Children’s wellbeing bill to enact sweeping academies reform

The government will legislate to allow councils to open schools again, end the automatic academisation of failing maintained settings and make academies follow reformed national teacher pay scales and conditions.

The measures, set to be introduced as part of the renamed “children’s wellbeing and schools bill”, represent the latest move away from the academies model by the new Labour administration.

When first announced at the King’s Speech, the then “children’s wellbeing bill” was set to enact a range of reforms pledged by Labour in opposition, such as a register of children not in schools and greater Ofsted powers over illegal schools.

But details revealed today confirm the bill – now with the word “schools” added to its title – will go much further, echoing recent comments from the education secretary Bridget Phillipson.

She confirmed in an interview with Schools Week last month that the government was considering letting councils open schools again.

At present, the “free schools presumption” means councils identifying the need for a new school have a legal duty to seek proposals for an academy.

The Department for Education confirmed today the presumption will end, allowing councils to “welcome proposals for all types of school, not just academies, so new schools are opened by the provider with the best local offer for local children and families”.

The department confirmed this would mean councils themselves being allowed to propose and open new schools

No more automatic academy orders

Failing schools run by local authorities will also “not be automatically forced to become an academy, opening up a broader range of levers to quickly drive-up standards”.

The DfE confirmed this meant that a current legal duty on Phillipson to issue academy orders to such schools will be scrapped.

But that does not mean the end of academy orders, as “for the worst performing schools, we expect that the secretary of state will continue to issue an academy order.

“However, where academisation may not be necessary this measure means that the secretary of state can support school improvement through other means including the deployment of regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams.”

National pay scales for all teachers

The bill, set to be tabled in Parliament tomorrow, will also mean “every school teacher will have the same core pay and conditions offer, and schools will have greater flexibility to attract and retain the best teachers”.

The DfE confirmed this meant that academies would for the first time have to follow national school teachers’ pay and conditions and pay scales.

However, before requiring academies to comply with national rules, the DfE will ask the School Teachers’ Review Body to “consider additional flexibilities to make the statutory framework most effective for all schools”.

“It will mean academies will have a voice in pay and conditions for the first time.”

But this would not cover academy trust executive pay, over which Phillipson has expressed misgivings.

‘A school is a school, regardless of governance’

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT leaders’ union, said the bill “includes a helpful attempt to start to address a school system that has become overly fragmented and unnecessarily divided.

“At the heart of the bill appears to be the welcome message that a school is a school, regardless of its governance structure.

“School leaders in academies and maintained schools alike share the same goals and aspirations for the children in their care and are wrestling with the same challenges.”

The NAHT supports “moves to ensure there is greater consistency between different types of school and to bring greater alignment to the system”.

He added that “greater consistency in pay and conditions between different types of schools is a helpful step forward and is an important pre-requisite for beginning to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis”.

Reforms must enable ‘excellence and innovation, says trusts body

Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said the organisation would “want to scrutinise these provisions carefully and talk to our members before making a comment”.

But she said it was “important to say that academy trusts have made a sustained and significant contribution to improving schools in the most challenging circumstances, including in the most economically deprived areas of the country.

“School trusts have lived up to the original mission of the previous Labour government to make a difference to the education of children, particularly in the most disadvantaged areas.

“We must ensure that the enabling conditions for excellence and innovation are protected and indeed enhanced going forwards.”

New ‘induction period’ and QTS for all

Many of the other elements of the bill were announced in the King’s Speech earlier this year.

For example, it will require all new teachers to hold or be working towards qualified teacher status before they enter the classroom.

They will also “need to complete a statutory induction period”, though the DfE has not said how long this will be, or how it will differ from the current early career framework.

All schools will have to cooperate with councils on school admissions, with councils given “greater powers to ensure admissions decisions reflect local needs including the placement of vulnerable children”

The bill will introduce compulsory council registers of children not in school, and “pave the way for a unique identifier number for children across services – like the national insurance number works for adults”.

More powers for councils on home education

Parents will lose their automatic right to home educate if their child is subject to a child protection investigation or plan.

And councils will get powers to require school attendance if they find a child’s home environment “unsuitable or unsafe”.

The bill will also “make sure that teachers and schools are always involved in decisions around safeguarding children in their area”.

Phillipson said: “In recent years, too many children have been failed by their last line of defence: the state.

She pledged “child-centred government, with better protections for young people and real join up between children’s social care, schools and local services.

“Alongside further measures to drive high and rising standards in our schools, this bill will deliver on this government’s plan for change, so that all children, whatever their circumstances, can achieve and thrive.”