Education: Schools: Careers Guidance (29th June 2011)
Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans his Department has for inspecting the quality of new schools' careers advice services.
Nick Gibb (Minister of State (Schools), Education; Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, Conservative)
The revised school inspection framework will have a sharp focus on the quality of teaching, backed by excellent leadership and management, and good discipline and behaviour. Ofsted will consider outcomes such as pupils' achievement and progression rather than inputs such as the type or amount of careers guidance. The introduction of new destination measures will ensure that schools are held to account for the way in which they support their pupils to progress to higher levels of education and training, or into employment.
The Government have also accepted the recommendation of the Careers Profession Task Force to ask Ofsted to carry out a thematic review of careers guidance as a means of identifying excellent provision and establishing a baseline for future policy development. We are considering the most appropriate timing for such a review.