Statutory Duty

Just where is the new statutory guidance?

Monday 14th November 2016

I'm tempted to start this blog with a quick chorus of 'Why are we waiting" but I thought that could be i-am-waitingconstrued as why are we waiting for another of my blogs. Yes, sorry folks, blogging hasn't been top of my agenda for a while.

Since the start of the year, a whole 11 months ago, we've been waiting for the new incarnation of the statutory guidance for careers. So where is it? Short answer, I don't know. First of all it was delayed for the Brexit vote, then the new cabinet minister.

So why the delay in publishing the new Statutory Guidance?
The new education secretary Justine Greening has been settling into her new job and Robert Halfon, the Skills Minister was given the job of overseeing all CEIAG, both at school and adult. This was the first change in the way careers has been handled for quite a long time. It was also one of the recommendations that the sub committee for education, skills and the economy suggested in their report on CEIAG in July. Previously the job had been split in two, with a minister in charge of schools CEIAG and another in charge of adult.

Also in the sub committee's report was a stinging rebuke for keeping us waiting for a new strategy, Neil Carmichael MP and Iain Wright MP who co chair the committee accuse the government of "Burying their heads in the sand."

By Sander van der Wel from Netherlands (Bury your head in the sand...) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
By Sander van der Wel from Netherlands (Bury your head in the sand...) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
I keep hearing whispers about meetings and reports about Robert Halfon looking at what is going well with CEIAG. Thus, I must draw the conclusion that Halfon may be actually, seriously looking at redrafting the statutory guidance to reflect what is needed to improve the (all together now) "patchy provision" that so many experience.
In a press release on 11th November he said...

"Beyond apprenticeships, we need to make sure that careers information, education, advice, mentoring and guidance is an essential part in our investment in the nation's skills. The Careers & Enterprise Company is integral to this. Funded by the government, it will be a key player in boosting social mobility and helping thousands into the world of work.

I wanted to see first-hand how good careers advice is vital in helping people make informed decisions about their future. I was impressed by what I saw at colleges, businesses and schools in Durham, Blackpool and Cambridge when I visited. We need to ensure that more and more institutions offer clear advice to their students."



I just hope that one of the things he has seen is the size of the job in many schools and moves towards

1) Each school having a trained careers leader, either a teacher or careers adviser
2) Each school having a professional careers adviser to work with pupils
3) A method of assessing efficacy of a school's CEIAG provision

That's my 3 wishes. What are yours?