Firm linked to Gove and Cummings hired to work with Ofqual on A-levels...
A company run by long–term associates of Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings has been working behind the scenes with the exams agency Ofqual on its disastrous strategy for determining A-level results, the Guardian can reveal.
Public First, a policy and research firm owned by James Frayne and Rachel Wolf, who both formerly worked for Gove, has been involved on the project with Ofqual since June after being granted a contract that was not put out to competitive tender.
Details of the contract have not been made public and Ofqual declined to say how much public money had been spent hiring Public First.
The firm is understood to have been initially contracted to assist Ofqual with communicating its A-level and GSCE results plan to help secure public confidence in the strategy.
A spokesperson for Ofqual said it initially contracted Public First without a tender to work on “insight on public opinion for this year’s exam arrangements”. The spokesperson added: “Public First is currently assisting Ofqual’s small communications team with an unprecedented amount of media interest in a complex policy area.”
Wolf, a former adviser to Gove when he was shadow education secretary, is one of several staff from Public First who are understood to have worked with Ofqual on the approach to the awarding of A-level, BTec and GCSE grades for students, who were unable to take their exams due to the Covid-19 school closures.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson told the Guardian that Gove had not been involved in Ofqual’s appointment of Public First. They said: “The Cabinet Office had no involvement in the contract and did not discuss it with Ofqual.”
The algorithm used by Ofqual downgraded 40% of the A-level grades assessed by teachers under the process set after the exams were cancelled, leading to a storm of protest from students, parents, school leaders and teachers, that culminated in a complete government U-turn on Monday and the system being scrapped.
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