priorities". I have made this mistake… (Ben Gadsby, Head of Policy and Research)