Education White Paper to be launched on Wednesday

The Government is widely expected to publish its White Paper on education on Wednesday of this week.

A White Paper is a document in which the Government outlines its intentions in a certain policy area. Once we have seen the document we will publish more details on this site.

Any proposals set out in the White Paper that will need legislation to bring about change are likely to be included in the Education Bill, expected in December. The Bill is intended to give schools more control over curricula, and will introduce the pupil premium to target funding for disadvantaged students, as well as new reading tests for all six-year-olds.

A few weeks ago, the media reported that the Government was proposing that funding be directed straight to schools, thus by-passing local authorities.  The National Autistic Society is keeping a close eye on this potential proposal and impact it could have on specialist services (such as autism outreach teams) run by Local Authorities, were it to be implemented.

Other rumours in the press include a proposal to abolish the current GCSE structure of frequent modular exams, replacing them with a single exam at the end of the study period.

We do know for sure that the White Paper and Bill won’t deal in depth with Special Educational Needs, which will be covered by a separate Green Paper, also due in December. See previous entries for more information on the Green Paper.