Tom Bennett will apply to be the government’s new behaviour ambassador, Tes understands.
Mr Bennett headed up the previous government’s behaviour hubs programme until that came to an end in March. He was previously appointed as the Department for Education’s behaviour adviser in 2015 after the Conservative Party’s election victory.
On Friday the Department for Education announced the new behaviour ambassador role, alongside an attendance ambassador role. Both roles will serve as a link between schools and the government.
Behaviour in schools
Speaking to Tes, Mr Bennett said: “It’s been my greatest honour to have worked with so many ministers on national school improvement and it would be an honour to continue to support that in any way.”
Tes understands that Mr Bennett will apply for the behaviour ambassador position after he was told he would need to do so by the DfE.
He said: “It’s important for school strategies to be coherent and consistent, which requires deliberate oversight. The creation of these [ambassador] roles has the potential to effect huge, positive change at scale, and using what we already know works to inform that is crucial to that success.”
Behaviour hubs
Mr Bennett was instrumental in the creation of the previous government’s behaviour hubs and led the programme after it was launched in 2021 with £10 million in funding.
The hubs involved high-performing schools and trusts working with schools facing behaviour difficulties.
The programme finished at the end of March, coinciding with the expiry of Mr Bennett’s contract. The fact that there was no immediate replacement for the hubs led school leaders to voice concerns to Tes that the new government had not created another “lever” to support schools.
Attendance and behaviour intervention
The DfE has said that the new attendance and behaviour hubs scheme, starting this September, will be built around 90 schools that have a “track record of improving attendance and behaviour standards” and will target around 500 high-need schools with “weak attendance and poor behaviour”. The scheme is backed by £1.5 million from the DfE.
The DfE is yet to confirm the schools that have been selected as the new hubs.
Teachers have increasingly been reporting poor pupil behaviour as a major issue. Polling in March revealed that behaviour is now a bigger concern for primary school teachers than workload, with many teachers saying that misbehaviour is interrupting teaching and having a negative impact on their wellbeing.
The number of suspensions and permanent exclusions in the 2023-24 academic year increased by a third compared with the previous year, with school leaders warning that the system is “teetering on the brink of collapse”.
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