In July, after almost three years in the shadow education team, Helen Hayes waited for her call to serve in government. That call never came.
Now she’s bagged the job of holding her former colleagues to account as chair of the powerful parliamentary education committee.
Hayes was shadow children’s minister from December 2021 to July of this year, and “loved that work”.
And while she says she had “no expectation” that she would get a ministerial role following Labour’s landslide win, “of course I’d hoped to be able to continue the work in government”.
“I felt, in having not been appointed to the front bench, that serving as chair of the education select committee would be a really good way of putting everything that I’d learned and all of that work to good use.”
She has also spent seven of her nine years in parliament sitting on committees, which are “where some of the most productive and impactful work takes place”.
Holding government to account
Hayes will also be scrutinising policies she championed from the front bench. Will this be an issue?
“Not at all. When select committees work effectively, they’re looking at the evidence and going where the evidence takes them.
“And there are plenty of times that the evidence would point to legitimate criticisms and challenge to the government. That’s the role and I’m comfortable with it.”
With government working at pace – huge Ofsted reforms have already been announced – the committee has much to discuss.
But the timing of July’s election and the impending party conferences recess means the full committee won’t be constituted until October.
“For reforms that are being introduced very quickly, there’ll be a question for the committee to discuss about whether that’s something that we want to get stuck into ahead of time during the process of reform, or whether we want to look at the government’s proposals once they’re more fully formed. But we’ll get to that in due course.”
‘Transparency’ needed over 6,500 teachers pledge
Another key Labour policy is its manifesto promise to recruit 6,500 “new” teachers in shortage subjects.
Schools Week revealed last week the pledge may not be delivered for years, with officials considering whether to also include retention.
Hayes says it is “important that the government is transparent about what is being delivered with the funding that’s been allocated”. Headteachers had told her that retention was key, but “transparency is the most important thing and that’s something I’m sure the committee will want to take an interest in”.
SEND is also an issue Hayes expects the committee to get into quickly as it is “the stand-out issue that is presenting itself in constituencies right across the country”.
She believes there is “quite a big piece of work, potentially, that is about understanding the different aspects to the crisis and the different types of pressure that there are”.
Hayes also wants to understand “the experience of families and children who, at the moment are battling far too much and far too often in that system”.
Hayes joins calls to maintain school funding levels
Schools face “multiple challenges…of which funding is one”, alongside falling rolls, she says.
Her south London constituency straddles Lambeth and Southwark, where more than 25 per cent of primary places are unfilled.
Hayes this week joined the growing chorus calling for falling rolls to be used to boost per-pupil funding, by keeping school funding level in cash terms as numbers fall.
The impact of the pandemic, the rising presentation of SEND, and “significant” challenges in mental health “would point to a need to keep the funding where it is, and then to look at how that funding can best serve the needs of children and young people”.
Hayes is critical of the previous government’s approach to the national funding formula “where we’ve seen it reallocated away from schools in [deprived] areas and towards more affluent areas of the country”.
Labour has a big majority, and governments in its position can become complacent. How will she stop the party resting on their laurels?
She plans to be “robust in our scrutiny”, while making a “constructive contribution to the development of policy”.
“I’m going to run a really effective select committee.”
