The policies are set out in a school white paper to be published on Monday and include a “parental promise” for families to seek additional support for their children, which has been rejected as a “trick” by school principals. Central to the White Paper is the push for academics to take over the management of schools in England, with the aim of turning council-maintained schools into academies by 2030 and joining or preparing to join a multi-trust academies. (Mat). The White Paper also calls for a regulatory review of the Mats, possibly paving the way for an independent regulator of school credentials and their functions. Academies are state-funded schools with the highest degrees of autonomy in governance, resource use and curriculum. Recently, however, the number of schools being converted to academia has slowed, with the majority of primary schools and one-fifth of secondary schools maintaining links with local authorities. The White Paper provisions will allow local authorities to introduce Mats and gain powers to encourage schools to participate in a Mat “where this is the right approach for local schools” in areas that do not have high-performance Mats. Significant new powers may also be given to councils to force academies to accept children who do not have a school status. Ministers say the change will help overcome the objections of the remaining and voluntary schools to become academies and streamline England’s complex school governance system. Lucy Nethsingha, of the Children and Youth Council at the Local Government Association, said: “We are pleased that the government has responded to our call for councils to have their own mats set up. Boards have an excellent track record of providing high quality education to students, with 92% of schools maintained being rated by Ofsted as excellent or well rated – higher than any other type of school. The White Paper will also include new ways of regulating academy trusts and policies to encourage individual academies to participate in the established Mats, in a further streamlining that will reduce the number of trusts operating individual schools. Matt Dunkley, director of child service for Kent County Council, said: responsibilities. ” One of the most important new policies for school leaders would be to allow schools to switch between Mats by appealing to the new regulator. At present, schools can not leave Mats unless they are “rebroadcast” by the Department of Education (DfE) in extreme conditions, such as the financial collapse of a Mats. The White Paper aims to get more schools to join what it calls the “strong” trusts of many academies, based on quality, inclusion and improvement measures. The DfE said the White Paper would include a new commitment to every parent that schools would intervene if their children fell behind in English or math. The promise will mean that schools will identify children in need of help and keep parents informed of their child’s progress. Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, described the policy as “leveling in action”, but the promise drew criticism for reproducing what schools are already doing. “Parental commitment seems like a policy ploy designed to make headlines,” said Geoff Barton, secretary general of the Association of School and College Leaders. “In fact, any child who lags behind in English and math will already receive timely and evidence-based support and this has already been communicated to parents through existing channels, such as parent’s evenings.” Burton said the danger of the commitment was that it would “create an expectation of a right” and create tension between parents and teachers. “Parents will be surprised to hear that the focus on helping each child develop good reading, writing and math skills is a new discovery for the education secretary,” said Bridget Phillipson, shadow education secretary. “It’s been six years since the last white paper on schools, but it’s clear that these half-baked designs needed even more time in the oven,” said Munira Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats. He argued that more funding was needed to cover the dispute, rather than achieving “hollow” goals.
