This month we bring you news of children’s poor mental health and the impact of the pandemic on their future earnings; Children’s Mental Health week from the Place2Be; the interim government response to the Augar Report; the removal of gateway providers for Kickstart Scheme grants; 55,000 job losses in the creative industries; and the Edge Foundation’s first Skills Shortage Bulletin of 2021.

*STOP PRESS* Consultation deadline extended to 31 January.

The government is consulting on whether level 3 qualifications, other than A Levels and T Levels, should be funded in the future. The proposals could mean qualifications such as BTEC Nationals and UAL Diplomas are no longer funded.

Welcome to our annual round-up for CLA activity.

In our 2019 round-up we predicted that 2020 would hold ‘upheavals for the arts and education sectors’. This now sounds like the understatement of the decade. The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the context in which we are working and will continue to do so in 2021.

On 25 November, Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced the details of this year’s Spending Round, meaning that he set the budgets for government departmental spending for 2021-2022.

The Cultural Learning Alliance (CLA) exists to champion a right to arts and culture for every child. To do this we need a vibrant workforce to deliver cultural learning. The CLA is asking freelancers and colleagues working in organisations to fill in this short survey about roles in cultural learning, contracts and redundancies.

This month we bring you news of a range of reports highlighting the impact of Covid on children experiencing disadvantage; new Covid guidance from government; how to get involved in the UNESCO Futures of Education initiative; STEAM activities; and ICYMI a DCMS report: the role of arts in improving health and wellbeing.

On 10 November Ofsted published its second series of reports on the impact of the pandemic. It summarised over 900 visits to education and social care providers during September and October. These visits are not inspections and do not make a judgement about the settings.

This month we bring you news of the removal of ITT bursaries for arts subjects; Centre for Cultural Value’s conference; Place2Be’s wellbeing CPD; Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Teacher Development Fund; more evidence on the value of studying music; key findings on remote CPD and learning from the Education Endowment Foundation; emergency funding from the Culture Recovery Fund and the Clore Duffield Foundation; and Creative Generation Young & Emerging Leaders Forum.