When it was launched earlier this year, the Schools Bill was hailed by government as being central to its ambition to spread opportunity and level up the country.
And for many in the sector, it was seen as a key in moving towards an entirely academy trust-led school system.
But despite the government championing the importance of multi-academy trusts, the legislation lost the support of many in the sector almost as soon as it was published.
This was because of concerns that its plans to regulate MATs through new academy trust standards represented a government power grab over the day-to-day running of MATs’ schools.
As a result, the bill was gutted and then paused - and it now appears to have run out of time altogether.
As Tes revealed on Tuesday evening, education secretary Gillian Keegan announced the following day that the bill will not be going ahead in the third session of Parliament as had been planned.
A similar announcement had been expected during the Liz Truss government a month or so earlier.
And it is perhaps a sign of the recent political times that, although the Schools Bill only existed for just over half a year, there were five different education secretaries responsible for it before it was finally dropped.
But where does this leave the sector, and what are the government’s most immediate education priorities?
When she announced that it was not being taken forward, the education secretary told MPs that the government was nonetheless committed to its objectives and would be “prioritising some aspects of the bill to see what we can do”.
The bill, which launched in May, covered a range of policy areas including school attendance, safeguarding and - perhaps most significantly - plans for a new system of oversight for the DfE to regulate multi-academy trusts.
Which parts of the bill could be covered in new legislation?
Ms Keegan told the Commons Education Select Committee that a proposal in the bill to create a register to identify and account for children not in schools was “definitely a priority”.
MPs were also told that helping more faith schools to join multi-academy trusts will be another “priority area” for the department as it looks at new legislation.
Tes understands that the government also still wants to introduce safeguarding legislation on several other areas that were going to be covered by the Schools Bill.
As well as the register for pupils not in school, the DfE also wants to progress plans to crack down on illegal schools, strengthen the regulation of private schools and expand the scope of teacher misconduct rules.
It is understood that the DfE would pursue these policy areas when the legislative timetable allows them to. But there have been no firm commitments.
The Schools Bill had set out proposals in each of these areas. On unregistered schools, it planned to strengthen the powers available to inspectors.
This would have permitted Ofsted inspectors to act in “a more intrusive fashion” during an inspection of a suspected unregistered independent school and during inspections of registered schools believed to be acting unlawfully.
On the regulation of independent schools, the DfE had planned to create new powers to suspend the registration of private schools where serious safeguarding failings posed a risk of harm to students.
It also wanted the education secretary to be able to intervene more effectively by making it a criminal offence for the proprietor of a school for it to continue operating while its registration was suspended.
The bill had also set out plans to broaden the current teacher misconduct regime to investigate cases where people have committed alleged misconduct when not employed as a teacher, but who have at any time carried out teaching work.
It remains to be seen how much of this is revisited in any new legislation before the next general election but these are the areas seen as most likely to be pursued.
What will happen with plans to regulate MATs?
At the heart of the Schools Bill was the plan to create a new system of regulation and oversight for MATs.
In June, the government was forced to withdraw large sections of the bill that focused on academy standards and regulation.
This was after concerns were raised by peers and MAT leaders about the scope of the bill to give Whitehall greater power over how academies operate.
A regulatory and commissioning review was then set up to look at both the standards trusts should be held to and the thresholds the government should use its powers to intervene in cases of underperformance.
This review is now considering what the DfE can achieve in introducing MAT standards through the use of both legislative and non-legislative routes and is expected to produce recommendations in the new year.
Leora Cruddas, the chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, who is on the review group, said: ”The prize in our view is to work towards a single regulatory approach unerpinned by a regulatory strategy.
“The DfE’s regulatory and commissioning review is turning its attention now to how we define a strong trust.
“It is very important that this work does not pin down the definition so that trusts have no room to give creative and innovative expression to what it means to be a strong trust so they can provide the very best education to children and young people.”
Does the 2030 MAT target still stand?
The CST has said it understands that the DfE remains fully focused on ensuring all schools can benefit from the support of a trust.
And the DfE is understood to now be considering how it can ensure that more schools are able to join “high-quality” MATs.
But there have been calls for the department to set out its position in light of the Schools Bill being withdrawn. The Schools Bill was seen as necessary to support the ambition of the earlier Schools White Paper for all state schools to be in or moving to a MAT by 2030.
Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “I think what the sector needs now is some clarity about what the government’s thinking is.
“There are some leaders in the sector who will have responded to the government’s 2030 plans for all schools to be in trusts and others who will think that there are two general elections between now and 2030. The sector needs clarity on what the government’s aims are now.”
Ms McCulloch said she expected there to be a growing recognition that this 2030 MAT target will be very difficult to achieve.
What policies could be dropped without new legislation?
There are a number of policy areas in which government plans needed the Schools Bill legislation.
The department was proposing to give councils the power to be able to apply for an academy order for maintained schools in their area.
This would need the support of trustees if the school was foundation or voluntary aided but could be done without the governing body support of maintained community schools.
The department was also planning to require schools to have a published attendance policy.
The government said when the bill was published that these expectations would apply on a non-statutory basis from the beginning of the current academic year in September “to give schools time to implement them before legislation requires it” from September 2023.
This attendance guidance now looks like it will remain as non-statutory advice.
What can the DfE still do without the Schools Bill?
The regulatory and commissioning review is already looking at what the DfE can do to create a system of academy trust standards without needing legislation.
Another major move the DfE has made to move more schools into MATs, which does not rely on the Schools Bill, is creating new powers to intervene when schools receive consecutive “requires improvement” judgements from Ofsted.
Previously, it could only intervene and issue an academy order when a school was rated as “inadequate”.
Now it can do so when a school receives two consecutive judgements of less than “good”.
Academy trust leaders have voiced concerns that the DfE is able to use the judgement of predecessor schools as part of that process and warned that this could deter some trusts from taking on schools.
The government is also said to remain committed to its 2030 attainment targets which were contained in the Levelling Up and Schools White Papers earlier this year.
This was for 90 per cent of pupils to be meeting the expected standards in reading, writing and maths at the end of primary school by 2030, up from 65 per cent in 2019 and for the average maths and English GCSE grades to increase from 4.5 in 2019 to a 5 by 2030.
Nick Gibb’s return as schools minister means nobody in the sector will expect the department’s focus on this to soften.
Ms Keegan may have told MPs that the government’s objectives have not changed but heads will be watching the department closely in the weeks ahead as a result of the government’s flagship legislation being shelved to see whether the priorities of an education secretary some five reshuffles ago remain the priority of the department today.
