Having suffered a seemingly interminable period of being what the prime minister describes as “becalmed”, the education sector could be forgiven for not knowing which way to look, given the rapid fire of policy announcements to hit over the past few days.

Following Friday’s welcome funding announcement, Sunday brought with it more news.

First, the long-awaited abolition of the Ofsted exemption for schools with “outstanding” status. While I’m a vocal advocate of great schools being allowed to get on with it, it beggars belief that schools can go without a single inspection for more than a decade, based on an Ofsted grade awarded back in the mists of time. 

Those of us working in the toughest schools know only too well just how much volatility there can be, especially in the outer reaches of the system: a star head moves on and the very bedrock of the school can start to crumble. 

Ofsted inspecting ‘outstanding’ schools

It’s our job, as academy trusts, to make sure that those foundations are not based on a cult of personality, but are instead about building stable teams, which are able to withstand the shockwaves of key individuals leaving. 

At best, the current system breeds complacency; at worst, it masks all manner of less than “outstanding” practice.

So, a smart policy decision. It’s also good news that there will now be a financial rating from Ofsted, too. While it is understood there is more work to be done to develop this proposal, it is nonetheless a move in the right direction. 

I took on a trust that was in all but financial freefall, with deficits peaking at £8 million a year. So I know that putting in the hard yards to stabilise and then making prudent financial decisions has to be non-negotiable for the sector. And the way to fast-track those behaviours is to measure financial competence.

We’re now about to post a second year of surplus, after years of being in the wilderness. While that transition has involved a number of hard truths, we are stronger for it, educationally as well as financially. After all, an insolvent school cannot be a great school. 

Tackling ‘untouchable’ schools

Without wanting to be accused of being in violent agreement with the government, the news of a specialist school-improvement academy trust is also welcome. To be piloted in the North, staffed by experienced school-improvement leaders and tasked with turning around the most challenging schools, battling long-term underperformance, this is much needed.

Government has long struggled with the thorny issue of what do with schools variously described as “SNOWs” (schools no one wants) or “the untouchables”. These are schools that are “inadequate” and waiting for a suitable sponsor to take them on. Some 35,000 pupils are estimated to be in these academies, and so it is welcome to see potentially a really powerful piece of policy-thinking coming to the fore.

There is scant detail at the moment on the Department for Education’s plans, but we have been trialling a not-dissimilar model ourselves in AET. A group of “all-stars” school improvers are deployed to drive school improvement locally, and to increase local capacity. 

As a national multi-academy trust, we are well-positioned to deal with schools even in isolated circumstances. What’s more, with our progressive people strategy, where flexible careers around school improvement are par for the course, we have the right people to help out.

Different schools present different challenges

A centralised version of this will, I hope, create a new baseline where those schools that have largely been abandoned are given the help they need to get back on the right path and to flourish. 

But we need to be careful of any quick-win thinking, leading to a cookie-cutter approach: every school will have its own very specific challenge or challenges. These will need bespoke approaches and long-term significant funding if we are serious about reversing the fate of these schools. It would be interesting, for instance, to take the worst-performing 100 schools, and consider what a bespoke plan for each would look like.

As we all know, education is endowed with both vicious and virtuous circles. The former include: deprived communities, low ambition, low populations and enrolments, funding cuts, fewer resources and difficulties attracting teaching talent. They make for a perfect storm, which needs huge sustained investment to deliver turnaround. And, without stating the obvious, this stuff doesn’t happen overnight.

Nor, I’m afraid, is it necessarily right to say that every parent wants to know their child is getting a great education. Some parents don’t. Some parents have been so downtrodden and so broken by the circumstances of their own lives that this actually isn’t a priority for them. 

Turnaround trusts

And it’s here that our work in schools becomes all the more challenging, but all the more necessary. This is what social mobility is really about and, at AET, it underpins our whole inclusive drive for all children to be able to lead a remarkable life.

This is why, longer-term, I would hope that the government is open to the notion of a series of “turnaround trusts” within existing strong trusts. Aping the secretary of state’s model, these would be staffed by specialists who really know how to get to grips with challenged schools in a range of contexts. They would act as specialist units, accounted for separately, in the way that research and development departments are in pharmaceutical or tech companies.

We all know of colleagues who have burnished their credentials by turning around two, three or maybe half a dozen schools. But these turnaround trusts would nurture a whole new breed of professionals for whom their core job would be to rehabilitate schools that have fallen by the wayside, defying those who persist in their belief that nothing will help these schools.

The combination of new funding and new thinking - not to mention the welcome news of £30,000 as a starting salary for teachers, which should help with recruitment - makes for some much-needed optimism in the sector. 

AET itself was in turnaround mode for the past few years and, having come through that and seen what’s possible, we’re excited by what feels like a new era for the sector. 

This type of work is hard. It’s a grinding slog; it’s not always linear. And, given the unrelenting adversity, it’s not for everyone. But, in the final analysis, there is no greater prize.

Julian Drinkall is chief executive of Academies Enterprise Trust