Responding to proposals planned in the Government's Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which will be introduced in the House of Commons today, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“The focus on strengthening safeguarding arrangements for children and young people is welcome.

“NAHT has long called for a register of pupils who are not in school and it is very positive to see that this important safeguarding measure is finally being taken after years of delay.

“More broadly, this Bill represents an important set of sensible proposals, and it is good to see the government giving a sense of direction when it comes to school policy

“It includes a helpful attempt to start to address a school system that has become overly fragmented and unnecessarily divided. At the heart of the Bill appears to be the welcome message that a school is a school, regardless of its governance structure. School leaders in academies and maintained schools alike share the same goals and aspirations for the children in their care and are wrestling with the same challenges.

“We support moves to ensure there is greater consistency between different types of school and to bring greater alignment to the system. We have long argued that the national curriculum should apply to all schools and that every pupil should be taught by a qualified teacher – and we believe this will be welcomed by parents too. NAHT’s evidence to the School Teachers Review Body again calls for a reformed national pay structure with mandatory minimum pay points and pay portability, so greater consistency in pay and conditions between different types of schools is a helpful step forward and is an important pre-requisite for beginning to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis.

“The decision to give the Secretary of State greater discretion on how best to support schools identified as ‘causing concern’ makes sense. While for some, academisation could be the right route, that is not always the case and this move should allow more informed decisions to be made on a case by case basis”.