The new hair and beauty apprenticeships frameworks have been delayed until the autumn. Hillary Hall, chief executive of National Hairdressers’ Federation, said that the recent announcements about changes to apprenticeships funding have been a distraction.

“It has been difficult to focus on standards without being drawn into the wider debate about the impact of funding changes on employers,” she said.

The changes to the apprenticeships’ training and assessment standards will be driven by the needs of employers, and employer “trailblazer” groups have made recommendations about what the new frameworks should look like.

George Hammer, chairman of Urban Retreat and leader of the trailblazer group for beauty, said, “More discussion with training providers and awarding organisations is time well-spent as the standards are crucial to the success of the apprenticeships.”

Professional Beauty columnist Hellen Ward, managing director of Richard Ward Hair and Metrospa and the leader of the trailblazer group for hair, said that developing the standards has been an intense process and the set timeframe has been tight. “We’d rather spend more time in the development phase than rushing something that is so important to our industry, so we’ll be submitting the hair and beauty standards in the autumn instead.”