Will Number 10 North Be Genuinely Pioneering or Just Close to Home? FE Soundbite 857
Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 857: 25th July 2026. Will Number 10 North Be Genuinely Pioneering, New System-Wide Thinking, or Is It Just Close to Home?
This is the weekly e-newsletter and e-journal by FE News: ISSN 2732-4095. We know life is busy, so here’s a snapshot of the latest announcements and epic thought leadership articles from sector influencers and thought leaders across FE and Skills this week on FE News.
Upcoming national day to celebrate vocational learning
Save the date for Vocational Celebration Day on 6 August 2026, led by Enginuity and EAL — a national campaign celebrating the value and impact of vocational and technical learning. Organisations, educators and individuals can now get involved and show their support by downloading the FREE campaign pack and joining the celebration.
Gavin’s Reflective Perspective
So, we have a new Prime Minister. We have also had a Cabinet Reshuffle. We have a new Education Secretary with Lucy Powell. Which is interesting; Lucy Powell was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. She is also MP for Manchester Central… and on Friday, along with Burnham, had her first working day out of Number 10 North.
In our cabinet reshuffle article, we also included two additional people, who I think long-term will be very important for FE, Skills and Employability… we also have Jonathan Reynolds, who was appointed Business and Trade Secretary. Now.. Reynolds is interesting, again, an MP for the Greater Manchester region, but also used to be Chief Whip, so he will know everyone well (their strengths and weaknesses- that is the whip’s job and to get people to toe the line)… and he is in that Manchester arc.
Will we see more integral working between the Education Secretary and Business Secretary to meet the skills needs? As does this provide a slight, but massively important pivot… what is the purpose and point of education… as surely it is about sustainable jobs!? Maybe that will line up more.
What will it be like inside Number 10 North? Is it collaborative or separate silos in a new location?
Number 10 North is brand new… what is it like? Is it still silos, different floors, different departments… or are things genuinely going to be mixed up? I am imagining a funky hot-desking office, different departments literally working beside each other, developing relationships, cross-pollinating. Or… will it be very separate and regimented silos? Same Civil Service set up, different location?? Basically, is Number 10 North truly pioneering and going to mix it up, or is it a hub for Burnham and his mates to work close to home?
I am hoping Number 10 will be collaborative and encourage real system-wide thinking!
First ever AI Minister… why is this significant?
We also have our first-ever AI Minister, Kanishka Narayan, with a joint role spanning the Cabinet Office and the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST – eg DSIT is no more). AI impacts everything; at last we have an AI Minister. This seemed a massive gap and a blind spot in Starmer’s cabinet and the Chancellor’s announcements. Rishi Sunak before had global AI summits and was an AI pioneer for the UK… so hopefully, we can get some of that back, as it is massively important for skills, jobs and education. Kanishka is also pretty interesting; he has an MBA from Stanford (which sounds cool here and internationally)… he also is MP for the Vale of Glamorgan and was the first ethnic minority MP in Wales. So that is interesting.
DWP side, Pat McFadden and Jacqui Smith are both retained. So continuity there… which is good, as the next day we had the latest ONS Labour Market figures and youth employment is at its lowest for 11 years! So we urgently need to kick on with solutions for this.
I think the ONS Labour Market figures bring home the reality of the challenge at hand. So… Youth unemployment now stands at 16.4%, its highest level for 11 years, with around one in six young people seeking work… UK economic inactivity rate for people aged 16 to 64 years was estimated at 20.9% in March to May 2026. The UK employment rate is 75.1%… the target (that, funnily enough, isn’t mentioned much nowadays) is 80%. We have over 1 Million NEETs (costing £125 Billion per year in welfare costs), and 2.7 Million Economically Inactive due to ill health (costing £212 Billion per year).. this is a third of a trillion, and you know I have had a campaign to highlight this and address this for months now.
Just 712,000 vacancies; we need a joined up approach
The latest ONS Labour market figures highlight that there are just 712,000 vacancies… for the entire labour market… so not even enough for 1 Million NEETs… so something needs to be joined up on the skills, employability and helping employers… an incentive of up to £3k for employers to take on a young person as an Apprentice, in reality, isn’t going to cut it!
What is great is that we have continuity of roles with McFadden and Jacqui Smith. Programmes are there, stuff is happening… but is it enough and fast enough?
For example, DWP released their figures on Pathways to Work last week… 100,000 disabled people and those with health conditions have been supported to move closer to the labour market by Pathways to Work advisers. This is brilliant, genuinely. Except…100,000 out of the 2.7 million people currently on Universal Credit assessed as too sick to work is 3.7%… and “moved closer to work” isn’t the same as “moved into work”… (DWP haven’t told us how many of that 100,000 have actually landed a job, just that they’ve had support).
As we found out in the World Cup, scoring isn’t the same as being close! Closer to the labour market and in the labour market are two very different numbers, and the £60 million Innovation Fund launching in September tells you DWP knows that too. So more needs to be done in reality… and I think more needs to be done with joined-up data… it is looking like it is happening, but will the new Government push this more? Accurate data and insights, where to focus support and money has to be key surely?
Breaking Barriers to youth employment, system wide thinking and actions
Talking of joined-up approaches. Miraculous timing, but the day after we had a new PM, the day ONS released their figures.. we launched the Breaking Barriers Collective report on a joined up, 6 point plan on how to look systems wide at youth engagement and employment. Check it out: the live stream and a really great sector-wide reaction to the report. It has been so well received, and the feedback has been awesome. Edge Foundation have put together an epic report from the collective’s findings.
Green Impacts of AI
We had a bunch of very cool AI thought leadership articles this week… but one that stood out to me was the Green Impacts of AI… a joint article from Charlotte Bonner from EAUC and Cal Innes from Jisc... I loved this article, it is massively important, particularly as we all develop more and more AI-orientated provision, that we think of the Green impacts … and how we can make a difference… by asking questions on Green impacts.. like energy use, water for cooling… life cycles of kit and what happens next. Love, love, love this… their article also references the Green Mindset collective findings, love this and that the collectives have a legacy and movement… LOVE IT! So important to keep this in mind about our Green Impacts.
How are you celebrating Vocational Celebration Day?
…. and thank you to Enginuity for sponsoring FE Soundbite this week. How are you celebrating Vocational Celebration Day on the 6th August?
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
Firstly, Rewiring the Skills System: Will Burnham Take the MBacc National? By Rob West, an Education and Skills Consultant
Secondly, Opaque by Design: Big Bans, Buttery AI Black Boxes And Blind Spots By Neil Wolstenholme, Kloodle Chairman
Finally, Green Impacts of AI: What Leaders Need to Know and the Questions They Should be Asking By Charlotte Bonner, Chief Executive of EAUC and Cal Innes, Sustainability Specialist at Jisc
Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week
What does Credible AI Competence Actually look like, and who Stands Behind it? By Aman Bedi, Business Development Manager, The AI Board
What Agentic AI Actually Means for Careers Guidance, and Why the Difference Matters By James Kimble, Head of Partnerships at Apprentago
Risk Management Isn’t Fear Management By Mitzi Danielson-Kaslik MICA CG, Risk, Governance & Compliance
Net Zero will be Lost or Won on a Skills Shortage Nobody’s Talking About By Louise McClelland, CEO of the Dowds Group
What’s New in the World of FE?
Breaking Barriers Report
Britain Can’t Afford to Lose Another Generation: Breaking Barriers Action Plan By Edge Foundation
Announcements
New PM Andy Burnham Promises Education Change to get Young People into Work
July 2026 ONS Labour Market Data. Youth Unemployment Reaches An 11 Year High By the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Reports
South & City College Birmingham supports youth employment report By The Rigby Foundation and The Sir Peter Rigby Charitable Trust
Voices
The Broken Bridge Between Education and Work By Simon Renny, Director of Strategy and Research, NOCN Group
Why Demonstrating Progress Matters More Than Ever in Maths and English By Oliver Naylor, co-CEO at Pass
When Sickness Absence Rises, Trust Matters More Than Ever By Jeanette Wheeler, Chief People Officer, MHR
By Danny O’Meara, Operations Manager, FE News and