Academies: Commissioning Guidance

Nick Gibb Excerpts

Thursday 6th July 2023 Written Statements

[The Minister for Schools (Nick Gibb)]

Today my noble Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the School System and Student Finance (Baroness Barran), has made the following statement:

Today, 6 July, the Department for Education has published the guidance document, “Commissioning High-Quality Trusts: How the Department for Education’s Regions Group takes decisions about the creation, consolidation and growth of academy trusts”.

The guidance will improve the consistency and transparency with which the Department works with the sector. It delivers the commitment made in the academies regulatory and commissioning review to publish clearer, consolidated commissioning guidance, along with finalised descriptions of trust quality.

“Commissioning High-Quality Trusts” sets out how the Department for Education’s regions group will take decisions about academy trust creation, consolidation, and growth. The guidance responds directly to calls from the sector, heard through the academies regulatory and commissioning review, for more transparency about how the department commissions trusts, including the evidence that informs decisions. The approach outlined in the guidance makes clear that the department will prioritise the quality of education offered by trusts, whilst also reflecting the priorities and needs of the local area.

The guidance will encourage and support trusts to direct their own self-improvement activity. This supports our objective to grow capacity, capability, and choice across the system so that each school can be matched with the right high-quality trust to support the needs of its pupils and students.

The guidance consolidates existing documents relating to commissioning, so trust and school leaders will be able to understand the Department’s strategic approach to commissioning and the key processes more easily.

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