Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to make an announcement on the progress they have made towards aligning the Quality in Careers Standard national accreditation for careers education, information, advice and guidance with the Gatsby Career Benchmarks; and if so, when.

The Quality in Careers Standard is the single national quality award for careers education, information, advice and guidance for young people.

The standard’s assessment criteria has been fully revised to incorporate the Gatsby Benchmarks of good career guidance, and the benchmark indicators, which from September 2018 will form an integral part of the revised assessment and accreditation process. This meets our commitment in the careers strategy to align the standard more fully to the benchmarks. We are pleased with the progress that has been made on this and we have written to the Quality in Careers Standard Board to thank them for all their work.

There are no plans to design a premium grant to all local authority schools on condition they work towards the Quality in Careers Standard. We believe that schools are best placed to decide what careers provision to provide. We are investing over £70 million this year to support young people and adults to have access to quality careers provision. The government strongly recommends that all schools and colleges work towards the updated Quality in Careers Standard, incorporating the Gatsby benchmarks and the Compass tool, to support the development of a world-class careers programme for all their young people.