The government’s education reforms could turn “back the clock” by removing academy freedoms, a charity that advocates for free schools is warning.
The New Schools Network (NSN) has appointed a former Department for Education and Downing Street special adviser, Meg Powell-Chandler, as its new director.
Ms Powell-Chandler will use her government experience to advocate for school freedom and innovation, the NSN said.
Over the next few months, the NSN will focus on championing academy freedoms and making the case to revive the free schools programme.
Ms Powell-Chandler was a special adviser for the DfE from 2018 to 2019, and to Downing Street from 2019 to 22 under Boris Johnson. She also ran as a candidate for the Conservative Party in last year’s general election.
NSN campaigns against Labour schools bill
The NSN said the Labour government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill threatens to bring an end to the free schools programme and “create new restrictions and bureaucracy for all academy schools, not just new ones”.
Ms Powell-Chandler told Tes that the NSN will be focusing on influencing MPs, including those in the Labour Party, as the bill goes through the committee stage.
It also intends to make sure that MPs hear from school leaders who have concerns about the bill, and to highlight that “the legislation as drafted doesn’t necessarily line up with what ministers say they want to do”.
The NSN plans to argue its case about the bill in the media, and to parents.
“The government is right to focus on raising standards in education, but the proposed legislation risks doing the exact opposite, turning back the clock on one of the most transformative periods of educational reform in recent history,” Ms Powell-Chandler said.
The government is currently reviewing 44 mainstream free school projects to see if they meet a need for places in their area and offer value for money.
In 2022 the NSN lost its bid to continue to provide free school support - instead the three-year contract went to Premier Advisory Group. The NSN is funded from charitable donations.
In 2023 David Ross, chair of trustees at the NSN and the David Ross Education Trust, said free school policy had “lost its way” and become both too slow and bureaucratic.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will bring academies into line with maintained schools in several areas where academies currently have freedoms - such as requiring Qualified Teacher Status and following the national curriculum.
The bill will also allow local authorities to invite proposals for all types of schools to meet the need for new provision. Currently they can only invite proposals for new academies.
Ms Powell-Chandler said this change will mean there will be fewer free schools.
Mr Ross said: “I am not alone as a trust leader in fearing that the current proposals will damage the futures of thousands of children across our country.
“We risk ideologically dismantling the most significant cross-party achievement of the last two decades and taking our education system backwards.”
Some academy trust CEOs had called for changes to the bill to ensure that academies retain their flexibilities and can innovate. Labour has since said it would table an amendment to the bill on pay and conditions in response to concerns raised by the sector.
However, the Headteachers’ Roundtable has voiced support for the bill, saying that while it is “not perfect”, it will not “curb so-called academy freedoms”.
The NSN was set up in 2009 by Rachel Wolf, a former adviser to Conservative education secretary Michael Gove.
Asked about the role of free schools amid falling pupil rolls, Ms Powell-Chandler told Tes: “Falling rolls are a huge issue.”
“I still think that new ideas and innovations are relevant and there will be parts of the country where there will be a new housing development built or a new focus of a population where a new school is built.
“The fact that the government has changed the presumption of free schools shows that they expect new schools to be built, too.
“It hasn’t always just been about the basic need argument,” she added. “It’s about making sure that communities and families have provision that they want and making sure there is a space within the education system for innovation and different ways of thinking to gain access.”
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