King’s Speech

Baroness Blower Excerpts

Thursday 9th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blower (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, particularly because he has covered much of what I might have said, had I had 14 minutes rather than only seven.

Responding to the King’s Speech, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services was mainly concerned by what was not in the Speech. Its president said:

“Unfortunately the speech missed an opportunity to focus on a significant long term challenge affecting children, their health, wellbeing and their ability to learn in school”.


That is, of course, poverty. In saying this, he echoed points made by the National Education Union about the need for a plan to tackle, among other things, the root causes of persistent post-Covid absence, a plan that should focus on the impact of poverty, insecure housing and mental health—all absent from the Speech.

After years of austerity and cuts to school funding, there needs to be a concerted effort to rebuild local authority services, including SEND support and mental health services, to be available to children and families in a truly timely fashion, as well as rebuilding pastoral support in schools. This question of poverty is set against the background of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reporting that 1 million children are living in destitution in our country, as we were reminded yesterday by the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of York.

The lack of government funding continues to have a major impact on schools and children’s learning. Ministers claim that they have restored per-pupil funding to 2010 levels in real terms. That is not good enough. No net growth in over 13 years represents a considerable squeeze on school resources in all respects. I remind your Lordships that last month, the Government admitted to a £370 million error in their school funding. This will cause further cuts at school level. Perhaps the Autumn Statement will be the moment to reinstate that £370 million.

What might be welcome, as has been referenced by the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, is the signalled intention to create parity of esteem between academic and vocational education, especially as the OECD continues to report that there is much to do on skills in this country. However, it is not at all clear that the so-called advanced British standard is the answer, not least because it is unlikely to be taken up in Scotland or Wales, and possibly not in Northern Ireland, so is not really British. A better way to encourage more students to achieve would be for the Government—the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, has already mentioned this—to reverse the decision on applied general qualifications and to continue to fund them. They are a tried and tested qualification which provides a pathway for disadvantaged students into employment or higher education.

The advanced British standard would also face a challenge, in that there are currently insufficient teachers in our schools, with future prospects not looking good. While the Schools Minister Nick Gibb talks about this being the best time to be a teacher, recruitment figures to the profession seem to give the lie to that. The Government recruited only 59% of their target for trainee secondary teachers this year, with a projection of only 50% for next year. Retention continues to be a big problem. Some 25% of teachers leave within three years and about a third within five years, and only 60% remain after nine years. That is not good enough. The Government will say that the number of teachers has increased by 27,000 since 2010, but the number of pupils has increased by close to 995,000. The NEU calculates that that equates to 37 extra pupils for every extra teacher. Clearly, more teachers are needed.

I could give chapter and verse on the number of teachers who are not properly qualified to teach the subjects on their timetable, but I will just say this about English and maths: one in six English teachers and one in five maths teachers has no post A-level qualification in the subject—yet another indication that the advanced British standard may well have problems.

Turning to the state of our school buildings, reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete—RAAC—is, as the NEU says, just the tip of the iceberg of the acute problems caused by the real-terms decline in capital spending of 44% between 2009-10 and 2019-20. The Office of Government Property has calculated that to maintain the school estate in line with best practice—and surely our children deserve conditions in which to learn that represent best practice—the Government should be spending £7 billion a year. The current figure is £2.6 billion, so perhaps that is another idea for the Autumn Statement.

Finally, I return to poverty. A key way to improve children’s capacity to learn would be to legislate for universal free school meals. Hungry children cannot learn. If work and potentially the dignity of work is beyond the reach of many, particularly single parents, because of childcare costs, the Government need to address the fact that what is currently on offer to so many is simply not adequate. What proposals might they have in this direction?

Just before I sit down, where is the long-promised employment Bill?