DfE Invests £6 Million in New Research Centres to Shape Education Policy… But Where Does FE and Skills Fit?

The Department for Education is investing £6 million in two new research centres that will directly shape how education policy is made, putting the best available science and economics at the heart of decisions affecting children and young people across England. The Educational Neuroscience Policy Research Centre will tackle how neuroscience can help identify children with SEND earlier, how AI is changing the way children learn at home and in school, and what the science of learning tells us about supporting children’s mental health. The Educational Economics Research Centre will build new tools to assess the long-term social and economic value of education policy, including for disadvantaged groups who are often hardest to reach in the data.

For the first time, the Government will have dedicated, long-term partnerships with some of the country’s leading university researchers to build the tools to make decisions that are genuinely grounded in what science and economics tell us works best for children, from their earliest years right through to adulthood.

Bringing together the best of neuroscience and economics for Education Decision Making

Early Education Minister Olivia Bailey said: “These new centres will help us do exactly that, bringing together some of the best minds in the country to make sure our reforms on SEND, early years, and children’s mental health are built on solid foundations, and that we understand the long-term value of the choices we make.”

DfE Chief Scientific Advisor Michael Thomas added: “These centres will give us both, bringing together the best of neuroscience and economics across two focused centres to put a stronger evidence base at the heart of education policy.”

The Educational Neuroscience Policy Research Centre

The centre brings together experts from nine universities including UCL, Birkbeck, Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol, with a remit to provide ministers and officials with rapid, reliable evidence when they need it most.

The Educational Economics Research Centre

Led by UCL alongside the LSE and Institute for Fiscal Studies, the centre will build new tools to assess the long-term social and economic value of education policy, including for disadvantaged groups who are often hardest to reach in the data.

Together, the centres mark a deliberate shift in how DfE engages with research, moving towards an ongoing, strategic partnership with academia that keeps pace with the real challenges facing schools, families and children.

What could this mean for FE and Skills?

The language in this announcement is overwhelmingly schools-facing. There is no explicit mention of further education, skills, or post-16.

The direction of travel matters though. The Prime Minister has set a new national target for two thirds of young people to get higher level skills, either through university, further education, or apprenticeship by age 25. If DfE is now building long-term research infrastructure to measure the social and economic value of education policy, that infrastructure has to include FE and skills. It has to include the sector that delivers the majority of post-16 technical and vocational training.

Measure what we treasure… who’s at the table?

The economics centre’s remit to “build new tools to assess the long-term social and economic value of education policy, including for disadvantaged groups who are often hardest to reach in the data” makes that case on its own.

This announcement is exciting, but it does pose some wider system thinking and joined up progression questions on what is measured for education economic impact longer term. The research centres at the moment all sit in universities. Will they be measuring success with Higher Education (eg universities) as the final outcome, or the workplace, or both? Which raises the point of the purpose of education and the economics on the funding of routes and pathways to the ‘final destination’. The tools to assess long-term social and economic impact are welcome, yet this is DfE research infrastructure. Apprenticeships now sit under DWP. NEETs… young people not in education, employment or training… also sit under DWP. So will these centres be looking system-wide, across departmental boundaries? Or will the research stay within the DfE frame, or Higher Education as the final destination?

The bigger question: Where does the research go from here?

What gets measured gets valued. So how can we ensure that this is joined up system thinking, to meet the two thirds young people plans from the Prime Minister? With qualification and curriculum reform of V Levels, T Levels and A Levels in FE, what are the next step destinations and value? The social economic impact of this pathway, and of Apprenticeships running alongside. What gets left out of the research framework gets left out of the evidence base. So it will be interesting to see what comes next and how the research centres impact post-16, and whether DWP Apprenticeships are integrated into this new research development. Or if this is the direction of travel, will there be dedicated research on the impact of post-16, Apprenticeships, lifelong learning or more? There is also a thriving and growing FE and Skills research community. Could this be the moment for the sector to step up and make the case for its own social and economic impact?