Following hot on the heels of the Ofsted consultation, the Department for Education has launched a new consultation on English school accountability reform. This is a system that very much does need reform! In this post, I will briefly summarise my view on the Government’s proposals.

Firstly, I think it’s unfortunate that the phrase “school accountability” has stuck. It smacks too much of “we will give you the slack to let you fail, but woe betide you if you do!”. I would much prefer something like “school improvement framework”.

Having said that, I think “Purposes and Principles” outlined by the government in the consultation are sound. But what about the detailed measures proposed?

Profiles

The proposal for School Profiles, incorporating but going beyond the new Ofsted report card (my very brief comments on Ofsted proposals here) is perfectly reasonable, but nothing particularly new (check out GIAS!). More fundamental, in my view, is the need to revisit what counts as “school performance data” (hint: Attainment 8 ain’t it!) But sadly there is nothing in the consultation about this. One would at least hope that certain data hidden behind an ASP login might become public in the short term.

Intervention

It is disappointing that by default, a maintained school placed in special measures will become an academy but there is no scope for an academy placed in special measures to become a maintained school.

On the other hand RISE Teams are a good idea, especially sign-posting of best practice, regional events for school staff, etc. They are not a new idea – remember when local authorities could actually afford support teams, anyone? – but they are a good idea nevertheless. I support the mandatory nature of some interventions, which for academies will presumably come via Section 43 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. I am a little worried, though, that currently the RISE teams seem to be described as brokers of support “with a high-quality organisation” rather than as actually having in-house expertise – there is a danger that RISE Teams become ways to mandate schools to buy in services from favoured MATs. The devil will be in the implementation.

It is disappointing that there has been no focus so far by this government on the structural problems present in the sector. The former government’s failed Schools Bill 2022, while having many significant problems, did at least aim to replace the patchwork of academy funding contracts signed at different times with different models with a uniform footing. And the peculiar nature of the Single Academy Trust remains an untackled issue to this day.

Overall

Overall, I would say the proposals are OK. More of a tinkering around the edges than anything profound, although the RISE proposals have some promise and could – with the right resourcing, local democratic control, and remit, genuinely help the sector with self-sustaining school improvement.