Chapter 7: Department for Education and Employment
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7.1 Education is central to achieving opportunity for all, and through this a productive economy and a cohesive society. This requires investment in human capital to improve attainment, to break the cycle of deprivation and provide employment opportunities for all.
7.2 The three central objectives of the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) are:
- to ensure that all young people reach 16 with the skills, attitudes and personal qualities that will give them a secure foundation for lifelong learning, work and citizenship in a rapidly changing world;
- to develop in everyone a commitment to lifelong learning, so as to enhance their lives, improve their employability in a changing labour market and create the skills that our economy and employers need; and
- to help those without a job into work.
7.3 The Government has already made progress towards these objectives. Class sizes have been cut for 300,000 infants. The percentage of children meeting the required standard of literacy at age 11 has risen from 57 per cent in 1996 to 70 per cent in 1999; the percentage achieving the standard for numeracy has risen from 54 per cent to 69 per cent. Attainment of five or more A* to C grades at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) has risen from 44.5 per cent in 1996 to 48 per cent in 1999.
7.4 The Government's employment policies have helped to bring about the lowest level of claimant count unemployment for over 20 years, and highest ever number of people in employment.
Box 7.1: Key PSA targets - Department of Education and Employment
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Improving attainment and realising potential
Giving every child the best start in life
7.5 All children deserve the best possible start in life. At every stage of their schooling they deserve access to an education service which compares with the best in the world, which will equip them with the capacity to build a lifetime of learning and thus fulfil their potential.
7.6 Chapter 24 sets out the Government's plans for expanding Sure Start, a cross-departmental programme which supports the development of local projects for children under four years of age and their families in many of the most disadvantaged areas of the country. This will help improve the health and social development of many more children from families with low incomes and so enable them to start school ready to learn.
7.7 All children aged four already have access to a nursery place. There will also be nursery provision for 66 per cent of children aged three by 2002. This proportion will increase further in 2002-03 and 2003-04.
7.8 The Government will build on the successful reforms that have seen a transformation in our primary schools. The targets for standards in literacy and numeracy for 2004 at age 11 will be higher still than those set for 2002; and a new target will be set to focus efforts in and on those Local Education Authorities (LEAs) whose children are least likely to meet the national average.
7.9 Having made significant headway in primary schools to boost standards and attainment, attention needs to turn to those aged between 11 and 14 where evidence suggests that many children are failing to progress. In 1999, attainment of the required standards at Key Stage 3 was only 64 per cent in English and 62 per cent in maths.
7.10 To ensure that all children continue to learn, the Government proposes to consult the education service on a target for the next Parliament of raising attainment at age 14 to 85 per cent in English, maths and Information and Communications Technology (ICT); and to 80 per cent in science.
7.11 To transform the education service, the Government must continue to transform the school estate. Despite the huge programme of repairs and refurbishment funded through the New Deal for Schools, many children still have to study in buildings which are ill-suited to a modern curriculum and costly to maintain. Schools will be the main beneficiaries of the increase in capital spending on education and training between 2000-01 and 2003-04.
7.12 The new target for attainment in ICT at age 14 is a vital step in enabling all children to get the most out of new technology both for the rest of their learning; and for their future employability.
Breaking the cycle of deprivation
7.13 To create a truly inclusive society, the standards of the worst performing schools and LEAs must rise towards those of the best. Sustained support should also be offered to those who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out of learning. The Connexions Service has been developed to provide individually tailored support for those aged between 13 and 19 by delivering advice and support which meets their individual needs. The service will be introduced progressively over the next three years.
7.14 Young people who live in poor households are much less likely to stay on in learning; and those who lack qualifications are more likely to face a future which will involved sustained spells of unemployment and poverty. Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) have been piloted since September 1999 as a means of rewarding participation, progression and achievement for those from lower income groups. Resources are being made available to extend this scheme to cover 30 per cent of the country. As set out in the 1998 Comprehensive Spending Review White Paper, "if successful, the EMA would replace Child Benefit after 16 for those staying in education beyond their GCSEs."
A more productive workforce
7.15 About 35 per cent of young people in the UK were graduates from higher education in 1998, compared to an average of 23 per cent across countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The Spending Review will fund more places in higher education. In particular, new funding will focus on vocationally-oriented foundation degrees. Many leading universities recruit disproportionately from independent schools and more privileged backgrounds. The Government is setting a new PSA target to widen access to higher education and will provide new resources to support approaches such as summer schools and the creation of links between schools and universities, in partnership with those leading universities who have difficulty in attracting and admitting the most able of students from the maintained sector and from poorer households.
7.16 The Government's increased investment over the next three years in the science and engineering base (see Chapter 34) - an average of 5.4 per cent annual real growth - will be a major boost for universities, enhancing the UK's world-leading strengths in science research, removing a major backlog of investment in laboratories and equipment and roughly tripling the funds which help universities use their know-how to build regional business competitiveness.
7.17 Lifelong learning must also be at the forefront of education policy: 20 per cent of the adult population lack basic skills in literacy and numeracy, to the detriment of their individual learning and employment opportunities and the economy as a whole. The Government will therefore increase investment in a range of initiatives, such as family learning in schools, to achieve a marked increase in numbers of adults who gain these vital skills.
7.18 Many more people also need help to gain ICT skills. Around 300 ICT learning centres will be open by spring 2001 and up to 1,000 by 2002. From this autumn, the University for Industry will be fully operational, offering a new avenue through which to add to basic skills or build on higher skills.
Spending plans
7.19 The new spending plans provide for an increase in expenditure on education and training in England of an average of 5.6 per cent a year in real terms between 2000-01 and 2003-04. English local authority expenditure will grow by an average 3 per cent a year in real terms over the period. Capital expenditure on education and training in England will rise by an average 17 per cent per year in real terms.
7.20 The new spending plans provide funding for an average annual real increase in expenditure on education in the UK of 5.4 per cent.
7.21 Employment programmes were considered as part of the cross-departmental review of Welfare to Work and ONE, the conclusions of which are set out in Chapter 26 of this White Paper. The review concluded that an interdepartmental fund should be established, to be called the Employment Opportunities Fund. This will continue to fund the New Deal, associated employment programmes, the ONE service and the establishment costs of the new working age agency after the Windfall Tax receipts have been been exhausted
Table 7.1: Key figures
| £ million | ||||
| 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | |
| DFEE - Education and Training* | 17455 | 19600 | 21753 | 23928 |
| of which: Resource Budget | 15223 | 17088 | 18741 | 20116 |
| Capital Budget | 2232 | 2512 | 3012 | 3812 |
| Local Authority Education SSA** | 21332 | 22513 | 23863 | 25261 |
| Total Education (England) | 38787 | 42113 | 45616 | 49189 |