Consultations archive

Ofsted Inspections for 2009

DEA sent a response to the Ofsted consultation on 'A focus on improvement: proposals for maintained school inspections from Sept 2009', which looked at their arrangements for inspections.

Download a copy of DEA's response

Rose Review of the Primary Curriculum - April 2008

More details on the consultation, including the letter from the Secretary of State to Sir Jim Rose, and forms for submitting evidence and comments, can be found on the DCSF website.

Further to a workshop and electronic consultation with members, DEA submitted a response to the first statutory consultation on the primary review.

Download a copy of DEA's response

The review is ongoing and it is important that members continue to feed in.

Parliamentary Select Committee Inquiry into the National Curriculum - March 2008

DEA sent a response to the Children, Schools and Families Committee call for written evidence into: 'the principle of whether there should be a National Curriculum; how the fitness-for-purpose of the National Curriculum might be improved; the management of the National Curriculum and its articulation with other policies and strategies with which schools must work'.

Dowload a copy of DEA's response

Information about the inquiry is at http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/csf.cfm

Confidence in Standards consultation

DEA sent in a response to the consultation on the splitting of QCA and the creation of an independent regulatory authority.

Download a copy of DEA's response

DCSF national consultation - Time to talk

In October 2007 the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) consulted on a Children’s Plan to set out how they will achieve their objectives for children, young people and families in the future, and DEA submitted a response.

Download a copy of DEA's response

Further details on this consultation can be found at: www.dfes.gov.uk/timetotalk/.

The Children's Plan was published in December 2007. Further details on our policy updates and briefings page.

National Occupational Standards for Community Learning and Development (including Youth Work)

DEA responded to the September 2007 consultation on the draft standards.

DEA Response to Community Learning and Development standards consultation

DEA Response to Youth Work standards consultation

DEA has helped shape the citizenship strand of the new NOS for youth work, which aims at encouraging young people to broaden their horizons to be active citizens. For example, to meet the standard youth workers must now be able to:

Explore constructively with young people the concept of citizenship including its relevance at local, national and international levels

and

Explore with young people the global context to personal, local and national decisions and actions

Download the standard related to citizenship here.

The full suite of standards and useful accompanying documents can be found on the NCVYS web site at www.ncvys.org.uk/index.php?page=284.

Schools and Community Cohesion

From September 2007, there is a new duty on schools to promote community cohesion under the Education and Inspections Act 2006. DfES consulted on 'Guidance on the Duty to Promote Community Cohesion'.

Download a copy of DEA's Response.

QCA Curriculum Review

The public consultation on the Key Stage 3 and 4 Curriculum Review has now ended. The revised curriculum will be in schools in September 2007 for implementation in September 2008. Information is available at: www.qca.org.uk.

Thank you very much to those members who sent comments on the draft DEA response. DEA submitted the following:

DEA continues to be involved in work with QCA in this area. If you would like to get more involved, please contact Helen Young at DEA, email: helen.young@dea.org.uk.

DFID's Linking Scheme - Consultation

DFID has committed to "Set up a scheme to help other groups – such as faith groups, community groups, local government, business and charitable organisations – build links with developing countries". The consultation ran until 11 June 2007 - further details at: www.dfid.gov.uk/consultations/past-consultations/linking-scheme.asp.

DEA sent in a response to the consultation - download a copy

DFID Consultation on Volunteering

In the DFID White Paper, Making Governance Work for the Poor, DFID announced that they would be doubling their funding for development education and pledged to “expand opportunities for young people and diaspora communities to volunteer in developing countries”. DFID's consultation on volunteering can be found at: www.dfid.gov.uk/news/files/dfid-volunteering.asp.

DEA has now sent in a response to DFID's consultation - download a copy

Cambridge Primary Review - February 2007

DEA sent a response to the Cambridge University Primary Review (see www.primaryreview.org.uk).

Download DEA's response to the Cambridge primary review

Eliminating World Poverty - the contribution of development education

DEA responded to this DFID White Paper consultation document in March 2006. In the response we emphasised that an engaged and active citizenry is key to progressing the aims of the White Paper, and this requires a strategy that goes far beyond DFID.

Download a copy of DEA's response

Find out more about the White Paper consultation from the DFID website.

DfES Sustainable Schools Consultation

This DfES consultation ran until the end of August 2006. DEA submitted a response, and a brief summary is given below. You can also download the full response

Summary of DEA's response

DEA welcomes the opportunity to comment on ‘Sustainable Schools’.

DEA agrees with the rationale set out for ‘Sustainable Schools’ and welcomes DfES's stated intention to address the issues raised in the rationale. There is a need for a strategic framework for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in schools. Unfortunately, DEA does not believe that ‘Sustainable Schools’ as it currently stands fulfils this need for the following reasons:
- The eight ‘doorways’ have an estate management rather than a learning focus and there is little evidence of connections being made between them.
- It is weak policy as demonstrated by ‘The DfES’s primary role is to articulate a common set of aspirations around the concept of sustainable schools’.
- There is a need for support for schools and the organisations that work with them. There is a need for a higher priority for ESD in DfES, which influences the work of the whole department.
- There is a very strong environmental focus throughout. Sustainable development is broader than this.
- The terminology is both problematic and inconsistent, eg: there is confusion between sustainability and sustainable development and between global dimension, global citizenship and international outlook.
- The document does not reflect the cross-departmental government strategy for the global dimension in schools.
- The document mentions initiatives such as Every Child Matters but does not make the connections clear. There is a need to demonstrate how a framework for ESD contributes to the core agendas of schools.

DEA hopes to work constructively with DfES to develop this policy.

Education & Skills Committee on Citizenship Education

DEA sought contributions and suggestions for this from the EES co-ordinators, the DEA Schools Committee and the DEA Citizenship Reference Group. We sent in the written submission on 24 March 2006.

Download a copy

Copernicus consultation

The Copernicus Consultation Paper Further challenges and priorities for the European Higher Education Area (EHEA): How the Bologna Process should address the principle of sustainable development was a Europe-wide consultation facilitated by Copernicus-Campus. This is a network of European universities who have signed the Copernicus University Charter for Sustainable Development signalling their commitment to give sustainable development a prominent place in their activities. The outcomes will inform stakeholders such as the:

Bologna Secretariat
Bologna Follow-up Group
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
UNESCO
Preparation of the Ministerial Conference in 2007.

Although this piece of work was not seen as high priority within DEA's current work programme, we thought that DEA members' activities would provide a wealth of exemplary thinking and practice to inform the Bologna Process towards the EHEA, and so have submitted a response.

Download a copy of DEA's response

Find out more about the Copernicus Consultation Paper from the DfES website

HEFCE Sustainable Development Strategy

DEA consulted its members on a response to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) consultation document on Sustainable Development in Higher Education:

Download a copy of DEA's response

Find out more about HEFCE's strategy from their website

Youth Matters Green Paper

The Youth Matters Green Paper outlines DfES' thinking on the future of youth work in England. Based on the outcomes of a consultation with members, DEA submitted a response to the Green Paper in November 2005.

DEA members consulted felt that the Green Paper did not recognise the global context in which young people live their lives, e.g. terrorism, technology, trade, media; and it is clear from experience that young people need to be supported to develop a global perspective to their lives beyond their local context. They should also be enabled to express their views of the world and be provided with opportunities to work for change on the issues that matter to them.

Download a copy of DEA's response

Youth Matters, including a young person's version, can be viewed at www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/youth/