The government wants all schools to be in an academy trust, its schools White Paper is set to announce.
91 understands that the White Paper, which is set to be published in full on Monday, will express support for all schools to join a strong trust or to establish their own.
It is expected that local authorities and local area partnerships will gain the power to set up their own trusts.
The White Paper is being unveiled alongside plans to reform the special educational needs and disabilities system.
Earlier this week, the government’s inclusion adviser, Tom Rees, told 91 that the SEND crisis would be “much harder to fix” without all schools being in strong trusts.
Writing in education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “We will finish what the previous Labour government started, and ensure all schools join high-quality trusts.
“Within strong trusts, the brilliant practice happening in some schools does not stay locked behind their gates - it flows to every classroom, every child, every community.”
The chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, Leora Cruddas said: “School trusts offer the only approach where everyone in the organisation is dedicated to one thing: making our schools better. With well over half of children at trust schools, it makes sense to consolidate on the progress already made in raising standards.”
New target to ‘halve’ disadvantage gap
Ahead of the full publication of the White Paper, the government tonight revealed it has set itself a target to “halve the disadvantage gap”, including by reforming school funding and giving retention bonuses to heads in poorer areas.
The Department for Education warned that the disadvantage gap is as wide today as it was in 2014, with only 44 per cent of poorer children achieving a pass at grade 4 or above in maths and English GCSEs.
This compares with more than 70 per cent of children who do not receive free school meals achieving a pass.
However, the DfE has not set out an end date by which it hopes to achieve this “ambitious target”.
Two new area-based “challenges” will also be launched, called Mission North East and Mission Coastal, aimed at improving results for pupils in these areas, including white working-class children.
The DfE will also pilot retention incentives of up to £15,000 for newly appointed headteachers to work for sustained periods in the parts of the country that need them most.
The department said that the sustained disadvantage gap was “not the sign of a system delivering high standards for every child, but one that is sidelining too many children”.
Funding reform part of government plan
As part of its plan to tackle the gap, the government is looking to reform the way disadvantage funding is given to schools through the National Funding Formula and the Pupil Premium.
The department said that it could assess how low a pupil’s family income is, how long this has been the case and where a child lives, instead of the current indicator of whether a child receives free school meals.
Funding could then be determined by a stepped model, which the DfE has said would result in more funding for schools supporting the poorest children. It would also remove the need for families to choose to take up the offer of a free meal in order to be eligible for deprivation funding.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “These reforms are a golden opportunity to cut the link between background and success - one that we must seize.
“Our schools have made great strides in recent decades. Yet for too long, many children in our country have been let down by a one-size-fits-all system, denied opportunity because they’re poor or because they have additional needs.
“Our schools White Paper presents the blueprint for opportunity for the next generation, with an education system that truly serves every child, whatever their needs and wherever in the country they grow up.”
Attendance and progress also covered
Other measures set to be announced in the schools White Paper on Monday include a new attendance target to recover 20 million school days per year by the end of the 2028-29 academic year, compared with 2023-24.
It will also include a commitment to develop minimum expectations for schools regarding parental engagement. These will cover areas such as the need for timely communication with parents, and “high-quality transition from primary to secondary”.
The department is also exploring creating a new progress measure to “better capture the progress and achievements of children who start secondary school significantly behind their peers”.
This comes amid concerns that the existing Progress 8 measure undermines inclusion, and after the to the Francis review on curriculum and assessment that it would develop and consult on an improved version of the measure.
The White Paper will also contain several plans that the government has already announced. These include the creation of school profiles to provide parents with information on attendance, attainment and enrichment, as well as doubling the duration of full maternity pay for teachers to eight weeks, which the DfE announced last week.
Details on wider SEND reforms are also expected to be set out next week.
You can now get the UK’s most-trusted source of education news in a mobile app. Get 91 magazine on and on
