The Department for Education has set out in more detail how each measure in its education bill will have an impact on schools.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is in the committee stage in Parliament, sets out a range of provisions that the DfE says will help to raise school standards.
The department has estimated to what extent each measure in the planned legislation will affect schools, in terms of both potential costs and benefits.
Many of the measures - 20 out of 38 - will also require secondary legislation to achieve their aims, the DfE says. Some of the measures were previously introduced in the Conservatives’ schools bill, which was scrapped in 2022.
The DfE will engage with a sample of school and trust leaders most likely to be impacted by the measures in the bill, to monitor how they are achieving their intended objectives.
Here is how the DfE expects each measure in the bill to impact schools, from estimates of how many uniform items they will need to scrap to how many new teachers could be affected:
The DfE’s predicted impact of the schools bill
The cap on branded items of school uniform
The DfE estimates that 35 per cent of primary schools will have to make changes to their uniform policy as a result of the bill introducing a limit of three branded items.
Around 18 per cent of primaries are expected to need to remove one or two branded items, 7 per cent to remove three or four items, and 10 per cent to remove five or more items.
Secondary schools will be allowed four branded items, but one must be a tie.
The impact is expected to be much larger at secondary, affecting 71 per cent of schools. The DfE estimates that 30 per cent of secondaries will need to remove one or two branded uniform items, 22 per cent two to four and 19 per cent five or more.
Teacher pay and conditions
This measure sparked concern within the sector that, as the bill was initially worded, it was not clear whether academy trusts would be able to continue offering additional pay and flexibilities for staff.
The government has since tabled an amendment to the bill clarifying that it will require academies to follow minimum pay standards as maintained schools do - but with no maximum. Academies will need to have regard to the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD).
The government will use secondary legislation to remove maximum pay bands for maintained schools and provide additional flexibilities.
Setting out the impact of this measure, the DfE says some trusts that divert from the STPCD may need to show they have regard for it.
The end of forced academisation
The bill will end automatic forced academisation for failing schools, though this will remain a discretionary power for the secretary of state.
The DfE says that 35 local authority maintained schools were judged “inadequate” and issued with a directive academy order during 2023-24. Of these, seven had serious weaknesses and 28 were special measures.
It is not clear what exactly will happen to these 35 schools.
The DfE says the change will allow more flexibility to improve school performance, but could potentially place an extra burden on local authorities to support struggling schools that previously would have joined an academy trust.
There could also be impacts on academy trusts if fewer maintained schools become sponsored academies, the DfE says. But this will not affect trusts’ current operations.
Being sponsored by a trust will still be an option for “some underperforming schools”.
Qualified Teacher Status rules
From 2026, academies will need to ensure that the teachers they appoint have, or are working towards, Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).
This could bring some costs associated with training and the time needed off timetable for trainee teachers, the DfE says. But it adds that grant funding will support this.
Trusts have raised concerns that this measure will remove their flexibility to hire subject specialists who may not have or want QTS - particularly for vocational subjects.
The proportion of unqualified teachers in academies in 2023 was 3.6 per cent, the DfE says - slightly higher than the 2.5 per cent in maintained schools.
The department estimates that this measure will affect 700 to 1,250 potential entrants into teaching annually; between 500 and 850 of these could come in unqualified with a degree.
The DfE expects a minority of these will take a postgraduate teacher training course with student fees. Most of those affected will undergo the assessment-only route.
Mandating the national curriculum for academies
The bill includes a number of measures that will bring academies into line with maintained schools, including requiring them to follow the national curriculum.
This will only become a requirement after the curriculum and assessment review publishes its recommendations in autumn 2025 and a revised curriculum is developed. The DfE says it will take several years after the recommendations are published for them to be implemented.
Many academies already follow the national curriculum, the DfE says, but it expects “small additional costs” for those that do not.
Schools that differ significantly from the national curriculum may have to put in place extra training to deliver the curriculum, adjust resources and facilities and, in some cases, recruit extra staff.
Sir Dan Moynihan, CEO of Harris Federation, told MPs that the ability to deviate from the national curriculum allows trusts to adapt to local needs.
“It’s not clear to me why we would need to follow the full national curriculum and what advantage that gives, when we have to provide all of the nationally recognised qualifications and we’re subject to external regulation by Ofsted,” he said in an evidence session for the bill.
“Why take away the flexibility to do what’s needed locally?”
The education secretary’s intervention powers
The bill creates a power allowing the education secretary to direct academy trusts deemed not to be complying with their legal duties or “acting or proposing to act unreasonably”.
This could impact trustees and trust boards, the DfE says. And in “the most extreme circumstances of non-compliance”, the education secretary will be able to apply to a court to get a mandatory order enforcing the direction.
The measure is intended to “increase the department’s effectiveness as the principal regulator of academies”.
Attendance orders and not-in-school registers
The bill will create compulsory registers of children not in school and make changes to the process of school attendance orders.
There will be an increased financial penalty for parents convicted in a criminal court of breaching the terms of a school attendance order.
Some funding will be available to councils in the initial stages to help with the costs of setting up the registers, the DfE says.
As of October 2023, the DfE estimates that 92,000 children are receiving elective home education; around 10 per cent are estimated to be learning at non-school providers.
Ellie Costello, executive director at attendance organisation Square Peg, has warned there could be “unintended consequences” of the changes to school attendance orders.
She added that the “punitive approach to school attendance” is driving parents to deregister their children from school.
Changes to opening new schools
Local authorities will be able to invite proposals for all types of school under the bill, where previously they could only hear proposals for new academies. Councils will be able to propose their own schools.
The DfE expects the costs of developing proposals for councils to be manageable from existing resources.
The department says that the measure may create “possible concern among academy trusts that there will be fewer opportunities for growth”, but that trusts will continue to be a key partner and proposals for new academies will still be considered.
Admissions powers for councils
The measure allowing local authorities to direct academies to admit children might result in a “small increase” in workload for the schools adjudicator, the DfE says, because the adjudicator will have to deal with admissions appeals from both maintained schools and academies.
However, it adds that this increase in workload is likely to be offset by a decrease in advice cases that the adjudicator receives from the education secretary.
These advice cases occur when the adjudicator advises the secretary of state on a direction request from a local authority to place a child in an academy - this, for now, is the only route councils can use to place a child in an academy.
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