Boris Johnson fighting for future after string of Tory resignations, including Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid – live
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With two ministerial resignations – Will Quince and Robin Walker – and a promotion of Michelle Donelan to education secretary, the Department for Education is going to see yet another change of personnel at the top at a time when the department is straining to cope with multiple bills and high-profile consultations.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:
While we extend a warm welcome to Michelle Donelan as education secretary and wish her well in her new role, we have to express our concern at the high turnover rate of education secretaries. This is the sixth incumbent in eight years and the third during Boris Johnson’s premiership.
Education is a vital public service and a complex sector which requires deep understanding, knowledge and continuity. This constant chopping and changing does not provide stable leadership.
Donelan’s in-tray is stacked high with difficult issues, including rewriting the stalled schools bill, lobbying her old boss Nadhim Zahawi for a teacher pay settlement with an announcement urgently needed, a consultation on childcare ratios, while following up the details of the special education needs and disabilities green paper.
From her old job as universities minister Donelan will still be pushing the long-delayed higher education free speech bill into legislation despite its flaws, and finalising the overhaul of the student loans regime scheduled to come into force next year, and the related lifelong learning entitlement due to go live in 2025.
That’s a lot of departmental management in a short space of time, and the department is struggling to keep up. On top of all that there’s the looming summer A-level and GCSE exam season, a source of bad headlines for ministers as results tumble but civil servants will be hoping that’s the worst of it.
