The Schools Bill “will not progress” in the third session of Parliament, education secretary Gillian Keegan told MPs this morning.
The bill was launched in May, covering a range of areas including school attendance, safeguarding and new powers over multi-academy trusts.
Speaking to the Commons Education Select Committee today, Ms Keegan said: “I can confirm that the Schools Bill will not progress in the third session [of Parliament].
A Parliament, the period of parliamentary time between one general election and the next, is divided into year-long sessions, beginning and ending in the spring.
Ms Keegan added: “There’s been a lot of things we’ve had to focus on.
“However, we do remain committed to the objectives and we will be prioritising some aspects of the bill to see what we can do.”
Schools Bill: what does the government want to salvage?
Giving examples of the government’s continued priorities, Ms Keegan said a register to identify and account for children not in schools was “definitely a priority” but did not expand on how this would be legislated for.
Helping more faith schools to join multi-academy trusts will be another “priority area” for the Department for Education, Ms Keegan confirmed.
She acknowledged that the government needed to “remove the barriers for faith schools trying to join multi-academy trusts” but qualified this statement by saying that she “could not completely confirm” it was going to be legislated for.
However, an area not seen as a priority by the secretary of state was new grammar schools.
Some backbench MPs had hoped that an amendment to allow the opening of new grammar schools could be added to the bill.
Asked by the committee if grammar schools were “safe in her hands”, Ms Keegan said that she did not have strong views on the subject, but that she did have a strong view that 93 per cent of children will never get to go to one.
“For 50, 60 years anyone could have put a grammar school anywhere and didn’t,” she said.
“What can we do best to get more children to go to ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ schools? Of course, the main part of that strategy has been the academy system.”
She added: “That is the structure that we think is going to make the biggest difference to the most children the quickest.”
Today’s dropping of the Schools Bill had been revealed by Tes last night.
Since early September the bill has been stuck at the third stage of the House of Lords and no further date was set for its progress to resume.
But issues around the bill and its contents preceded its third Lords reading.
Peers forced the removal of key clauses that would have given the DfE significant powers over how academies operate.
Academy trust leaders are awaiting the outcome of the regulation and commissioning review, due to report back before the end of the month.
‘The Schools Bill won’t be missed’
Since Tes broke the news that the bill was finally being axed late last night, multi-academy trust bosses have given mixed reactions to its demise, but most welcomed the fact that a “piecemeal” piece of legislation was not proceeding.
Hugh Greenway, chief executive of the Elliot Foundation trust, said that while the principles underpinning the bill were sound, the method of delivery caused unnecessary issues.
“The Schools Bill will not be missed. It was an object lesson in the failings of design by committee at excess speed,” he said.
“The government didn’t need more power without the capacity and discretion to use it wisely.”
He added that it was much better to “settle for a period of slow, steady and boring incremental improvement”.
Some leaders were less forgiving. One leader of a large MAT said: “Not only is the Schools Bill dead in the water, it’s had its head bashed in with a rock - thank God!”
Others said the bill’s demise should not distract from the real issues schools are facing. Dan Morrow, chief executive of Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust, said that leaders need to continue focusing on “shielding children and communities from the brutal impact of the cost-of-living crisis”.
He added, however, that today’s announcement felt like a “retrograde step” from which the sector needs to find a way forward.
One key aspect of the bill that schools require clarity on is the target for all schools to be in a strong academy trust by 2030, and how these trusts will be regulated.
Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said if that target remains, the government must “simplify and streamline” the process and find other ways to take it forward.
One path towards solidifying education policy could be regulation over legislation, according to Rob McDonough, chief executive of East Midlands Education Trust.
Regulation, he told Tes, allows for more flexibility, giving the opportunity for “adult conversations” between the sector and government to make policies “more workable and better”.
But despite the demise of the bill removing the air of uncertainty that lingered over it, some are worried about what will emerge in its place.
One CEO of a coastal schools trust told Tes: “It would be nice to think that something more positive will take its place, but sadly one suspects more dispiriting news for trust leaders with a continuation of a disjointed, fractured and piecemeal approach to schools policy-making.”
