Revealed: education organisations and individuals with the most frequently-used inside track to ministers

The most well-connected organisation working in schools policy, in terms of meetings with ministers, is Teach First, according to exclusive analysis of a public database by this website.

The charity, which has had very good links with both Conservative-led governments and their New Labour predecessors, has racked up 37 exclusive meetings with ministers since 2012, the database, providing information across government, shows.

This finding comes in the week that Teach First was revealed as the winner of a £113 million government contract to continue its work for another six and a half years, although closer analysis of the meetings database suggests its interactions with ministers have reduced in recent years.

Second on the list of access was the National Association of Head Teachers, on 31 meetings, with the New Schools Network – the free schools support and lobby group part-funded by the government – on 27.

My analysis of the meetings information, based on a publicly-accessible database provided by the organisation Transparency International, reveals, perhaps unsurprisingly, that teacher unions have featured relatively infrequently in discussions with ministers.