Conservatives plan to build on strong education record – as Labour threatens autumn tax hike on schools

After 14 years of driving up standards in education, the Conservatives are today (28^th June) launching their plan for education which will help this go even further.   

It comes as the Shadow Education Secretary admitted that Labour's tax raid risked being applied to nurseries too, meaning fewer nursery places for toddlers. The revelation increases fears that a Labour Government would punish aspiring parents with their punitive independent schools tax hike from as early as this September.  

Both the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies and Labour Shadow Cabinet Ministers confirmed parents' worst fears, that state school class sizes would increase as a result. 

It comes as Labour refused to rule out implementing its punishing VAT hike for independent schools from this September. While the Conservatives are helping roll out free childcare for parents, Labour's top team could also not deny the prospect of applying VAT to nurseries meaning less places for toddlers at a higher price for parents. 

The Conservatives' plan includes: 

• Rolling out the largest ever expansion to free childcare, giving eligible families 30 hours childcare from nine months to when their child starts school, saving an average of £6,900 a year 
• Delivering a Family Hub in every local authority 
• Banning mobile phones during the school day 
• Working with schools and local authorities to improve school attendance 
• Hiring more teachers by expanding the recruitment and retention premium, meaning some teachers will receive bonuses of up to £30,000 tax-free over five years 
• Delivering the Advanced British Standard 
• Closing rip off university courses and creating 100,000 new apprenticeships every year by the end of the parliament instead 
• Delivering the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, making it easier for people to train, retrain and upskill over the course of their working lives 

The Conservatives have developed a clear plan for improving education for people at every stage of their lives. This ranges from helping families with childcare to making sure young people get the skills they need to get good jobs. 

The Conservatives have a strong record of driving up schools standards. Ninety per cent of schools are now Good or Outstanding, up from 68 per cent in 2010, and English children are the best primary age readers in the Western world. English children are the 11^th best in the world for maths, having been 27^th in 2009. All aided by extra teachers, the Conservatives have delivered 27,000 more since 2010. 

They have transformed how literacy and numeracy are taught in primary schools, reformed training of teachers and improved pay, so that teachers start on £30,000 a year. Spreading academisation, opening free schools, reforming GCSEs and A levels and creating over 5.8 million apprenticeships has meant a transformation of our education system, and outcomes for children and young people since 2010.  

However, Labour would undo this good work as they did last time they were in power, when we fell down international education leaderboards. If elected, they will: 

• Hike up taxes on families by imposing the First-Time buyers tax 
• Increase taxes on parents by not accounting household earnings in child benefit thresholds, unlike the Conservatives 
• Halve the number of apprenticeships with proposed reforms to the Apprenticeship Levy 
• Increase class sizes by taxing private schools, with an estimated 40,000 children going into state schools 

Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister, said: 

“Education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet to improve our children's life chances. That's why since 2010 we have focused relentlessly on driving up school standards – with English children now the best readers in the western world thanks to the reforms we Conservatives have put in place.  

“We have a clear plan to go further by creating 100,000 new apprenticeships and introducing the new Advanced British Standard to give our children the skills they need to succeed in the future.   

“That's the choice at this election between the Conservatives with a strong track record and a plan to go further, and Labour who have let children down in Labour-run Wales and whose schools tax would see class sizes soar.” 

Gillian Keegan, Education Secretary, said: 

“Our relentless drive to improve school standards has been one of our best achievements of the last 14 years. Millions of children now have a better start in life because of our education reforms.   

“But Labour would risk all of this with their misguided and damaging politics of envy. Their own team have admitted they would increase class sizes. By forcing tens of thousands of children into the state school system, what is billed as a private school policy actually has more impact on state schools.   

“If you care about your child's education, you can only trust the Conservatives. Labour would take us all back to square one.” 

ENDS 

For further information, please contact the Press Office on 020 7984 8121 or email us at press@conservatives.com.  

Notes to Editors 

• The IFS estimates that around 40,000 pupils would be forced to leave their independent school as a result of Labour's policy to charge 20 per cent VAT  on independent schools. The IFS said, ‘it would be reasonable to assume' that up to 40,000 pupils would be forced to leave the independent education sector as a result of a 15 per cent effective VAT rate but recognises that it could be even higher as they have not accounted for ‘potential reductions in labour supply and the potential for tax avoidance behaviour on the behalf of parents or schools'. 

• We are rolling out the largest ever expansion to childcare. Once fully rolled out families will receive 30 hours childcare from 9 months to when their child starts school, saving an average of £6,900 a year. This will help more children to benefit from early years education and more parents into work, the OBR expect this policy to bring 60,000 more people into the workforce by 2027-28. 

• We are supporting families to raise their children with more Family Hubs. We have already delivered Family Hubs in over half the local authorities, now we will go further to deliver a Family Hub in every local authority in the country.  

• Since 2010 we have focused tirelessly on reforming our schools, based on the core belief that there is nothing pre-destined about who will succeed and who won't. We have:  

o        Transformed how the basics – literacy and numeracy – are taught in primary schools. For reading, the Phonics Screening Check is making sure every primary school child is being taught to read in the most effective way possible. Since then, the percentage of year 1 pupils meeting the expected standard has risen from 58% to 75%, with 87% achieving this standard by year 2 in 2022.^[1] For maths, by rolling out our mastery approach and multiplication tables check, Ofsted has found there has been a ‘resounding positive shift' in maths education.^[2] 

o        Reformed the way we train and support our teachers and leaders. Every school teacher and leader now has access to a golden thread of high-quality, evidence based training and professional development at every stage in their career.  

o        Changed GCSEs and A levels to increase rigour in both what children learn and how they are assessed. Our reformed National Curriculum and GCSEs and A Levels focus on ensuring children are able to learn the necessary knowledge, in order to then build the skills they need.  

o        Spread academisation and free schools across the country. Half of all state-funded schools are now academies and there are now over 700 free schools championing innovation and driving up standards for children everywhere.^[4]  

• It is because of these reforms that we have risen up the international rankings. 90% of schools are now Good or Outstanding, compared to 67% in 2010. This transformation is evident worldwide – we now have the best primary age readers in the Western world (and 4^th globally) and we have risen up the rankings in maths too – now ranked 11^th globally compared to 27^th in 2009.  

• We will continue to work with schools and local authorities to improve school attendance, including through expanding mental health support teams to all schools, building on our plan that is working – there were 440,000 fewer children persistently absent last year compared to the year before. And to ensure all children are getting a high-quality education, including those who are home schooled, we will legislate to create a register of children not in school. 

• We will legally ban mobile phones during the school day, enabling children to learn without disruption and providing teachers with the tools to take action to improve behaviour. This will make our mobile phone ban guidance statutory so that schools must follow it. To help schools implement the ban, we will provide financial support to schools to invest in the necessary infrastructure (like lockers). 

• We will make it compulsory for schools to offer at least 2 hours of PE and sport per week and provide more funding to deliver this. And we will provide additional funding to School Games Organisers so that more children get the opportunity to plan competitive sport in and between schools, building on competitions like National Finals. 

• We will attract more talented teachers by expanding our recruitment and retention premium and reducing workload. From this September under our plans, new teachers in priority areas and key STEM and technical subjects will receive bonuses of up to £30,000 tax-free over five years. We will extend the payments to eligible teachers in our further education colleges.  

• We will support children with special educational needs by ending the postcode lottery of support that exists. We are delivering 60,000 more school places and will create a further 15 new free schools for children with special educational needs. 

• We will deliver the Advanced British Standard, a new approach to 16-19 education which will build on the best of A Levels and T Levels. We will end the artificial and damaging divide between academic and technical education which has persisted for far too long. Every young person will spend more time in the classroom, learning more subjects, including English and maths to 18, as they do in most advanced economies around the world. 

• We have reformed apprenticeships so they now deliver the skills they should, delivering 5.8 million apprenticeships since 2010. Apprenticeships now cover almost 70% of occupations, having worked with thousands of businesses, have introduced the apprenticeship levy, meaning the apprenticeship budget has doubled in cash-term and now apprenticeships will be on UCAS. 

• We have delivered T Levels which are a new world-class technical option at 16-19. Too many young people were being let down by poor quality vocational courses at 16-19, so we are reforming the system by removing overlapping qualifications and encouraging more young people to take up T Levels. These will form the basis for the technical route in the Advanced British Standard. 

• We have introduced the Baker Clause which means schools must make sure technical routes are presented with equal prominence to academic routes. This means when schools are giving careers guidance, they should allow colleges and further education providers into schools to promote apprenticeships, T Levels and approved technical qualifications to students in years 8-13. 

• We have fought to ensure that young people get a fair deal from university:  

o        We have reformed student loans so that no one pays more than what they borrowed in real-terms.  

o        We have created the Office for Students so we now have a proper regulator for universities and are able to assess the outcomes that students get from university.  

o        We have provided significant funding to universities, via the Office for Students, for subjects that are strategically important or relatively more important to teach. Through the Strategic Priorities Grant we provide top-up funding for courses like medicine, engineering, or some creative degrees which are more expensive. 

o        We have enabled more disadvantaged students to go to university. We have supported the Office for Students to deliver access and participation strategy, focusing on genuine social mobility. This includes working with local schools to drive up standards and moving away from just getting disadvantaged students through the door, and instead tackling dropout rates and supporting students through university to graduation and into high skilled, high paid jobs. 

o        Thanks to our education reforms, an English 18-year-old from a disadvantaged background today is 74% more likely to go to university than in 2010. 

• We will create 100,000 more apprenticeships every year by the end of the next parliament. This will give young people the opportunity to succeed and the skills our country needs. 

• We will close the university courses that make students poorer. We will change the law so that we can close the poorest performing university courses, based on dropout rates, progression onto graduate jobs and – in future – earnings potential. This will protect students from being sold a false dream over worthless courses and protect the taxpayer from having to pay where the graduate can't, by making sure more student loans are paid back. 

• We will deliver the Lifelong Learning Entitlement to transform the higher education student loans system from the 2025 academic year, ushering in a more flexible system that will make it easier for people to train, retrain and upskill throughout their working lives. This will help people get training throughout their working lives to get the skills which they need to excel and which our businesses need to grow. 

• We are committed to delivering the best value for students so we will work with universities to ensure students get the contact hours they are promised and their exams get marked.