Special educational needs and disability Green Paper launched
Alison Wolf review of vocational 14-19 education published
Welfare Reform Bill published
Michael Gove announces review of National Curriculum
The Education Bill
HEFCE annual grant letter
Skills Funding Agency publishes Guidance Note.
YPLA statement on 16-19 funding and statutory guidance
The Importance of Teaching - The Schools White Paper 2010
Government publishes guide to Decentralisation and Localism Bill
16 areas get 'Community Budgets' to help the vulnerable
Initial government response to the Browne review
New all-age careers service to launch in England in 2012
Government publishes local growth white paper
Lord Browne report on higher education
Reclassification of GFE and 6th Form colleges

DfE has published Support and Aspiration: a new approach to special educational needs and disability. The paper sets out the government vision for reform including proposals to improve outcomes for children and young people who are disabled or have SEN, minimise 'the adversarial nature' of the system for families and maximise value for money.

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The Wolf Review of vocational 14-19 education has been published. Review of Vocational Education - The Wolf Report argues that vocational education for 14-19 year olds should serve the purpose of creating and maintaining opportunities for all young people. The review sets out three underlying organising principles for reform:

• any young person's programme of study, whether 'academic' or 'vocational', should provide for labour market and educational progress;
• people should be provided with accurate and useful information, so that they can make decisions accordingly; and
• the system needs to be simplified dramatically, as a precondition for giving people good and accurate information, to free up resources for teaching and learning, and to encourage innovation and efficiency.

The Welfare Reform Bill has been introduced to Parliament. It introduces a wide range of reforms which aim to deliver the commitment made in the Coalition Agreement and the Queen's speech to make the benefits and tax credits systems 'fairer and simpler' by:

• creating the right incentives to get more people into work by ensuring work always pays;
• protecting the most vulnerable in society; and
• delivering fairness to those claiming benefit and to the taxpayer.

The secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, has announced a review of the National Curriculum in England. The review will be led by the Department for Education, and supported by an Advisory Committee and Expert Panel. The Expert Panel will be lead by Mr Tim Oates and will be made up of 'top teachers', academics, and business representatives. The panel will provide an evidence base for the review and ensure the construction and content of the new National Curriculum 'is based in evidence and informed by international best practice'.

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The Education Bill

The government is taking forward the legislative proposals in the Schools White Paper, The Importance of Teaching and key proposals from the Skills for Sustainable Growth strategy and two elements of the reforms to higher education funding through the Department for Education-led Education Bill. 

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HEFCE annual grant letter

The government has published its annual grant letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The letter from secretary of state Vince Cable and universities minister David Willetts sets out what HEFCE's priorities should be when allocating higher education budgets to the sector for 2011-12. It also gives indicative figures for 2012-13 when a new system of student finance comes into effect, with broad projections for the rest of the spending review period to 2014-15.
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Skills Funding Agency publishes Guidance Note.

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has published Guidance Note 6, a document which covers 2011/12 changes to funding policy arising from the publication of the Skills for Sustainable Growth: Strategy Document and Further Education – New Horizon, Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth. 

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YPLA statement on 16-19 funding and statutory guidance

The young People's Learning Agency (YPLA) has published a 16-19 Funding Statement outlining funding levels and policies for 2011/12. The publication is also accompanied by Statutory Guidance notes on arrangements for 16-19 funding of education and training (PDF, 358 KB).

Education secretary Michael Gove has set out a reform programme that puts teachers 'at the heart' of school improvement and 'frees' schools from central government direction. The schools White Paper, The Importance of Teaching, sets out government plans to set in place 'decisive action to free our teachers from constraint and improve their professional status and authority, raise the standards set by our curriculum and qualifications to match the best in the world and, having freed schools from external control, hold them effectively to account for the results they achieve'.

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Government publishes guide to Decentralisation and Localism Bill

The government has published the Decentralisation and Localism Bill and an accompanying guide. It makes the case for 'a radical shift of power from the centralised state to local communities', and describes six 'essential actions' required to deliver decentralisation down 'through every level of government to every citizen'. The guide focuses on the Localism Bill as it is intended to provide the legislative foundation for change.
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16 areas get 'Community Budgets' to help the vulnerable

From April next year this first phase of 16 areas covering 31 councils and their partners will be put in charge of Community Budgets that pool various strands of Whitehall funding into a single 'local bank account' for tackling social problems around families with complex needs. The government also expects Community Budgets to be available for those places with elected city mayors and from April 2013 intends to make Community Budgets available to all places so communities can develop 'local solutions to local problems'.
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Initial government response to the Browne review

The government has announced plans for reforms to higher education and student finance 'to ensure that we maintain England's world class university sector'. The new reforms have been designed to offer 'a more generous package of financial support' for students from low income backgrounds to go to university. 
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New all-age careers service to launch in England in 2012

In November 2010, Skills minister John Hayes set out his vision for the first all-age careers service in England. Both young people aged 13-19 and adults will be able to begin accessing new arrangements for careers guidance from September 2011. The service will be operational by April 2012. It will build on 'the best of' Next Step and Connexions and provide a joined up service for all age groups for the first time. 
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Government publishes local growth white paper

BIS has published a White Paper which announces government plans to 'kick start' local growth. Local Growth: realising every place's potential sets out the government's new approach on rebalancing the economy and helping drive sustainable growth by focusing on three key themes:

• shifting power to local communities and businesses, by creating dynamic local enterprise partnerships;
• increasing confidence to invest;
• focused investment, by tackling barriers to growth that the market will not address itself.

Lord Browne has published his report Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education in the UK. The Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance, was launched in November 2009 and was tasked with making recommendations to government on the future of fees policy and financial support for full and part-time undergraduate and postgraduate students. The three aims of the work have been to increase participation, improve quality and create a sustainable long-term future for higher education in this country.
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Reclassification of GFE and 6th Form colleges

Following the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announcement of a change to the way Further Education colleges are treated in National Accounts so that they are classified as part of central government, rather than a part of the private sector, BIS has issued guidance asking colleges not to take action at this time. It states that these changes are not expected to have any direct impact on colleges for the remainder of the financial year.
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