The government’s school performance website will shut down shortly, amid hopes its replacement will be a “key part of the school accountability system”. Visitors to the compare school and college performance (CSCP) site have been met with a message stating it will close “soon”, with a new service set to launch this autumn. The Department for Education has refused to reveal more. Jon Andrews However, government papers show it will be replaced by new digital “school profiles” expected help parents where to send their children. Jon Andrews, of the Education Policy Institute (EPI), believes officials are right to be looking at how performance is measured – but it will need to “go further than the existing school-level data”. “The accountability system can create perverse incentives, including narrowing curriculum reducing the inclusiveness of admissions practices, and removing pupils from school rolls.” ‘Key’ to accountability The long-running CSCP tool provides visitors with trust- and school-level information ranging from exam and test results and Ofsted reports to financial data. But DfE documents show it plans to “go further” and replace the website with “school profiles”, a service that will help parents make “decisions about their children’s education”. Its “fundamental features” will be the department’s latest school performance data, which will be “closely integrated with Ofsted’s point-in-time report cards”. There will be further stats recognising “the breadth of what a school does across a range of criteria, including achievement and attendance”. Government papers added: “School profiles will be a key part of the school accountability system, holding schools to account on a range of published performance measures, just as compare school and college performance currently does.” New service for schools Andrews noted that EPI’s benchmarking tool for multi-academy trusts and local authorities – which includes attainment, progress, inclusion, workforce and financial measures – demonstrates “the wider set of indicators that are possible”. The government trialled the profiles last year, ahead of their 2026-27 expected launch date. The test page states the pilot has now ended, but no findings have been published by the DfE. Officials previously vowed to “investigate how information like provision for pupil well-being, and a school’s enrichment offer can be included”. It also wanted to examine ways of demonstrating inclusivity. Sector feedback to a consultation last year also “highlighted the value of using data to support collaboration and improvement”. To support this, a separate digital service for schools will be developed – and launched this academic year – to replace the analyse school performance website.