Lindsey Taylor, OCR Policy Researcher

2025 is set to herald policy changes in approaches to curriculum and assessment. As we move into a new year, I review the policy landscape of 2024 and also look forward to the policy changes we might expect to see in this post-election year.

The 2024 landscape

We begin 2025 in a very different education policy place to this time last year. 

A general election was expected late in 2024, and the Conservative government was racing full-steam ahead with proposals for an Advanced British Standard – a potential new baccalaureate-style qualification for 16 to19 year olds. Reforms to vocational and technical qualifications were well underway as the Department for Education (DfE) sought to streamline the post-16 landscape. The increased public access to Artificial Intelligence and the impact of that on education was one of the biggest news items of the year with the DfE aiming to better understand the dangers and opportunities so that education was not left behind. 

All change at the top 

And then everything came to a halt. The pre-election period of policy inactivity came earlier than expected ahead of the General Election at the start of July. The victorious new Labour government promised a major review of curriculum and assessment before making any decisions about education. Their mission for opportunity clearly sign-posted a desire for more breadth in the curriculum, with an emphasis on developing knowledge as well as skills. Post-16 reforms set in train by the previous government were paused bringing about a difficult period of uncertainty for providers and students. The DfE were on the receiving end of intense lobbying for most of the second half of the year and it was a time to wait and see. 

Blueprint for change 

By the end of 2024, the DfE had received thousands of submissions to its Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR) call for evidence from a huge range of stakeholders all urging focus on different areas. During 2025 the independent, but government-sponsored Review will develop the blueprint for making changes to how and what is assessed in future years. The degree of change may well be relatively small and carefully phased, as set out in the oft repeated policy aim of ‘evolution, not revolution’. 

The education system is not broken and there are many strengths within it that we need to retain. However, as set out in our response to the CAR Call for Evidence, and in our report on 11-16 education – Striking the Balance, there are areas for improvement (or evolution) that we, and many other stakeholders, drawing on a strong evidence base, believe would make a positive difference. During 2025, as the CAR panel takes a sense check and sets out priorities moving forward, the Review will seek to start to build a consensus to create a platform for change. 

As 2024 came to a close, the DfE announced the outcomes of its “rapid review” of post-16 reforms bringing some much-needed clarity for the sector. A sector-by-sector analysis approach has given a funding reprieve to over 150 qualifications, the T Level overlap rule has been softened, and proposed rules of qualification combination will not be applied. Impacts for post-16 providers beyond 2027 are still to be confirmed however, and we will have to wait for reports from the Curriculum and Assessment Review in the spring and autumn of 2025 before knowing the full extent of the DfE’s strategy for post-16 education. 

What next? 

The ‘evolution not revolution’ approach of the Curriculum and Assessment Review recognises that the current situation is one in which teachers and school and college leaders are facing enormous challenges and that any changes need to be manageable and proportionate. That said, the opportunity for change that a new government has brought about can’t be ignored. Improvements to education are too important to keep putting in the “too hard box”, and whether the changes that come from the Review are simple incremental interventions or major overhauls, the time is now.

Further reading

• Curriculum and assessment review: what was in our response?
• Striking the Balance

Stay connected

You can keep up to date with all the latest policy developments on our policy website and @OCR_Policy on X (formerly Twitter). 

If you would like more news about education policy and the plans for education from the government, you can sign up for policy updates.

About the author

Lindsey has been with OCR since its inception in 1998 having worked for RSA in the early 1990s. Lindsey’s role covers policy research, policy comms and stakeholder engagement with a current focus on the Labour Government’s emerging education policies.