There is a “sizeable reality gap” between the Government’s policy intentions and progress on opening new school-based nurseries, according to a recent report by the Sutton Trust and the Social Market Foundation.
The new Ofsted inspection framework unfairly penalises schools serving deprived populations or with high levels of special needs (SEND) inclusion, according to analysis undertaken by the National Association of Head Teachers.
School Standards Minister Georgia Gould OBE attended the LGA’s Councillors’ Forum in January, to talk about special educational needs and disabilities provision.
The LGA’s lobbying has secured significant changes to draft legislation.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, introduced to Parliament in December, includes plans for new registers to identify children who are not in school – something for which the LGA has lobbied for years.
Schools that stay with their council have continued to outperform those that converted to academies, research commissioned by the LGA has revealed.
The LGA has reiterated calls for councils to be given powers to ensure that children who are missing school don’t slip through the net.
Council-maintained schools are outperforming academies, new research for the LGA reveals.
Councils will be given powers to set up their own multi-academy trusts, following many years of campaigning by the LGA.
