The Church of England has warned that “repeated systemic cuts” to other public services have turned schools into “society’s backstop” supporting basic needs, including providing food to the hungry.
The warnings come in a new report, which calls on the government to make a “courageous” decision to changes to teacher workload, pay, conditions and accountability to ensure that people can commit to the profession long term.
It also urges that the government needs to provide funding solutions for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and mental health services, and to work with school leaders on a “wise reimagination” of inspection and school league tables.
The report, Our Hope for a Flourishing Schools System, makes a series of recommendations for school, church and government leaders.
It calls on ministers to prioritise the individual needs of the most vulnerable pupils through “a once-in-a-generation reimagination of SEND funding, provision, training and development”.
Other key recommendations include enabling “local, regional and national services for mental health support for children in education to flourish through secure long-term funding, incisive research and effective service coordination and collaboration”.
It says that the government can reduce anxiety in the system by “empowering school leaders through creating structures and processes which release genuine professional autonomy, trust, agency and support”.
And it says ministers need to “make the courageous systemic changes required to workload, pay, conditions and accountability to ensure that teaching is again regarded as a vocation in which adults can truly flourish and to which they choose to commit for the long term”.
The report says that “flourishing schools take courageous decisions to prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable through ambitious and expansive visions for SEND and alternative provision”.
However, it warns that “repeated systemic cuts to a wide range of public services have often left schools acting as the backstop of society, supporting the provision of the most basic needs (frequently now including food for the hungry), and the attempted replacement of social work, counselling, educational psychology and a range of other key requirements of a flourishing system”.
Writing for Tes, the Church of England’s chief education officer, Nigel Genders, said: ”Our language of hope is not merely wishful thinking or an optimistic outlook.
“Rather, Christian hope in uncertain times offers a realistic evaluation of the present and energises us towards a future that does not yet exist.
“This new document offers intentional and transformational hope for a resilient school system fully focused on the flourishing of children and adults.
“The sector faces many challenges, and much needs to be done to ensure that there is a flourishing school within reach of every child, where each child is equipped, resourced and empowered to see their future through eyes of hope.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Every child deserves to have access to education that meets their needs. Our recent Improvement Plan will reform the support system for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, prioritising earlier intervention and creating consistent high standards across the country.
“We are also putting significant investment into the high needs budget, worth £10.1bn by 2023-24, which is 50 per cent more than four years ago.”
Other recommendations in the report for government leaders include:
- Developing broader curriculum models to balance academic, technical and vocational pathways to enable children to develop as global citizens, who understand the role of religious literacy.
- To extend the “golden thread of professional development from initial teacher training/Early Career Framework/National Professional Qualifications” to include evidence-informed, funded pathways for support staff.
- To invest proactively in the development of the next generation of school trusts through multi-academy trust chief executives and senior trust team development programmes and professional networks.
- To co-develop wise, pragmatic and well-funded partnership solutions with Diocesan Boards of Education, which enable the long-term flourishing of small or geographically isolated schools.
- To ensure “the educational partnership between church and state, at national, regional and local level, enables the ongoing flourishing of church schools for coming generations”.
