红桃影视

Rule changes made after the requirement for all new schools to be academies was binned don鈥檛 make sense, trust leaders have said.

The passage of Labour鈥檚 schools bill earlier this month saw the free school presumption scrapped, opening the door to councils to lodge bids to launch their own primaries and secondaries.

But the changes have been branded 鈥渦nnecessary鈥� as guidance published on Monday states local authority proposals need to detail how the school will 鈥渕ove into a high-quality trust over time鈥�.

Academy expectation

Confederation of School Trusts chief Leora Cruddas said: 鈥淲e think it is unlikely that given the government’s vision for all schools being part of a trust that many, if any, new maintained schools will actually open.

鈥淚n the vast majority of cases it is going to make little sense to open as a maintained school only to become an academy a few years later.”

The said local authorities can invite proposals for a new school if, following a consultation, it determines there is a need for one.

Bidders 鈥� including councils 鈥� can submit plans 鈥渇or a new school other than an academy鈥�.

But the government鈥檚 expectation remains they 鈥渨ill join or form high-quality trusts鈥�.

鈥淧roposers who take this route will need to set out in their proposal how effective collaboration will be achieved once the school is operating and how they expect the school to move into a high-quality trust over time,鈥� the guidance said.

‘Unnecessary’ change

Amanda Hopgood, of the Local Government Association (LGA), stressed the schools white paper recognises the 鈥渆xcellent鈥� work being 鈥渄elivered in the council-maintained sector鈥�.

But the LGA believes it 鈥渟hould be open to schools to choose to become an academy鈥�.

But Meg Powell-Chandler, of the New Schools Network, argued the 鈥渞egrettable removal of the free school presumption may have proved unnecessary, given the government clearly want all new schools to be academies anyway.鈥�

She also called for the guidance to 鈥渆xplicitly state鈥� that councils 鈥渘eed to indicate whether they will submit a bid on publication of the invitation notice鈥�.

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 seem right that they can decide after they have started receiving applications.鈥�