Do DfE white paper proposals move England towards blanket academisation, or not? What an almighty mess

Government seems curiously reluctant to talk about “academy trusts,” preferring the less specific term “school trusts”. Which makes it unclear what its intentions are.

Most media discussion of yesterday’s education white paper is focusing on its reform of special educational needs. And rightly so, given that this is the main point of the document, and a subject of huge importance to many people, including my own family.

However, of especial interest to Education Uncovered is the section of this document which has not received overwhelming coverage so far, and yet which has far-reaching implications for aspects of policymaking which are constantly under scrutiny by this website.

I am talking, of course, about the section which appears to be about the academies policy – though the a-word seems remarkably – and confusingly – absent from much of what it says.

These are early days, as we seek to digest the full implications of this far-reaching document, whose title is “Every Child Achieving and Thriving”, and with some details seemingly left for further setting-out in future papers.

But, from my initial attempt to understand what is set out here, the section on a greater role for “school trusts” appears to be a dog’s breakfast – a complete mess, beset by vagueness even over basic terminology.

The problems: