NGA Comments on the Publication of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Today, the government published its Children’s Wellbeing and Schools bill. Given the government’s parliamentary majority, it is very likely to become law in 2025, making it the first significant piece of education law in England for ten years. NGA will be working with the government to ensure the views of the over 250,000 governors, trustees and governance professionals are heard throughout the bill’s journey.
The proposed legislation covers an array of areas, including:
Opening new schools
The current presumption that any new school would be a free school (academy) will be ended. Instead, LAs and other providers can now propose and open new maintained schools, too. This is a clear reflection of the new government’s stated “structural agnosticism” but will be largely symbolic in most parts of the country given falling pupil rolls. We support the principle, as in some parts of the country, LAs might have greater capacity to open a new school than any local trust.
Academy orders
The rules around the automatic issuing of academy orders to maintained schools which were judged to be causing concern by Ofsted will be ended, enabling a broader range of options to drive improvement, including the new RISE teams. However, the government is clear that the worst-performing schools will still be academised. NGA agree that the current system is too prescriptive, and it is right to allow more flexibility to find the most effective form of intervention for a particular school. Nonetheless, sponsored academisation has successfully driven improvement in many cases, so it is right that it remains an option.
System alignment
A key principle of the bill is reducing the divide between academies and maintained schools. On pay and terms, for example, there are provisions for academies to now also follow national teacher pay and conditions (which currently only apply to maintained schools), but there is also a commitment to consider whether some additional flexibilities could be added to the current framework. Rules around qualified teacher status and the teaching of the national curriculum will also be extended to trusts. As we set out in our recent report, The Mature Model, bringing greater consistency and alignment to the system is much needed.
Admissions
In a similar vein, LAs will also have an expanded role in admissions, with the ability to direct the admission of a particular child into either a maintained school or an academy. As we explained in the Mature Model, we think admissions do need greater coordination in given localities, but care needs to be taken to avoid (real or perceived) conflicts of interest where LAs could be seen as favouring schools they maintain over those they do not.
Child Protection
A series of new measures to prevent children falling through the cracks, including compulsory Children Not in School registers in every LA; the removal of the right to home education if a child is subject to a child protection plan or investigation; and the power for LAs to direct children into school if their home education environment is unsuitable. There are also measures to help keep children with their extended families rather than going into care; strengthen the coverage of safeguarding arrangements, and a pilot of unique identifier numbers for children. We welcome steps to keep children safe, and these measures are a useful reminder of the importance of boards asking about children educated offsite.
The Kings’ Speech said the bill would also provide the legislative basis for MAT inspections, but those measures have not been included. NGA will continue to advocate for a trust inspection regime, which reflects the reality that trusts are a single organisation with one accountable body – the trustees.
Emma Balchin, NGA Chief Executive, said:“With complex legislation, the devil can often be in the detail, so we will carefully assess this legislation on behalf of the governance community in the coming weeks.
For now, we are pleased to welcome the core objectives of this legislation. The bill rightly recognises the vital safeguarding role played by schools and their governing boards, and takes steps to address the complex and growing challenges for boards and leaders of children being educated offsite. The changes address some of the most prominent issues, and includes measures we have long advocated including Children Not in School registers.
Ending the presumption that any new school will be an academy, and every school causing concern will be academised, is also sensible. Trusts add huge value to many schools and are experts at delivering school improvement. However, it is not realistic to believe that trusts will always be best placed to open a new school in every community, and nor that academisation will always be the best way of delivering improvement for any struggling school. The bill rightly facilitates greater flexibility for local decision makers.
We are also encouraged by the steps to deliver greater consistency and alignment across the schools system. The current mixed economy can inevitably lead to duplication and the waste of resources. It is right to take pragmatic steps to align basic expectations, whilst ensuring the freedom to innovate remains.”