State of flux as Education Ministers resign
In recent days, the Government has experienced one of its greatest periods of turmoil, with more than 50 junior and senior ministers resigning in a 48-hour period – leading ultimately to the resignation of Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
Arguably, no Government department bore the brunt of these resignations more than the Department for Education (DfE).
Following the resignation of Chancellor Rishi Sunak, his position was filled by the former Secretary of State for Education Nadhim Zahawi who had been in post for less than ten months.
In turn, he was replaced by former Minister of State for Universities, Michelle Donelan. Her stay was short-lived and she resigned after less than 48 hours.
Her departure, along with several junior education ministers and parliamentary private secretaries, including Will Quince, Robin Walker, Alex Burghart, David Johnston and Sara Britcliffe, meant that for a short period the DfE was left with no overall ministerial control.
With the announcement that former Deputy Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, has now accepted the top post within the DfE, making him the third Education Secretary in three days, the sector now awaits his pronouncements on the future direction he intends to take the department.
However, there is some cause for optimism following the announcement by the new Chancellor, that he intends to make good on his promise to increase teacher pay by nine per cent – a pledge he first made when he was Education Secretary.
The morning after taking on his new role in the treasury, he told BBC Breakfast: “My submission to the pay review body was to say we need to get teachers’ starting salaries to £30,000 – we will deliver on that [the 9% pay rise] this year and 7.7% next year, and of course for more senior teachers my submission to the pay review body was 5% over two years.
“We will look across Government, across departments at what the pay review bodies will recommend.”
Contact Haslers for advice.