The Department for Education will be more transparent about the decisions it makes on academising schools, minister Baroness Barran has told sector leaders.
Speaking at the Schools and Academies Show this morning, the schools system minister revealed that an advisory panel working on how to regulate multi-academy trusts had told the department about the need to be more transparent.
The event was also told that the DfE is reviewing how it can reduce the red tape burden on academy trusts.
Baroness Barran’s keynote speech did not include any major updates on the progress of the Schools White Paper or the SEND review consultation.
But she did outline some of the feedback the department has had from a MAT regulation advisory panel, and indicated that tweaks to the DfE’s schools system reforms approach could be imminent.
She said: “One of the things that has clearly been fed back [from the advisory panel] to us is that we need to be much more transparent about trust quality, the metrics that we use, and where we use them and how we use them in our commissioning, rebrokering and brokering decisions about schools.
“We are, I think, in the final runway to being able to talk to more of you about the work that we’re doing, that share our thinking and make sure that we get your confidence and support and that we adjust as needs be.”
DfE committed to White Paper targets
Baroness Barran said that the government remained committed to the academic targets set out in the Schools White Paper earlier this year.
The government wants 90 per cent of pupils to be at the expected standard in reading, writing and maths in key stage 2 Sats by 2030. It also wants the average GCSE grade in English language and maths to rise to a 5 by 2030.
On academy trust paperwork, Baroness Barran said: “We’re also really keen to try and reduce the burdens on trusts.”
She added that some trust leaders have told her that some of the reporting they are expected to do “can feel really duplicative”.
“And we’re doing a really thorough exercise at the moment and trying to strip out any unnecessary reporting and simplify the regulatory burden that we put upon you.
“And part of that also is looking at what’s possible in terms of bringing together the work of the ESFA and the DfE regions group so that it feels as much as possible that you’re dealing with a seamless interface between the two.”
The Schools White Paper published in March this year was followed by a Schools Bill that set out how the government wanted to create new powers of regulation over multi-academy trusts.
However, the legislation got into difficulty in the House of Lords amid concerns that the government was giving itself too much power over the running of schools.
This resulted in large swathes of the Bill being withdrawn. It had been expected that the bill was going to be scrapped during Liz Truss’ government.
In the summer, the DfE set up an advisory panel to support it in redeveloping plans for how it should regulate MATs.
