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The Department for Education has announced plans for significant changes to the school system in its White Paper published today.

The White Paper, titled , sets out the government’s ambitions to improve outcomes for all children.

At the same time, the government has today set out plans to reform the special educational needs and disabilities system.

Here are the key announcements that teachers and school leaders need to know:

All schools to be in trusts

As reported by 91���� at the weekend, today’s White Paper sets out the government’s desire to see all state schools move into multi-academy trusts.

However, there is no deadline for this aim, and nothing in today’s plans that would force schools to convert into academies or join a trust.

The White Paper says: “We will put collaboration at the heart of the system by moving to all schools joining or forming high-quality school trusts.”

Local authorities and local area partnerships will also gain the power to set up their own trusts.

The former Conservative government had also outlined plans to allow local authorities to establish trusts in its doomed , which included a target for all schools to be in “strong” MATs by 2030.

New ‘trust standards’

The government is also creating new trust standards in order to “strengthen accountability”, involving an overhaul of the “” set out under the last government.

The White Paper says these emphasise the importance of standards, inclusion, value for money and “contributing willingly to community collaboration”.

It adds that pooling resources effectively “can unlock innovation and maximise value for pupils” - but that the DfE wants greater transparency over how this is being done.

The pay of trust executives must also be “transparent, evidence-based and reflect individual responsibility”, it says.

A recent 91���� analysis of CEO pay at the biggest MATs found that 32 individuals earned at least £200,000 in 2024-25.

Delayed plan to recruit 6,500 teachers

The DfE has provided some more detail on its plan to recruit 6,500 secondary and specialist teachers in schools and colleges by the end of Parliament.

It originally promised to publish the full plan in December, but this was delayed, as 91���� revealed last year.

The plan will focus on “optimising” routes into teaching, as well as increasing awareness of and access to flexible working, promoting best practice in workload and wellbeing management, supporting schools to harness the benefits of technology and ensuring fair pay.

It will also expand career-long development opportunities to further support teachers in deepening their expertise and pursuing specialisms, including moving into leadership.

The Office for Equality and Opportunity, through the Race Equality Unit, will undertake research on improving the recruitment, retention and progression of the ethnic minority teaching workforce. The DfE will also provide new resources to support school leaders in creating inclusive environments.

The baseline for the pledge will be full-time equivalent data from 2023-24, and annual data publications will be used to both monitor progress and optimise delivery in response to sector need.

Retention bonus for heads

As announced on Saturday, the DfE will pilot retention incentives of up to £15,000 for newly-appointed headteachers to work for sustained periods in parts of the country that need them most.

Retention incentives will also be used for teachers working in disadvantaged areas during the early stages of their careers. It will focus on high-priority subjects, such as physics and maths.

The government plans to invest in a new programme that provides training, resources and peer support.

Maternity pay doubled

Teachers and school leaders will see their full maternity pay increase from 2027-28, rising from four weeks to eight, as the DfE announced last week.

Government to ‘halve the disadvantage gap’

The government has set itself a target to “halve the disadvantage gap” by the time the generation of children born under the current Labour government finishes secondary school.

It says this will equal all children achieving a grade 5 or higher across their GCSEs, and children from low-income backgrounds will achieve a full grade higher in each of their GCSEs than today.

More than 300 mainstream comprehensive schools are already meeting the government’s target.

All schools to monitor pupil belonging

The DfE also plans for schools to monitor every child’s sense of belonging and engagement by 2029 - only around 60 per cent of schools currently do so, it says.

Reforms to disadvantage funding

The government is looking to reform the way disadvantage funding is given to schools through the national funding formula and pupil premium.

The department says 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 binary indicator of whether a child receives free school meals.

Funding could then be determined by a stepped model, which the DfE says would result in more funding for schools supporting the poorest children.

The White Paper also pledges “significant investment” in the core schools budget.

Mission areas

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 government will test a new model of bringing together schools with similar needs and local community leaders to “innovate together and tackle entrenched challenges in these areas”.

Core teacher training entitlement developed

In line with its manifesto, the government will create a new teacher training “entitlement”, in addition to the £200 million already committed to train all teachers in SEND.

The entitlement will evolve to ensure teachers continue to be supported to adopt evidence-based approaches, including in areas such as the use of technology and artificial intelligence to support learning.

Headteachers will also receive a mentoring and coaching offer, and the government will build a new framework of evidence on mentoring for school leaders.

The government will invest £1 million in additional funding each year for wellbeing support, and provide 2,500 leaders annually with a “safe and confidential space to develop new strategies to manage their resilience and capacity to thrive in their role”.

Its election manifesto had also promised to update CPD standards, but nothing has been said on this yet.

Minimum expectation for parental engagement

The DfE will establish minimum expectations for schools to communicate with parents and tools for parents to support learning at home.

It will explore how schools can use “meaningful, documented agreements” with families.

And it will establish a new pupil engagement framework, which it says will be developed with input from children, parents and schools.

Digital service to handle complaints

There have been long-overdue calls for the government to reform the parent complaints system.

The government will deliver “a new digital solution” for schools handling complaints from parents, along with expectations for complaints handling.

It also plans to strengthen the independence of complaints panels, and will consult on introducing a requirement for maintained schools to include an independent member.

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• Leora Cruddas: Why a trust-based system is the ‘best bet’ for children
• Schools White Paper: the sector reacts

Duty of schoolwork for excluded children

The DfE will consult and introduce a duty that schoolwork is set for excluded children.

The government will introduce Reintegration Support Partnerships, which will involve a formal meeting following a suspension. It will lead to an agreed plan and responsibilities.

Schools that do this well will work with parents to co-develop strategies focused on “collective responsibility for early intervention and behaviour improvement”.

An internal dashboard will be developed to identify school-level trends in how children move through the education system.

New progress measure

The White Paper says the government will explore creating a new progress measure to “better capture the progress and achievements of children who start secondary school significantly behind their peers”.

The to the Francis review on curriculum and assessment that it would develop and consult on an improved version of the existing Progress 8 measure.

Target to boost attendance

The DfE is setting a target to improve the attendance rate by 1.3 percentage points from 2023-24 levels, to over 94 per cent.

This is equivalent to children attending 20 million more days of school each year from 2028-29, the DfE said.

Schools will be supported to meet this ambition through their AI attendance reports. This is despite more than one in four schools still waiting to receive their targets, as 91���� revealed last week.

The government will also aim for schools to “better accommodate” children with health conditions so they can be in school.

The DfE will work with the NHS to update the existing guidance for parents to clarify expectations around medical appointments.

Focus on key stage 3

A core focus of the Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence teams will now be key stage 3.

“Every secondary school needs to give sufficient priority to organising and strengthening key stage 3,” the White Paper states.

A KS3 “Alliance” will aim to support innovation and spread best practice across the country.

Changes to admissions code

The government will consult on changes to the school admissions code to “promote fairness for all families”, particularly the most disadvantaged and children with additional needs.

Proposals include requiring schools to give parents more information about in-year admission decisions, requiring schools to set out more details about how their arrangements work and tightening rules to ensure banding produces representative intakes.

The DfE will also develop new resources to encourage schools to adopt more inclusive admission arrangements.

Off-rolling ‘dashboard’

The DfE is developing an internal dashboard that will identify school-level trends in how children move through the education system.

It will identify patterns in pupil movement that could suggest off-rolling or other “concerning” practices, including off-site direction and managed moves.

The government will follow up on a targeted basis with responsible bodies to understand and challenge where there are possible concerns.

Early years partnerships

The DfE says it will fund “partnerships” between early years settings and schools, using this model to test and implement different approaches to transitions, including for children with SEND.

It is also considering whether to target funding based on the place a child lives, as well as their individual family economic circumstances.

Timeline

Changes will be introduced as follows:

• Aligning with best practice from the 2025-26 academic year.
• Preparing for SEND and curriculum reform from 2026-27.
• Full implementation from 2028-29.

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