Government drops widely criticised Schools Bill

Making the announcement yesterday (7 December), the education secretary Gillian Keegan confirmed that the bill, which included measures to help all schools join multi-academy trusts, ‘will not progress’ to its reading in the House of Lords.

However, she told the education select committee that the Department for Education ‘remains committed to the objectives’ that underpinned the Schools Bill.

In her first appearance in front of the committee since she was made education secretary, Keegan said the Government will look to introduce many of the academy plans without new legislation, as well as prioritise plans for a register of children who are not in school.

The Bill, which was introduced by Keegan’s predecessor, Nadhim Zahawi in May, had been widely discredited and criticised by peers in the House of Lords and teaching unions due to the powers it would have given ministers over how academies operate.

It included measures to make all schools join multi-academy trusts by 2030, to introduce a register of children educated at home and to give Ofsted more powers to investigate illegal schools.

When explaining the reason behind the scrapping of the Bill, Keegan told the Education Select Committee that ‘parliamentary time has definitely been reprioritised’ to focus on tacking the rising cost of living, ‘because of the pandemic aftershocks but also the war in Ukraine’.

Teaching unions have said they hope plans for a register of children educated at home will remain.

'While this is the right decision, it does reflect the chaos of Government over the last 12 months.'

School leaders’ union NAHT said that it was ‘clear the Bill wasn’t going to be workable from the moment it was published.’

General secretary Paul Whiteman explained, ‘It was inevitable the Government would eventually have to scrap the Bill and we are pleased to see it won’t go ahead in its current form.

‘While this is the right decision, it does reflect the chaos of Government over the last 12 months. It’s frustrating that so much of everyone’s time has been spent dealing with this when we could all see its flaws.

‘It’s a shame that the sensible and necessary elements of the Bill that we did support have been thrown into the long grass alongside the others. The introduction of a register of children not in school, for example, is something we believe is important to improve safeguarding for children, as is the crackdown on illegal schools. We hope these elements of the Bill won’t be lost entirely.’

The National Education Union called it a ‘relief’ that the Bill will no longer progress through Parliament.

Joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said, ‘The Bill focused on the wrong priorities, if we want school improvement or educational quality. The Government must accept that maintained schools are here to stay. 

‘Parents and local councillors want an education system which is well-funded, responsive to local needs and which works for their local context, without pressure to join a mega-trust. Now that it has dropped the Schools Bill, Government has the opportunity to focus on the actual priorities and the real challenges around modernising assessment, identifying funding and addressing teacher retention’.

Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson commented, ‘It couldn’t be clearer that the Conservatives have no idea how to improve education and drive high standards for our children. They hailed this Bill as a priority and now they’ve binned it.

‘The attainment gap is widening, school buildings are crumbling, more and more children are being left without a qualified teacher, and the Conservatives have no plan.’