Schools in dark over enrichment expectations, Labour told

More clarity is needed from the government on enrichment expectations, the chair of the Commons Education Select Committee said today.

Helen Hayes told delegates at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool that questions remain around staffing and delivery for the government’s enrichment ambitions.

Her comments come after Tes revealed last month that there would be no dedicated funding for schools to resource enrichment benchmarks.

The Labour MP also repeated concerns about the number of new policies and expectations placed on schools, as she told Tes in an exclusive interview last week.

Clarity sought on in-school enrichment

From this month, schools have been expected to provide activities across five different categories as part of a broader enrichment framework.

Speaking on an enrichment fringe panel at the Labour conference, Ms Hayes said that the Department for Education needed to provide more detail for schools to make it a success.

She said it would be “helpful to have more clarity from the government on what is the expectation on schools to deliver enrichment within the confines of the school day”, as well as beyond school hours, such as in breakfast and after-school clubs.

Ms Hayes called for clarity over what the expectations are on the “wider community and voluntary sector and the whole range of really good organisations that also deliver enrichment in communities”.

Only half of teachers would be willing to run an additional lunchtime or before- or after-school club without extra pay, according to polling last year.

However, Ms Hayes told delegates that the government’s devolution plans could also offer new opportunities.

She spoke of “some really interesting things about the way the government is talking about devolution and place” and what this might mean for education if there is better “collaboration within a local area”.

But she reiterated that the “clarity on exactly who is expected to do what, we’re still waiting for”.

Workload concern over reforms

Ms Hayes also raised concerns about the amount of extra work demanded of schools by new education policies.

“The government’s going to have to give some order to the number and range of different reforms that come in and give [schools] the space, the time and the resources that they are going to need to really implement enrichment properly,” she warned.

Also today, prime minister Andy Burnham, who announced new technical routes for students aged 14 and over soon after taking up the job in July, promised to ”rebuild a system of comprehensive education in this country”.