The charity that has supported the government’s flagship free school programme for more than a decade is to close down after it missed out on a Department for Education (DfE) contract to continue this work.
The board of trustees for New Schools Network (NSN) announced today that it was winding down its operations.
NSN had bid for a £1.5 million three-year contract to provide free-school support but it was instead awarded to the Premier Advisory Group.
It had also delivered the Academy Ambassadors programme since 2013, which the NSN said has resulted “in over 2,000 non-executive directors, trustee and member matches to academy trust boards”.
It was recently selected as the preferred bidder to deliver the Academy Ambassadors programme in the coming years.
However, NSN has now withdrawn from the bidding process and has said that the DfE will now be reviewing this programme.
NSN was set up in 2009 by Rachel Wolf, a former adviser to Michael Gove, and has been receiving public funding to support the opening of free schools since Mr Gove introduced the policy as education secretary at the start of the last decade.
In a statement today, the organisation said it had “supported the creation of 610 schools which otherwise wouldn’t exist, as well over 200 that are still in the pipeline”.
It added: “During that time, NSN has supported every wave of the free schools programme, working with hundreds of groups wanting to set up free schools. There is now a thriving free schools community right across the country, which brings innovation and academic excellence to the system.”
David Ross, chair of NSN, said: “NSN has played a central role in education reform for the last 12 years and this has not been an easy decision.
“But we are proud of the role we have played over the years and the legacy we leave - both in terms of supporting free schools that have raised the bar in standards, and improved education forever, and by changing the face of academy governance through the Academy Ambassadors programme, working in particular to support some of the highest-need trusts.
“NSN has been a pioneering force for good, improving standards for hundreds of thousands of pupils and creating strong bonds between schools, staff, parents and those outside education.”
