Schools will be expected to report their progress against national careers advice benchmarks at least once a year, under plans to beef up statutory guidance. The Department for Education has also announced plans for a new 鈥渟trategic action plan for careers鈥, a single 鈥渄igital front door鈥 for young people to access guidance online and to eventually create an 鈥渁ll-age careers system, unified under a single strategic framework鈥. But ministers have rejected calls for direct funding of careers advisers and extra 鈥渘umerical targets鈥 for the number of schools meeting the Gatsby Benchmarks of good careers guidance. Robin Walker MP The Parliamentary education committee has published the to its report into careers advice and guidance in England. Chair Robin Walker welcomed ministers’ “broadly positive response”. Secondary schools and colleges are currently encouraged to self-report their progress against careers education benchmarks through an online tool called 鈥淐ompass鈥. The committee鈥檚 report, published in June, recommended that the DfE 鈥渦pdate its statutory guidance to make reporting through the Compass tool compulsory for all secondary schools and colleges鈥. At present, 90 per cent of schools and colleges use the Compass evaluation, and 3,172 use 鈥淐ompass+鈥, which enables tracking of Gatsby Benchmark achievement 鈥渁t an individual pupil level鈥. The DfE said in its response it wanted to 鈥渁void mandating the use of Compass as a reporting tool鈥. But it said it would update statutory careers guidance to 鈥渟et a clear expectation that all secondary schools and colleges should self-report progress against the Gatsby Benchmarks at least once during every academic year鈥. DfE wants ‘unified’ all-age careers system The committee鈥檚 report criticised a 鈥渃onfusing, fragmented and unclear鈥 careers system. Schools are responsible for providing advice and guidance, overseen by the Careers and Enterprise Company. Some responsibility also sits with the National Careers Service, and with the Department for Work and pensions and its agencies. The DfE said it agreed there needed to be 鈥済reater coherence between publicly funded careers services, across all ages鈥. Its ambition is to 鈥渄evelop an all-age careers system, unified under a single strategic framework, that helps to address the fragmentation in careers services identified by the committee鈥. But they 鈥渄o not have firm views yet on what this will look like but we want to start exploring the issue further鈥. Stakeholder and 鈥渆arly market engagement鈥 will begin this autumn. The first step will be a 鈥渟ingle starting point for careers and skills鈥, launching this autumn. This 鈥渄igital front door鈥 will help young people and others find the 鈥渢rusted impartial careers and skills information that they need鈥. User testing of the prototype 鈥渉as revealed that young people found it useful and would return to it in future鈥. National Careers Service website gets a refresh The government has also launched a 鈥渘ew and inspiring look and feel to the National Careers Service website鈥 to make it more accessible to young people. The new 鈥渇ront door鈥 will be built on this. 鈥淥ur goal is to build digital and inperson services which form a unified careers system which best enables citizens to explore and develop their careers, skills and training options at any point in their lives.鈥 The committee also called for a refreshed careers strategy, which was last updated in 2017. Instead, the DfE said it would publish a 鈥渟trategic action plan for careers鈥 in 2024. It will set out 鈥渟trong objectives to continue to increase the number of schools achieving the Gatsby Benchmarks in full鈥. But setting additional numerical targets for benchmark achievement 鈥渞isks encouraging a tick-box approach鈥, ministers said. The DfE also rejected a recommendation that it update statutory guidance to 鈥渟uggest an appropriate proportion of time鈥 that school careers leaders should be given to fulfil their role, and a call for schools to report how much time they give to their leaders. They said there was a 鈥渞isk that by quantifying an appropriate proportion of time we are creating additional pressure on resources and taking the focus away from other school or college priorities鈥. Ministers reject direct funding of advisers The department also 鈥渄oes not agree鈥 with the committee鈥檚 suggestion that it directly-fund school careers advisers. It said schools and colleges were 鈥渂est-placed to determine their own arrangements鈥. The committee鈥檚 report criticised an administrative 鈥渂urden鈥 preventing access to work experience. The DfE said it would 鈥渓ook at what more we can do to address barriers to organising work experience鈥. Ministers also agreed with the committee that there was 鈥減otential for an online platform that promotes a range of work experience placements both locally and across the country. But again, this is a 鈥渓onger-term aspiration鈥. Beefed-up legislation requiring schools to give alternative education providers access to their pupils came into force earlier this year. The committee said the DfE should 鈥渄irectly track compliance鈥 and ensure 鈥渁ppropriate action鈥 against those failing to comply. The DfE said schools could already record compliance through the Compass tool, and that the CEC had a 鈥渟ingle place for providers to register a concern if they have reason to believe that a school is not complying鈥. However, although there have been 鈥渓ots of requests for clarification and support, there have not been any concerns registered by providers to date through the CEC鈥檚 website鈥.