Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how the Joint Understanding between the Department for Education and the Independent Schools Council is supporting the raising of educational standards in state schools.

The government’s joint understanding with the Independent Schools Council (ISC) encourages more independent schools to work in partnership with state-funded schools across the 4 key areas of: governance, teaching, curriculum and targeted school improvement. These 4 areas have been identified as key to raising standards across the education system. The department is supporting the growth of partnerships across these 4 areas through a dedicated unit.

The 2019 ISC census shows that there are 1,142 ISC schools in the UK involved in partnerships with state schools - equating to 84% of ISC schools. Those schools reported 11,466 separate partnerships, compared with 10,553 before the joint understanding was agreed in 2018.

The department welcomes a reported shift in the census towards higher impact activities, such as staff secondments, mixed lessons, and other academically-significant endeavours, as well as an increase in members of independent school staff serving as governors of state schools. These trends are to be welcomed for their ability to raise educational standards across the system.

Consistent with the joint understanding, the department is now calling for bids for its cross-sector partnerships grant. The grant aims to raise the ambition for what schools can achieve together, and to remove a key financial barrier to new high-impact, sustainable, and mutually beneficial partnerships forming. It is designed to attract bids from both new partnerships that may benefit from seed funding, as well as existing partnerships looking to deepen and expand their collaborations.