It is clear that the direction of travel is for all schools to join or form high quality trusts, which feels like a leap from the tone of eighteen months ago. That said, there are no fixed ambitions for when all schools should be part of a trust, and the proposal for LAs and local area partnership to potentially start their own trusts will add an interesting dynamic to the system, with more details set to follow.
Locality and the coherence necessary to meet the needs of the local schools landscape and communities themselves, comes through strongly, with an emphasis on larger trusts ensuring they achieve coherence and maximise the benefits of locality through hubs and clusters – this is encouraging and ties in with our own advocacy and championing of the model of community-centered trusts.
The White Paper puts forward a lot of change, much of which is quite operational, and it will be important for boards and trust leaders to consider the timelines, sequencing of multiple changes, and implications for investment, operations, and monitoring. Areas to be consulted on by the DfE include the SEND reform mechanisms, Revised Progress 8 model, New disadvantage funding model, and School Admissions Code changes.
You can also read our Founder, Michael Pain’s, assessment of the white paper, here, in which he criticises its lack of overall ambition and ‘reforming zeal’ for what he describes as the ‘foundational’ early years: A ‘firefighting’ white paper: a lack of emphasis on the early years means this is not a ‘once in a generation’ worthy of Labour’s historic reformers | Forum Strategy. Whilst welcoming some specific policy announcements such as home/school partnership principles, the monitoring of ‘belonging’ amongst pupils, Headteacher standards that encourage cross-sector working and learning, and the emphasis on trusts at the heart of their communities.
This summary is intended to provide a clear overview of the key strategic changes:
Overall vision
The headline vision is encapsulated by the statements that: “Our children are the citizens of our common future – the start of every success – and in them we see the curiosity, resilience and enterprise to succeed. As new waves of technological change transform our society and economy as never before, it is more important than ever that our nurseries, schools, trusts and colleges prepare the next generation to shape our world together” and “Our children have the strongest foundations when love and support at home is built on with stretching, enriching and inclusive school experiences”
Key challenges
It sets out key challenges including the evolution of technology and AI and the “need to make sure they have strong foundations of knowledge and that they are active participants in their learning – debating, questioning, challenging and pursuing their own inquiry – set up for a lifetime of learning, not passive recipients of information”.
It considers the importance of belonging alongside attainment, setting out how “out of 27 European countries, the UK is last in how happy 15-year-olds are with their life”.
And it considers the widening attainment gap, the attendance challenge, and challenges around retaining leaders and teachers in schools that would most benefit from stability.
Ambitions
The white paper outlines a number of ambitions around attainment, school readiness, belonging, attendance and otherwise, including:
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When this generation finishes secondary school all children will be stretched to achieve higher standards. On average, across the system as a whole, children will leave school achieving a grade 5 or higher across their GCSEs. Every child will share in this improvement – from targeted support to help those furthest behind secure a pass to ensuring that children who are progressing but capable of more are stretched to achieve the very top grades
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The disadvantage gap will be halved. Children from low-income backgrounds will achieve around a full grade higher in each of their GCSEs than is the case today. This equates to over 1.3 million grade improvements across the cohort, and over 30,000 more disadvantaged children passing English and maths at grade 4 or above each year
More specially, it’s aims by the end of the Parliament include:
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early years: a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn – 75% of 5-year-olds reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage[footnote 16]
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key stage 1: 90% of children meeting the expected standard in the year 1 phonics screening check[footnote 17]
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key stage 2: outcomes will reach their highest level since current assessments began. This means around 25,000 more children leaving primary school with strong foundations for secondary, including over 10,000 disadvantaged children
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key stage 4: stronger progress for disadvantaged children and those starting secondary school below expected standards – a group that includes over three-quarters of children identified with SEND at the end of key stage 2
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pupil belonging: more children – including those disadvantaged or with SEND – will feel a strong sense of belonging in school. Progress will be monitored through robust, ongoing national and international surveys. By 2029, the government expects every school to monitor children’s sense of belonging and engagement, up from around 60% of schools today
Trusts
White Paper sets out the government’s aim for all state schools to form or move into high quality multi-academy trusts. There is no date set out for achieving this, and no sense in the policies outlined so far that schools will be compelled to join a trust. It simply states that: “We will put collaboration at the heart of the system by moving to all schools joining or forming high-quality school trusts.”
It also proposes that Local Authorities and local area partnerships will be able to set up their own trusts, with some policies around potential conflicts of interest to be set out later.
Meanwhile, the trust quality descriptors are likely to be overhauled, and a new set of trust standards developed in order to ‘strengthen accountability’. This will build on the current pillars to emphasise the importance of standards, inclusion, value for money and contributing willingly to community collaboration. It goes on to say that “The Trust Standards will draw on the most transformational sector practice: sharing excellence, spreading innovation, and lifting outcomes across communities.”
The White Paper reiterates the government’s commitment to “proportionate, independent inspection of trust quality”, with the proposals around trust inspection set out some weeks ago.
On pooling resources, the paper acknowledges that this can effectively unlock innovation and maximise value for pupils. The DfE makes clear an intention “to improve arrangements for transparency where resources are being pooled and illustrate where this is being done effectively.”
SEND
The proposed SEND reforms are set out in our email from earlier today. These include a brand new Inclusive Mainstream Fund, digital Individual Support Plans (ISPs), and defined Specialist Provision Packages underpinning EHCPs.
The curriculum and progress
The curriculum will be updated to ensure it is “knowledge-rich and broad, inclusive and innovative”. Revised programmes of study are scheduled for first teaching from 2028, with changes to GCSEs following from 2029. It will take forward the recommendations of the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review and building on them to ensure all children are supported and stretched.
The government also states that it will consult on reforms to the Progress 8 accountability measure. English and maths will remain at the core, and the two science slots will be retained. However, there will be a stronger expectation that schools demonstrate breadth across languages, humanities and creative subjects
In terms of progress, it will look to “better capture the progress and achievements of children who start secondary school significantly behind their peers”.
Maternity pay
Teachers and school leaders will see full maternity pay increase from the year 2027-28, from four weeks to eight, as announced previously.
Leadership
There will be a targeted package of interventions around school leadership including:
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Investing an additional £500,000 each year in a reformed and improved early headship coaching offer, reaching approximately a further 500 headteachers, particularly in disadvantaged areas.
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Establishing a new offer for heads to access support from mentors and each other in support networks, including a new framework of evidence on mentoring for school leaders, and supporting local mentoring connections.
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Investing £1m additional funding each year for wellbeing support, providing up to 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.
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Ensuring the Headteachers’ Standards reflect key expectations for high quality leadership, working with transformative employers, school leaders and experts across different sectors to capture and share examples of outstanding leadership, to support all headteachers to deliver best practice.
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Piloting a new place-based Headteacher Retention Incentive, to attract and support new headteachers to stay in the areas that need them most. In recognition of the acute challenges in certain parts of the country, the government will invest £1m each year starting next year to support newly appointed headteachers with an annual retention payment of up to £15,000 (before tax).
Teacher training entitlement
The government will bring forward a new Teacher Training Entitlement (TTE), to ensure that every teacher and leader can access high-quality professional development opportunities to keep learning and developing. The TTE “will evolve over time to ensure teachers continue to be supported to adopt evidence-based approaches, including in areas such as the use of technology and AI to support learning”. This will include strengthening the existing national offer of professional development, extending the offer to reach new audiences such as experienced teachers and leaders, work to ensure development opportunities are clear and accessible, and support for schools to develop strong development cultures.
Home / school partnerships
The government will work closely with schools, trusts, local authorities, communities, families and family-facing organisations to establish minimum expectations that supports the creation of meaningful home-to-school partnerships.
The government will consider how schools might adopt “meaningful, documented agreements” with families to strengthen shared expectations and responsibilities.
It also plans to introduce a new pupil engagement framework, to be developed in partnership with children, parents and schools.
Mission areas
The government will launch and fund two place-focused missions – Mission North East and Mission Coastal – “to transform outcomes for children and young people locally and provide a blueprint for national change”.
Mission North East will focus explicitly on radically improving outcomes for white working-class children and young people, in communities where attainment gaps are too often accepted as inevitable. It will bring together clusters of schools facing similar challenges, diagnose shared barriers to progress and develop a clear strategy for sustained improvement, backed by strong leadership and practical support.
Mission Coastal will focus on improving outcomes in disadvantaged coastal communities, where opportunity can be limited by geography, fragile local infrastructure, and the compounding effects of disadvantage. It will work with schools, school trusts and local partners to tackle the barriers that hold children back, and to strengthen the conditions that help young people thrive.
Both will have partnership boards – drawing on expertise from teachers, local leaders, and the wider public so that the whole community takes shared responsibility for change.
Disadvantaged funding
The government intends to change how disadvantage funding is allocated through the national funding formula and the pupil premium.
Instead of relying solely on the current binary measure of free school meal eligibility, the Department for Education is considering a more nuanced approach. This could take into account the depth of a family’s low income, how long they have been in that position, and geographical factors.
Funding would then be distributed using a tiered or stepped model, which the DfE argues would direct greater resources towards schools serving the most disadvantaged pupils.
The White Paper also commits to “significant investment” in the core schools budget.
Other areas
The white paper also covers issues such as trust inspection, breakfast clubs, teacher recruitment, and much more which has already been announced and covered elsewhere.
The full document (source: DfE) can be accessed here: Every Child Achieving and Thriving
We will cover the White Paper in further discussion at this week’s National #trustLeaders CEO network meeting on Wednesday: National #TrustLeaders CEO Network Meeting | Forum Strategy
