On June 11th, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the result of the Government’s Spending Review, which confirmed the budgets that each government department will have until 2028.

The Department for Education, or DfE’s budget will rise from £101 billion to £109 billion over this period – an increase of 0.8% after adjusting for inflation.

So, is the Spending Review outcome a good or bad result for the DfE? How did schools, colleges and universities fare in relation to each other within the DfE’s spending plans? And what question marks remain about how the DfE will prioritise its spending going forward?

My guests are Katie Carr, an Associate Director at the consultancy Public First, and Dani Payne, Senior Researcher at the Social Market Foundation think tank.

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I think most people would agree that England’s rise up the international education league tables over the past decade or so has been a welcome sign of progress.

But when government funding is now in such short supply and is likely to remain so for some time yet, sustaining this recent progress may become increasingly challenging.

A new report from IPPR and Ambition Institute, written by Loic Menzies and Marie Hamer, argues that the way in which we support and invest in the teaching workforce through continuing professional development, or CPD, may be the key to unlocking higher education standards in future.

So, what does this new report want to change in terms of how we invest in teachers and leaders? How easy would it be to convince teachers, leaders and schools to spend more time and money on CPD? And could improving the quality and quantity of training go some way to convincing more people to stay in the teaching profession?

My guests are Avnee Morjaria, associate director for public services at IPPR, and Loic Menzies, an associate fellow at IPPR and co-author of this new report.

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Since the COVID pandemic, many jobs have been transformed by the dramatic expansion of hybrid and remote working.

A recent survey by the education charity Teach First found that 80% of young people now want some element of hybrid work in their jobs – which sounds like bad news for frontline professions such as teaching.

However, far from giving up the fight, some schools and trusts have decided to build flexible working models so that their teachers can enjoy some of the same flexibilities found in other professions.

So, what does flexible working look like in a school environment? What are the biggest challenges that leadership teams can face if they embark on the journey towards more flexible working? And could greater flexibility for teachers make a serious dent in the recruitment and retention challenges facing schools across the country?

My guests are Robyn Ellis, a school and college trust leader at Dixons Academies Trust, and Neil Renton, Headteacher at Harrogate Grammar School.

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