Expecting schools to provide more support to help pupils to secure a post-16 destination 鈥 potentially policed by Ofsted 鈥 鈥渓ooks untenable鈥 without 鈥渟ustained investment鈥, the government has been warned. Downing Street announced on Tuesday that schools would be 鈥渢asked with ensuring every pupil has a clear post-16 destination, supported by Ofsted, with a guaranteed college or FE provider place available as a safety net鈥. However, on Wednesday a instead said that schools would 鈥減lay a greater role in ensuring every pupil has a clear post-16 destination鈥. The Department for Education has said it would 鈥渞evise guidance so that schools routinely provide targeted support鈥 for those at risk of ending up not in education, employment or training (NEET). This would help them 鈥渃hoose their next step and successfully transition into post-16 education and training鈥. But it has not said whether this guidance will be statutory. Just under 950,000 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK were NEET in April to June (12.8 per cent), government data shows, up from 11.2 per cent in 2019. ‘Sustained investment needed’ The DfE said its new approach would allow schools and multi-academy trusts to better support positive post-16 transitions 鈥渨ith a tighter focus on identifying and improving underperformance鈥. Tom Richmond But Tom Richmond, a former DfE adviser, said that expecting schools to provide specialist support to every young person at risk of becoming NEET looked untenable 鈥渦nless the schools receive sustained investment to build their capacity and expertise in this area鈥. Schools already have a legal duty to provide careers advice, but they are not expected to find pupils a specific post-16 pathway. Local authorities, on the other hand, have a duty under the 鈥淪eptember guarantee鈥 to find education and training places for 16 and 17-year-olds. It is not clear to what extent schools鈥 new duties will overlap with councils. Pepe Di鈥橧asio, the general secretary of the ASCL school leaders鈥 union, said schools already put a lot of work into supporting pupils with post-16 transition, but had to do this within available staffing and resources. 鈥淚f the government wants them to do more it begs the question of where the funding and capacity will come from.鈥 ‘Don’t make it another accountability measure’ John Yarham, the chief executive of the Careers and Enterprise Company, said the new policy was an 鈥渋ncreased attention on the role that schools are playing in securing outcomes鈥. But there are sparse details on the role Ofsted will play. John Yarham Asked for more information, the DfE said Ofsted鈥檚 鈥渞enewed framework is built on the standards and requirements that schools are expected to meet, and will therefore reflect these strengthened requirements鈥. But Ofsted鈥檚 framework for inspections from November is already finalised. Any new guidance for schools would have to be reflected in a future update. 鈥淯nder the renewed framework, we will consider how well pupils are supported to be ready for their next phase of education, training or employment,鈥 a spokesperson for the watchdog said. 鈥淭he framework is designed using the standards schools are required to meet by government. Annually, we will make updates to reflect changes to government policy.鈥 However, Richmond said he would 鈥渜uestion鈥 whether Ofsted inspections were the right way to hold schools to account on pupil destinations. Di鈥橧asio added that 鈥渕aking this yet another accountability measure policed by Ofsted isn鈥檛 really a sensible answer to that question. We鈥檇 suggest more investment in local careers services.鈥 Schools don’t have power to create places The DfE has said that under the new model, pupils without a post-16 study plan will be 鈥渁utomatically allocated a place at a local college or further education provider鈥. They will be 鈥渃ontacted by the provider to be given a place and have the wraparound support provided to ensure they remain in education or training鈥. A series of pilots will involve designating a 鈥渄efault provider in a local area with the expertise to support young people with diverse needs鈥. But Yarham pointed out schools did not have the power to create places in other establishments. He suggested the role of career hubs could be built upon to help provide support between education transitions. Sir Keir Starmer told the Labour conference this week he would scrap the Blair era target of 50 per cent of young people attending university. The government would 鈥渞eplace it with a new ambition, that two thirds of our children should go either to university or take a gold standard apprenticeship鈥.