Free Schools and Academies

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

That this House takes note of the achievements of free schools and academies.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

My Lords, I am delighted to open today’s debate on the achievements of academies and free schools. We know that a high-quality education system creates opportunity for all and gives every child the best chance to realise their potential, whatever their background. When we get it right, education helps young people develop the knowledge, character and resilience to succeed, no matter what life throws at them. Before I begin my remarks, I remind noble Lords that I was director of New Schools Network, a charity that was dedicated to supporting groups who wanted to set up free schools, a job of which I remain immensely proud.

I want to make clear that the focus on academies and free schools in this debate is not to ignore or undervalue the thousands of excellent maintained schools that do an outstanding job for their pupils. However, in the form of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, there is a dark cloud on the horizon for academies and free schools, hence this debate is an opportunity to remind ourselves of the positive progress made over the past 25 years and the role they have played in that success.

We have seen welcome improvements in our educational outcomes. Between 2009 and 2022, England went from 21st to seventh in the PISA league tables for maths, from 19th to ninth for reading and from 11th to ninth for science. Across the country, 90% of schools are now rated good or outstanding, compared with 68% in 2010, meaning that over 1 million more pupils are being educated in such schools. In the same period, the number of academies in England increased from 202 schools to 10,640. Reading is the building block of all learning and, thanks to the focus on synthetic phonics championed by Sir Nick Gibb, England now has the best primary school readers in the western world, with PIRLS league tables for reading rating England as the top country.

Of course, we must not be complacent. There remain significant challenges that must be addressed: closing the attainment gap for pupils on free school meals, which had narrowed before Covid; improving attendance; ensuring that SEND pupils get the quality of education they deserve; and dealing with the growing mental health crisis facing our young people, to name just a few. I recognise that not all academies, trusts or free schools have been a success or delivered the high quality of education that we would expect, so it remains imperative for us to continue to interrogate the reasons behind failures and variations in performance and ensure that we act on the lessons they teach us.

That should not diminish our pride in the improvements that have taken place thanks to the hard work of teachers, support staff, pupils and governors. Much of that success has been achieved thanks to the cross-party consensus that we have seen around education over the past 25 years, placing value on the freedom and autonomy of school leaders and teachers so that, as Tony Blair said, the school is in charge of its own destiny—counterbalanced with strong accountability and acting on evidence of what success looks like. Many of these systemic improvements have been driven by the academies programme, which has had cross-party support since it was started in 2000 by the then Labour Government, and which itself built on the city technology colleges introduced in the 1980s.

In their first phase, academies provided a catalyst for new thinking within the system, bringing in external sponsors to take over failing schools. These sponsors came from a wide range of backgrounds and provided teachers with new opportunities to develop educational strategies to raise standards. Indeed, several of my noble friends speaking today are exemplars of the passionate individuals who took advantage of this opportunity to involve themselves directly in improving the life chances of some of our most disadvantaged young people.

The coalition Government’s Academies Act 2010 expanded academy status through the system, allowing more schools to benefit from the freedoms they enjoyed and to have the flexibilities to innovate, raise standards and achieve improved outcomes for their students. The diversity in provision in the school system—led by academies, free schools and UTCs, which I am sure my noble friend Lord Baker will talk more about shortly—has enabled a level of innovation and improvement that was simply not possible under the previous local authority-controlled approach.

Led by forward-thinking heads, entrepreneurial teachers have had greater freedom and opportunity to put into practice their ideas about how to best address the specific needs of their pupils, and we can see the impact that this can have. Between 2018 and 2023, the number of maintained schools rated good or outstanding increased by 4%, whereas the equivalent rating for sponsored academies—those required to academise due to poor performance—saw a 14% improvement.

Additionally, the academisation of education has helped to improve resilience across the system, with increasing numbers of trusts around the country allowing groups of schools to work together in deep and purposeful collaboration. Multi-academy trusts such as Ark, Harris, Star Academies, Mercia Learning Trust and Dixons Academies Trust have all been instrumental in helping turn around underperforming schools through strong leadership, sharing expertise and resources, as well as taking advantage of the free school programme to set up entirely new provision in areas of need and disadvantage.

I would argue that this has led to the positive development of increased collaboration across the entire education system. The latest Confederation of School Trusts national survey indicates that 72% of academy trusts support maintained schools. The free school programme has allowed the independent and state sectors to come together to open outstanding new provision, while the UTC model has embedded employers at the very heart of technical education.

From 2010, the free school programme built further on the original success of academies. The setting up of these new schools aimed to increase choice, improve standards and, in particular, foster innovation. The programme empowered communities, teachers, academy trusts, social entrepreneurs and others to open new state schools and led to the establishment of schools which dared to think the unthinkable. Representing a huge variety of educational philosophies, curriculum approaches, faiths and communities, free schools have, I believe, helped demonstrate the value of having a genuinely diverse and autonomous school system. New schools such as XP School, Marine Academy, Reach Academy Feltham, King’s Leadership Academy and Michaela, all set up under the programme, have injected a new dynamism into the school system, offering innovative ways of delivering a high-quality education—often to some of the most disadvantaged young people in England.

Not only has the free school programme seen new mainstream schools open but new special education and alternative provision schools have added capacity and expertise to the system to help some of our most vulnerable young people. Crucially, free schools have provided parents with greater choice, which in turn has helped raise standards across the system. It is incredible to think that, in a country in which setting up, let alone building, anything new is nearly impossible, over 700 free schools have opened since 2010, creating over 373,000 new school places.

The impact of these schools has outweighed their number. They are more likely to be based in areas of deprivation and where low standards had become entrenched. At their best, free schools have not only made a significant difference to their own pupils’ education but have had an impact far beyond this, helping to raise standards and aspirations across their whole area. The London Academy of Excellence in Newham, for instance, has had a significant impact on the performance of competing sixth forms to the benefit of all local young people.

Today, 25% of free schools are rated as outstanding—the highest type of any state school—and they now outperform other types of state-funded schools at every stage of education. Regrettably, there is some uncertainty over the future of the programme, as the Education Secretary is reviewing approvals previously given to 44 free schools to open. Can the Minister give an update as to when a decision on their fate might be made, to help end this damaging uncertainty currently facing parents and teachers?

This is just a brief overview of the positive change we have seen across our education system over the last quarter of a century. As we look to the future and build on the tangible improvements we have seen in our education system, we should be looking at how all schools can benefit from the freedoms and flexibilities that have been reserved for academies, free schools and UTCs, not take them away. I must admit I am finding it quite depressing to hear of the concern felt across the education sector by those who have been involved in helping to achieve these successes but who are now asking why the foundations of those improvements are being threatened.

What is the problem that the Government are seeking to resolve through the powers in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which removes the very freedoms that have helped schools improve, tackled underperformance and given more children a better chance of a good education? It is incumbent on all of us to look at the evidence and focus policy on strengthening, not weakening, our school system. This includes learning lessons from where academies and free schools have not performed, to ensure that we can continue to drive improvements and best practice across the system.

I hope the Minister reflects on what I am sure will be outstanding contributions to today’s debate and goes back to her departmental colleagues with a renewed purpose to build on the successes of academies, free schools and UTCs, not unpick their foundations.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her closing comments and all noble Lords who have contributed today. It has been a really good debate. There has been a clear passion across all Benches. We are violently agreeing that we want every young person to have the best possible education that they can and to have access to high quality education. We all agree that there is absolutely no room for complacency whatsoever and that we must always be looking to improve and to take our education system forward.

Today is the first time we have been able to have a conversation since the introduction of the Bill, the contents of which, as the Minister has heard, have taken many by surprise. We have been able to air some issues and real concerns. We will go into much more detail as we start to talk about the Bill, which might undermine some of the things that she has talked about and which we all clearly agree with across the House.

I point again to the experience of the speakers. The noble Lord, Lord Hampton, is a teacher and we heard from people who have set up chains, such as my noble friends Lord Harris, Lord Agnew and Lord Nash. We heard from a governor, my noble friend Lord Young; the ex-Ministers my noble friends Lady Barran and Lady Berridge; and a previous inspector, my noble friend Lady Shephard. We all want the same thing; we all want to deliver a better education. There are just some concerns that we would like to discuss further with the Minister as we go through the Bill. But I thank all noble Lords for giving their time on a Thursday for what I think has been a largely uplifting and great debate in which we heard the passion that we all have to improve young people’s lives. I thank everyone once again.

Motion agreed.