The education secretary has defended the line-up of the government’s curriculum review panel in response to criticism at a Labour Party Conference event.

Speaking on a panel at the conference this afternoon, Bridget Phillipson said Professor Becky Francis, the chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation who was chosen to lead the review, has brought together a line-up of “really talented people”.

In response to a question from an audience member who said they felt that the review panel over-represented multi-academy trusts, Ms Phillipson said: “Look, you’ve got to draw the line somewhere.

“You can either have a panel that represents the breadth of the sector, and we have sought to represent the breadth of the sector, but you risk it becoming over-wieldy if you make it too big.”

She added that the plan for the review engaging with the sector and calling for evidence will shortly be set out.

Who will carry out the curriculum review?

The panel for the review of curriculum and assessment involves three people currently working at MATs. In addition, John Laramy is the founding director of The Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust, though now is principal of Exeter College, and Sir Ian Bauckham used to be CEO of The Tenax Schools Trust.

The panel is set to report on its findings in 2025.

The Department for Education was last week urged to review the panel over concerns that three members have links to Oak National Academy, the government’s curriculum resources quango.

• Curriculum review: Who is on the review panel?
• Related: DfE urged to review curriculum panel over Oak links
• Becky Francis: What will the curriculum and assessment review focus on?

Dan Conway, chief executive of the Publishers Association, wrote to the education secretary, saying that these appointments would prevent the review from being “fully independent”.

Ms Phillipson was speaking today at an event at the Labour Party Conference called “A New Deal for Education: Breaking Barriers to Opportunity”.

Representatives from the four main teaching and school leadership unions spoke broadly about the big issues that Labour needs to fix in the education system, focusing in particular on support for special educational needs and disabilities, school funding and the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.

During the event the education secretary was questioned about the curriculum review, which was launched by the newly elected government in July

“There is an issue with having big bang curriculum reviews every so often when you get a new secretary of state,” Ms Phillipson said.

She said that, as part of the review, the government aims to ensure that it can make “smaller change on a more ongoing basis”.

Exam board OCR’s review of the 11-16 curriculum suggests that a body should be set up to review the curriculum on an ongoing basis.

Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said the curriculum review must be done in partnership with the profession.

Earlier in the panel discussion, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said his union is “engaging” with the government on the review.