In a Written Ministerial Statement made yesterday, 27 October 2016, the Secretary of State for Education confirmed that the Education Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech (with the aim of introducing forced academy conversions for all schools), had been abandoned.
The Secretary of State confirmed that:
“Our ambition remains that all schools should benefit from the freedom and autonomy that academy status brings. our focus, however, is on building capacity in the system and encouraging schools to convert voluntarily. no changes to legislation are required for these purposes and therefore we do not require wider education legislation in this session to make progress on our ambitious education agenda”.
The Department for Education currently has three Bills before Parliament – the Children and Social Work Bill (as to which, see my post on the 11KBW Community Care blog), the Higher Education and Research Bill and the Technical and Further Education Bill (introduced on 27 October). The Schools that Work for Everyone consultation (proposing more grammar school places) remains ongoing. It is due to end in mid-December, with a White Paper to follow.