Civil servants aren’t known for being the speediest of operators. Following the total overhaul of the machinery of government in the aftermath of the EU referendum, action now appears to have slowed to a near glacial pace.

FErret can, of course, appreciate that FE officials - still getting used to their new surroundings in the Department for Education - have got a lot to contend with at the moment.

There’s the small matter of the introduction of the apprenticeship levy and the myriad changes underpinning that. Then there are the final throes of the area reviews; the planning for the implementation of the new technical routes resulting from the Post-16 Skills Plan; the creation of the Institute for Apprenticeships; the pushing through of the Technical and Further Education Bill; and the review of post-16 education in the DfE instigated by Justine Greening.

Given that the education secretary and her apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon are both reportedly taking a very hands-on approach to checking through the fine details of their respective briefs (ministers who do a thorough job rather than going for easy headlines? It’ll never catch on), it’s no surprise that things are taking a while.

Two become one

FErret’s spies have been teasing him for months with snippets about the painfully long-awaited merger between the Education Funding Agency and the Skills Funding Agency. To recap: there are two organisations with an ever-increasing number of shared functions and employees residing in the same government department - and presided over by the same chief executive, one Peter Lauener. But they’re definitely not the same. Oh no.

The surely inevitable merger was initially expected to be waved through before Christmas. It’s now February and we’re still waiting. But FErret’s whiskers are twitching in anticipation that the announcement won’t take too much longer.

After all, the sooner the sector’s champions in the corridors of power can focus their efforts on persuading the immovable object that is schools minister Nick Gibb - somewhere between Gandhi and Thatcher in the stubbornness stakes - that he might want to think about preventing GCSE resits from turning into an even bigger car crash under the 9-1 grading system, the better for all concerned.

Share your gossip, scandal and intrigue with FErret by emailing ferret@tesglobal.com