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20 April 2026

Tag: Lord Agnew

Lord Agnew makes Inspiration Trust comeback as he returns to trustee role

Former academies minister Lord Agnew is to rejoin the academy trust he helped found as a trustee, it has been announced. The Conservative peer founded the Norfolk-based Inspiration Trust in 2012, but resigned from his role a trustee in 2018, almost a year after he was appointed as an education minister. Today, the trust has […]

Agnew vows crackdown on schools with ‘pernicious’ exclusive uniform suppliers

Academies minister Lord Agnew has vowed to crackdown on schools using “monopoly suppliers” for their school uniform – claiming it was a “pernicious way of excluding children from less well-off backgrounds”. During a joint education and work and pensions select committee session on Wednesday, Emma Hardy raised the issue of the cost of school uniforms, […]

Meet the team: Your guide to the new DfE ministerial line-up

The Department for Education’s new ministerial team is now complete. Boris Johnson has finished his reshuffle after becoming Conservative leader and prime minister. Here’s your handy guide to who’s who on the seventh floor of Sanctuary Buildings.   Gavin Williamson Education secretary The MP for South Staffordshire since 2010, Williamson previously served as Theresa May’s […]

New academy handbook beefs-up rules on pay, whistleblowing and banning trustees

Ministers have toughened up the academies rulebook today with new guidance to make sure pay is reasonable, ensure trusts have adequate whistleblowing policies, and make clear that the government can ban misbehaving trustees. Academy trusts will also now be required to submit an annual report to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to show […]

Limit pupils’ lunch portions to save money, say Agnew’s cost-cutting advisers

Lord Agnew’s cost-cutting consultants told a school to replace experienced teachers with support staff on term-time contracts, while another was urged to limit lunch portions for pupils. Secret reports seen by Schools Week reveal other tips from the “school resource management advisers” include saving money on supply teachers by instead using spare staff to cover […]

Revealed: The 50 academy trusts that cut chief executive pay

The government has named 50 academy trusts that have cut executive pay following pressure from officials. A list, sent to Schools Week under the freedom of information act, reveals the names of the trusts that have stopped paying salaries of either £100,000 to £150,000 or over £150,000. However this does not include any trusts that […]

Bright Tribe probe ‘will be published’, vows academies minister

An investigation by the Education and Skills Funding Agency into allegations of wrongdoing at the doomed Bright Tribe trust will be made public after all of the chain’s schools have moved to new sponsors, the academies minister has pledged. In an exclusive interview with Schools Week, Lord Agnew said the under-fire trust had been “too […]