DfE

The latest news and analysis on the Department for Education and the secretary of state for education, including new policy, legislation and appointments

Wednesday

25th Mar 2026

Tom Rees to co-chair expert SEND panel
Academy trust CEO will help to lead a group in developing national inclusion standards and packages of specialist support for pupils with SEND
Tom Rees has been appointed to co-chair an expert panel developing plans for the government SEND reforms.
Inclusion: what the DfE expects from schools
Government sets out expectations for what schools’ universal offer should look like and how they can use its new Inclusive Mainstream Fund
The DfE has produced a guide on how schools should use inclusion funding.

Tuesday

24th Mar 2026

Primary schools to get £14K inclusion funding on average
The average secondary school will receive £48,000 next year through the new Inclusive Mainstream Fund, the DfE announces
The DfE has said that the average sized primary school will receive around £14,000 in mainstream inclusion funding.
Parent contact is ‘unmanageable’, say nearly a fifth of teachers
Schools should not be ‘call centres’, warns teaching union as research reveals that nearly half of SLT staff spend more than 30 minutes a week calling parents
1 in 5 teachers spend up to an hour a week calling parents
Exclusive

Monday

23rd Mar 2026

Attendance target not ‘ambitious’ enough, government warned
Children’s commissioner is among those calling on ministers to restore absence to pre-Covid levels
Improvement
Partnerships must power the North East’s education mission
The government’s launch of Mission North East is a ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity’, say this MAT chief executive, who outlines some key ways to ensure that the promise of the policy is fulfilled
Parternships will be key to the North East education mission, says MAT leader

Friday

20th Mar 2026

What will it take to get all schools into trusts?
Tes investigates the challenges of achieving the White Paper target of bringing every school into a strong trust – and the incentives that could be necessary to fulfil it
What will it take to get all schools into academy trusts?

Thursday

19th Mar 2026

New regional director sets out RISE priorities
Nigel Minns becomes East Midlands regional director for the school improvement programme after serving as a director of children’s services for eight years
New leadership
Special schools more than 10,000 pupils over capacity
The proportion of special schools that are full or over capacity is far higher than for mainstream schools, the latest DfE figures show
Special schools more than 10,000 pupils over capacity

Monday

16th Mar 2026

Will inclusion bases just become exclusion rooms?
If inclusion is not properly understood across the sector, there is a risk that the government’s planned inclusion bases will turn into a subtle form of exclusion, writes Thomas Keaney
A young student resting their head in their hands while staring despondently.

Friday

13th Mar 2026

The missing middle: why we agreed to chair the KS3 RISE Alliance
Key stage 3 has been neglected in the drive for improvement – but now the government has launched an initiative to make it a more meaningful phase of education, write the co-chairs of the scheme
KS3 missing years
Phillipson launches KS3 commission
The Key Stage 3 Alliance will form part of the government’s universal RISE school improvement offer, education secretary tells ASCL annual conference
A picture of Bridget Phillipson