Questions over the ‘Future DfE’ as ESFA stipped of non-financial responsibilities
Following the announcement last week that the North East will become its own RSC region, the Department for Education shake-up has continued with a review of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) taking place.
The ESFA is currently responsible for a huge range of issues, including overseeing academy trusts, FE and sixth-form colleges, and independent training providers; intervening where there is risk of financial failure or where there is evidence of mismanagement of public funds; building the financial capacity and capability of providers; school resource management; and working closely with the national and regional schools commissioners and the Further Education commissioner. It will now hand a range of responsibilities over to the DfE, while the agency will focus strictly on funding. This move is planned so that both bodies will avoid any confusion over policies and other non-financial focuses they may share.
The review, spearheaded by Sir David Bell (Vice Chancellor of University of Sunderland), found that the ESFA’s close awareness of the Department for Education’s governance roles and policies risked a ‘lack of clarity in roles, responsibilities and accountabilities across ESFA and the DfE, particularly where there are shared interests’. This mirrors calls from former DfE Adviser Sam Freedman who, just last week, stated that the separation of education and financial regulation ‘makes no sense’ and called for the launching of a single, arm’s length regulator of trusts, merging the roles held by regional schools commissioners and the ESFA.
As well as clarity between the ESFA and the DfE, this announcement should also mean clear communication between the Department for Education and the school regions, as they look to bring them in line with other government departments. A new Regions Group will be created, meaning that the current eight RSC regions will become nine, as the North East will break away from the North West, Yorkshire and Humber to stand on its own. How this will impact the North East moving forward, however, remains to be seen.
According to a DfE spokesperson, ‘these changes reorganise us to be a department that operates better locally’, hinting that the move has been made to acknowledge and recognise how schools became community hubs for many during the pandemic. Furthermore, the Regions Group is designed to provide integrated delivery for schools and local authorities, including ‘children’s social care and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities’.
Despite clear communication appearing to be the main reasons behind many of the changes, there seems to be no clarity as to how this will work in practice, with questions arising over what the overhaul – branded as ‘Future DfE’ – will look like once the dust settles, a slightly worrying situation, considering these plans are due to be in place on 1st April. Permanent Secretary of the DfE Susan Acland-Hood said that the changes ‘will help us deliver the department’s priorities on skills, schools and families’, with no further information than that and no indication as to what other changes may occur as part of ‘Future DfE’.