Meeting records reveal how Gibb, rather than Williamson, intervened in 2020 exam grades crisis –amid discussions with United Learning

Last year’s A-level and GCSE exam crisis saw the schools minister, Nick Gibb, intervene with a string of meetings with exam boards, union leaders and England’s largest academy trust while his boss, Gavin Williamson, was not involved in these detailed interactions.

This is the implication of the second part of this website’s analysis of thousands of lines of government meeting data, the first part of which led to my story last week on the most-consulted-with organisations and individuals.

As covid sparked a crisis in the exams system which eventually led to the abandonment of attempts to use an algorithm to set students’ grades, Gibb swung into action with a remarkable 27 meetings specifically on the subject of exams in four months from early June last year.

By comparison, Williamson held only two get-togethers over this period at which qualifications were disclosed as having been discussed. The analysis may add fresh insights into the reality of the roles of the two leading politicians overseeing schools and wider education policy, as one of the biggest challenges to face the department in recent years unfolded.

It also shows that United Learning, and its chief executive, Sir Jon Coles, a former DfE mandarin, seem to have had considerably more access to ministers – in terms, at least, of meetings showing up on this official database over the period 2012 to September last year – than any of their large academy chain comparators.