The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is centralising a lot of decisions that were formerly made by school leader. Whether that is around what uniform they have or what they teach, this is a big shift in power from the headteacher or school leader to the civil servants and politicians in the town hall or London.

Until now free schools and academies have had a number of freedoms which help to make them distinct and allowed them to tailor their education to the local community and pupil circumstances. But this Bill introduces a ‘one size fits all’ approach that threaten educational standards and outcomes.

The Schools Bill is progressing through parliament and there is still time to influence the outcome of this piece of legislation.

Now is the time to act

The Bill is currently going through parliament, where MPs and Lords can table amendments to improve the legislation. At the end of this process a new law will be in place – so the time to act is now.