8 Conclusion
122. Independent careers advice and guidance
has never been as important as it is now. Careers advice has to
be seen in the context of the proliferation in post-14 educational
settings—UTC's, studio schools, free schools, academies,
further education colleges, sixth form colleges, apprenticeships—together
with the introduction of higher university tuition fees and an
increasingly complex labour market in which SMEs are the major
employer. In addition, careers advice has to play its role within
a policy context of a rising compulsory participation age and
high levels of youth unemployment. Too many schools lack the
skills, incentives or capacity to fulfil the duty put on them
without a number of changes being made. We do not think that schools
can simply be left to get on with it.
123. We agree with Brian Lightman of the Association
of School and College Leaders when he told us:
there is a bewildering range of choices for young
people today. It is a confusing world, and to expect a 14-year-old
or a 15-year-old to know where to look—to go to the right
place and to navigate their way through that without some professional
assistance—is just misguided.[182]
124. The evidence submitted to us suggests that
the careers advice and guidance service to young people is deteriorating.
Our inquiry has highlighted grave shortcomings in the implementation
of the Government's policy of transferring responsibility for
careers guidance to schools, not least the inadequacy of the means
by which schools can be held accountable for their fulfilment
of this duty. These issues must be addressed as a matter of urgency,
drawing on the existing resource of the National Careers Service
where at all possible and giving schools the direct guidance they
need without encroaching on their ability to respond flexibly
to their own circumstances and priorities. Young people deserve
better than the service they are likely to receive under current
arrangements, and schools must be enabled and empowered to, and
held accountable for, the provision of the high quality, focused
careers guidance required by all their students to help them meet
the challenges of today's world of work.
Conclusions and recommendations
In the report conclusions are shown in bold;
recommendations are shown in bold italics. In this
list, recommendations are shown in italics.
Transfer of the statutory duty
Our conclusion on the transfer of responsibility
1. The
Government's decision to transfer responsibility for careers guidance
to schools is regrettable. International evidence suggests such
a model does not deliver the best provision for young people.
The weaknesses of the school-based model have been compounded
by the failure to transfer to schools any budget with which to
provide the service. This has led, predictably, to a drop in the
overall level of provision. (Paragraph 31)
2. Nonetheless,
we recognise that the new responsibility is now in place and further
change would lead to greater uncertainty and upheaval, with a
detrimental impact on young people. Whilst funding remains a concern,
schools need to make careers guidance a priority within their
budgets and we do not, in the current financial climate, recommend
that additional funding be provided directly to schools. We believe
that, instead, urgent steps must be taken by the Government to
ensure that the current settlement meets the needs of young people.
More precisely, we believe that the situation could be rescued
by a combination of improved accountability and an enhancement
of the role of the National Careers Service, including additional
funding for that. (Paragraph 32)
Extension of the statutory duty
3. We
welcome the Government's decision to extend the duty to young
people in Year 8 and to 16 to 18 year-olds in school or college.
(Paragraph 35)
Coherence and consistency
Current provision
4. The
Department for Education should encourage local authorities to
promote greater consistency in the provision of careers advice
and guidance in their areas so that, while there is room for innovation
and variation, all young people have access to good quality, independent
and impartial careers guidance, regardless of where they live
or which school they attend. (Paragraph
37)
Government guidance
5. We
welcome the publication of the statutory guidance and practical
guide for schools. However, the statutory guidance is seriously
weakened by its permissive tone and the practical guide can be
disregarded by schools, should they so wish. The fact that the
guidance for schools is spread across two separate documents further
diminishes its impact and authority. (Paragraph 40)
6. We believe that
Government could do more to promote consistency in the offer to
young people through central guidance. We note that the Minister
was not opposed to the proposition of combining the two documents
into one, if there was "broad consensus around that".
We consider that this would help to encourage consistency between
what was offered in different schools and different areas, and
therefore we recommend that the statutory guidance and practical
guide be combined in a single document. References to "statutory
guidance" in the rest of this report should be taken to mean
this unified document. (Paragraph 41)
Approaches to collaboration
7. We
commend the efforts made by some local authorities to support
their schools in taking on the new duty, particularly by working
with them to form consortia and partnerships to procure independent
and impartial careers guidance. We recommend that the Government's
statutory guidance is strengthened to emphasise the benefits of
this approach. We also recommend that the Government promotes
the activities of the best performing local authorities so that
best practice can be shared.
(Paragraph 46)
8. We conclude
that a collaborative approach to commissioning careers guidance
services has many advantages for schools, particularly in promoting
consistency and quality and in realising economies of scale. We
recommend that the statutory guidance is strengthened better to
reflect the benefits of this approach. (Paragraph 49)
Accountability
The Ofsted framework
9. We
welcome the undertaking that Ofsted is to conduct a thematic survey
of careers guidance provision in schools which will report in
the summer of 2013. We also welcome the Minister's assurance that
he will take the findings of this survey seriously. Nevertheless,
a survey of provision cannot provide sufficient incentives to
encourage individual schools to implement a good quality, independent
and impartial careers guidance service. (Paragraph 55)
10. We note the disconnect
between the Minister's view of the role of Ofsted in enforcing
accountability on schools through its inspection framework, and
Ofsted's own view. The limitations which Ofsted set out to us—the
fact that its inspections do not make a clear judgement on careers
guidance provision in schools, that it does not inspect against
statutory compliance in this area and that it does not routinely
inspect all schools—means that the Ofsted framework is not
a credible accountability check on the provision of careers guidance
by individual schools. (Paragraph 56)
Destination measures
11. We
conclude that destination measures as they currently stand are
not effective for ensuring that schools meet their statutory duty.
Measures taken too soon do not provide a complete picture while
those taken later remove the direct accountability on schools,
as other factors may have influenced an individual's destination.
Furthermore, the measures do not show the quality of the careers
guidance provision in a school. (Paragraph 59)
12. There is therefore
no immediate prospect for schools to be held to account for their
provision of careers guidance by means of destination measures.
Nevertheless, we recognise that the measures could be beneficial
in other ways. We recommend that the Department for Education
continues to pursue the inclusion of employment as well as improved
education destination measures to make the data more meaningful.
We also welcome the Minister's ambition to expand the timeframe
of the destination measures in the future. (Paragraph
60)
School careers plan
13. We
recommend that the Department for Education introduces into the
statutory guidance a requirement for schools to publish an annual
careers plan, to include information on the support and resources
available to its pupils in planning their career development.
Schools should be required to review the plan systematically on
an annual basis, taking into account the views of students, parents,
employers and other learning providers. (Paragraph
63)
Schools and the National Careers Service
14. We
recommended in our Fourth Report of session 2010-12, Participation
by 16-19 year olds in education and training, that an "all
age careers service should be funded by the Department for Education
for face to face career guidance for young people." Our view
on this has not changed. However, given the statutory duty has
only recently been passed to schools, we believe that the best
way of delivering the Government's vision and providing the service
that young people need is through the capacity-building and brokerage
model. (Paragraph 72)
15. We recommend
that the remit of the National Careers Service is expanded to
enable it to perform a capacity-building and brokerage role for
schools. As part of its capacity-building role, the National Careers
Service should work with individual schools in designing their
annual careers plan of provision for careers guidance as well
as provide schools with local labour market information. Clearly,
this would have funding implications and so we further recommend
that the Department of Education instructs the Skills Funding
Agency to cost the options of the National Careers Service remit
being expanded in this way. (Paragraph
74)
Quality of careers guidance
Forms of guidance: Face-to-face guidance
16. Access
to face-to-face guidance is an integral part of good quality careers
guidance. All young people should have access to such provision
from a qualified, independent provider, should they choose to
take up the opportunity. We recommend that a minimum of one personal
careers interview with an independent adviser who is not a teacher
should be available for every young person and that this is made
explicit in the statutory guidance.
(Paragraph 81)
Online information
17. Websites
are a valuable source of information about careers for young people.
They cannot, however, replace face-to-face guidance, nor are they
sufficient in themselves to fulfil the requirement on schools
to provide independent, impartial guidance. To ensure that schools
do not over-rely on directing their students to websites, we recommend
that the Department for Education amends the statutory guidance
to schools to make it clear that the signposting of independent
websites is insufficient to meet their statutory duty.
(Paragraph 86)
Independence and impartiality
18. We
recommend that, as part of an overall careers plan, schools are
required to publish details of the alternative providers they
allow to meet with their pupils, including the name of the provider
and the nature of the contact.
(Paragraph 90)
19. We welcome
the Government's support for the increased involvement of local
employers in careers guidance in schools, which is vital for effective
careers provision. We recommend that schools be required to set
out in their careers plans their arrangements with local employers
and how they intend to enhance them.
(Paragraph 93)
Teachers and careers guidance
20. We
acknowledge the important role that teachers play in guiding and
advising young people. We also recognise the constraints that
they are under when performing the role and that they cannot substitute
for fully-qualified, independent and impartial advisers. (Paragraph
99)
21. We agree with
witnesses from business that it would be beneficial for teachers
to have a greater understanding of the world of work, particularly
that of the local labour market, and we recommend that teachers
should undertake regular professional development to enhance their
knowledge and understanding of the work place. The local focus
and infrastructure of the National Careers Service could be invaluable
in enabling this, and we recommend that this is incorporated within
the NCS capacity-building role outlined above.
(Paragraph 100)
22. We concur with
our colleagues on the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee
that awareness of apprenticeships is limited within schools.
We recommend that the National Apprenticeship Service's remit
be extended to include the promotion of apprenticeships in schools.
(Paragraph 101)
23. We recommend
that the Government requires schools to:
- achieve the Quality in Careers Standard;
- secure independent careers guidance from a
provider with the Matrix standard; and
- ensure that advice is provided by a level
6 qualified careers advisers.
We further recommend that the National Careers
Service's role should be expanded to include a duty to promote
to schools the benefits of working to these quality standards.
(Paragraph 105)
Careers education and work-related learning
24. The
Government's decision to remove the statutory duty on schools
to provide careers education and work-related learning has been
heavily criticised by witnesses to our inquiry. We are persuaded
of the benefits of both these former provisions and we recommend
that the Government's statutory guidance to schools is strengthened
to require schools to provide careers education and work-related
learning as part of their duty. (Paragraph
109)
Targeted support
25. We
believe that careers guidance services are an integral part of
the support package needed by vulnerable young people. We are
concerned that there appears to be too much variation in local
authorities' interpretation of what constitutes a targeted group.
We recommend that the Department of Education promotes the activities
of the best performing local authorities so that best practice
in identifying and delivering services to targeted young people
is shared. (Paragraph
115)
Youth contract
26. We
recommend that the Government ensures that discussions take place
between local authorities and the regional Youth Contract providers
about the delivery of the Youth Contract on a local level.
(Paragraph 121)
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