Simon WarehamAssistant Headteacher, Southmoor Academy
The Compass evaluation has undergone a series of updates in response to the updated Gatsby Benchmarks and revised statutory guidance. Three new Compass evaluations are now available on Compass+ and Compass covering schools, specialist settings, FE and ITPs. As well as addressing the changes in the updated benchmarks, the Compass evaluation has been redesigned to give users a more detailed level of insight into their programmes, which aims to make the process of reviewing the programme and reflecting on where to focus much easier.
Earlier this year, I was invited to be involved in the pilot for the new Compass evaluation based upon the updated Gatsby Benchmarks. As part of the trial, in the summer term 2025, I completed a live preview version of the new Compass evaluation and was invited to give feedback to the product team at The Careers & Enterprise Company. Based upon my participation in that trial, here are 5 essential things that Careers Leaders need to know before completing the first evaluation this half term:
1. Give yourself more time
Those of us who are used to completing the original Compass evaluation knew roughly how long it would take to complete. You will need to give yourself more time to complete the new evaluation while you become familiar with it. Each Benchmark is explored in much more detail, meaning the updated version has more questions. It also involves a lot more reflection and you will need to make sure you are free from distractions! The result is a broader, more insightful, more precise overall review of provision. For the many Careers Leaders who are part of a Careers team, consider completing it together as a group so that you can include more accurate evaluations.
2. Make sure you have access to key data before you start
The new Compass evaluation is designed to encourage you to make evidence-based decisions. Therefore, this means that you will need to be able to access key data before you start so that you can answer the relevant questions accurately. Data that you will need includes records of learner participation in careers activities; cohort level data, such as how many students who receive FSM have participated in careers activities; and access to your school development plan. The figures can be approximate but need to be as accurate as possible as new brackets of measurements have been included, such as ‘almost all (91-99%)’.
3. Think about the academic year as a whole
In the Autumn term evaluation, you might not think about activities that will happen late in the academic year and therefore not include these in your evaluation. If an activity is booked later in the year to definitely happen or has a particular date in the future already confirmed with budget and/or resources allocated to it, then do include these in your evaluation. When you complete the evaluation in the summer term, then you will be able to reflect accurately on activities that have actually taken part and exclude any activities that did not happen.
4. Keep in mind ‘meaningful’
A new principal word which is emphasised in the updated benchmarks is ‘meaningful’. Make sure that you keep this in mind when completing your evaluation, particularly in Benchmarks 5 and 6. Before deciding the numbers of encounters with employers, think about which ones match the definition of ‘meaningful’ – these are the ones that should be counted in your evaluation. The updates to the benchmarks include new definitions of ‘meaningful’ which need to be considered for ‘encounters’ and ‘experiences’. Therefore, it is important to reflect on some of the activities to make sure they are meaningful (for example, a trip to a workplace can only be counted as achieving the Benchmark if an extensive two-way interaction takes place between the young person and the employees).
5. Your overall Benchmark scores could go down
At the end of the first evaluation, do not panic if you are not achieving some of the benchmarks where you were before! We’ve been fully achieving 8 benchmarks for quite some time now, but after completing the pilot evaluation, we were no longer fully achieving 8 benchmarks. My first reaction to this was of disappointment; however, lower scores are expected and will be temporary: the criteria have changed and have become more rigorous to push the expectations further and to stretch and challenge all institutions.
Make sure you use the opportunity to look at your evaluation carefully and use the outcome to update your careers strategy and take it to the next level. For example, 3.4.1 talks about sharing pupil records with new education providers if pupils change providers during their time at the school – this is not something we’ve ever done before but has now prompted conversations on how this can happen moving forward. Use the new version of the Compass evaluation to give you insights into where developments are needed and to build a plan to help get you there. There is no expectation that this can be accomplished immediately.
Question-by-question guidance to help people understand the changes to the evaluation is available from The Careers & Enterprise Company.
