Andy Burnham’s return to Westminster – and potential path to Downing Street – could have big implications for education, including for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The former Greater Manchester mayor won the Makerfield by-election this week, paving the way for an anticipated leadership bid to oust Sir Keir Starmer.
In his victory speech on Friday, Burnham called for changes to the education system so that it “offers a path for everybody”. Here’s what could be different if he becomes Prime Minister.
SEND and EHCPs
Burnham told The i Paper earlier this month that he wants to overhaul support for SEND, warning that children “find their needs are not met and they drift away from the labour market”.
In December, he told PoliticsHome that the SEND system should eventually “move away from” education, health and care plans (EHCPs) as they add “much greater fragmentation to an already fragmented landscape”.
Starmer’s Government wants to reform EHCPs – legal documents which set out the help children are entitled to – due to rising costs and inefficiencies. Under proposed reforms published in February, the Government says EHCPs would be reserved for only the most complex cases by 2035.
Asked if he would like to see EHCPs stay initially and then be phased out, Burnham said: “I think moving away from them, yes. But as I say, in a way that doesn’t destabilise or frighten or anything like that.”
He was broadly supportive of ministers’ plans to boost inclusion and have more children with SEND in mainstream schools.
SEND reforms “cannot clearly be cost-driven” but existing money “could be spent much better” and potentially create savings, he suggested.
He also criticised a lack of pathways and jobs for young people with SEND after they leave school.
Universities and apprenticeships
Burnham has repeatedly advocated for alternative routes to training and employment other than university.
He told The i Paper that without a system based on “parity between academic and technical”, the country has been “left with a situation where some young people get to the middle years of secondary school and they can’t see where school is taking them”.
In his by-election victory speech on Friday, he said: “No more an education system dominated by the university route, but an education system that offers a path for everybody, academic and technical in equal balance.”
Burnham also said he wanted to secure more work placements or apprenticeships for 16 to 18-year-olds.
He has proposed changes to public procurement processes that would favour British employers and be used to create more work placements.
He called for “full social value weighting” in public procurement, so that every single state contract can be made to “require work placements for 16 to 18-year-olds or apprenticeships”.
His flagship regional education policy is the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate (MBacc), which provides an alternative technical route for young people at age 14, and aims to match those who do not want to attend university into local high-skilled jobs.
Academies
During his 2015 Labour leadership bid, which he lost to Jeremy Corbyn, he was critical of the “growing market of free schools and academies”.
Starmer’s Government has supported the previous Conservative administration’s policy of encouraging schools to join academy trusts, which are non-profit charitable companies that operate state-funded schools and are independent of local authority control.
Unions including the National Education Union have been critical of academisation, saying multi-academy trusts spend less on frontline staff and more on bureaucracy, including highly-paid CEOs – while parents and communities get locked out of decisions about their schools.
Tuition fees and student loans
Burnham has hinted that he would ease the burden of student loans, according to the Financial Times.
In his 2015 leadership bid, his election manifesto included a pledge to replace tuition fees with a graduate tax to lift the “millstone of debt” weighing down young people as they start their careers.
The tax would have meant universities being funded via the state, with students paying a small progressive income tax surcharge only once they hit a comfortable earning threshold.
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