Summer 2026 Update

EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE    –   Summer 2026 

The last term of this academic year, let’s see what’s in store.

1.The Schools White Paper landed in March – ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ set out the government’s long term ambitions to improve outcomes for all children. Changes and targets will roll out in stages following consultation, but headlines include:

• Changes to national targets to ensure every child is encouraged to achieve their potential
• Reforms to boost teacher recruitment and retention, including improving maternity pay
• Support for disadvantaged pupils, consultation on new model to target funding
• The pupil premium strategy statement to be redesigned
• Expectation that all schools will join or form a high-quality multi academy trust (MAT), with local authorities also able to establish trusts
• New set of trust standards to be developed
• Parental collaboration and engagement promoted
• Consultation on academy trusts having local governance structures for all their schools
• New digital solution to be developed for handling complaints along with new guidance
• High expectations for behaviour
• Enrichment entitlement for all children
• All schools to monitor pupil belonging by 2029.

Boards to consider: How can your board evidence that every child is encouraged to achieve and that enrichment activities are available to all children?  Will a member of your board be attending the DAG May conference on enrichment? See last page for details.

2. SEND Reform: Plans to reform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system were published at the same time as the White Paper and are part of a live consultation until the middle of May. Again, changes and targets will roll out in stages following consultation with the sector, headlines include:

• All schools to receive additional funds to support targeted and small group interventions for children with additional needs in addition to existing core SEND funding
• Schools will be able draw on a multi-agency support offer overseen by local authorities, bringing together specialists from speech and language, educational psychology and occupational health
• All schools expected to be part of a local SEND partnership group within three years
• An evidence-based digital library of resources to guide schools on meeting the needs of children by 2028
• Schools will be required to publish an inclusion strategy to explain how resources are deployed to benefit children with SEND to replace the current SEN Information Reports
• Education, health and care plans (EHCPs) to be reserved for only the most complex cases
• Individual Support Plans (ISPs) for all children with additional needs developed by schools and created in collaboration with parents.

All existing duties and rights of pupils with SEND will remain in place until new legislation begins. Full details on the proposed changes to the SEND system can be found in the government’s open consultation: SEND reform: putting children and young people first. In the next academic year the national SEND training programme will begin for all staff, Best Start Family Hubs will be rolled out nationally and draft Specialist Provision Packages will be published in Autumn 2026.

DCC Funding: The government has confirmed that it will “resolve 90%” of the amount of deficits accrued by local authorities on High Needs until the end of March. With nearly £200m of debt owed by Devon County Council due to be written off.

Devon County Council (DCC) have announced that Jack Newton, Deputy Director and Head of Inclusion & Learning is leaving. No indication yet as to who will replace him.

Inclusion: Inclusion is being championed as a way of ensuring as many SEND pupils as possible remain in mainstream schools. In Devon, Inclusion and Learning Partners are now working with schools as part of the Inclusion strategy for Devon.

The 0.5% block transfer: The Secretary of State has approved the 0.5% transfer from the Devon Schools Block to the High Needs Block for 2026/27. Whist this transfer was voted against at the Devon Education Forum, the Department for Education (DfE) has now officially overridden the decision taken locally. Devon County Council (DCC) believe that this transfer is vital to protect their High Needs financial strategy, which remains under significant strain.

Would you like to be involved in the work of the Devon Education Forum (DEF) and be part of the discussions around funding for all of the schools in Devon?  If you might be interested in joining DEF, then please contact [email protected] for more details.

Boards to consider: Does our school have a well-trained SENCo, with sufficient hours to effectively carry out the role? How do you know?  Does your SEND governor regularly meet with the SEND team and report back to the board? Have you seen the DAG Busy Governance Guide to SEND?

3.Ofsted is now inspecting schools against its new framework and DAG will be arranging an online Ofsted seminar for members, details to follow. New legislation will be coming to enable Ofsted to inspect multi academy trusts, rather than just individual schools, these inspections would not start before the 2027/28 academic year.

4.The curriculum and assessment review final report was published in November 2025 and will lead to a national curriculum rewrite likely to be published in Spring 2027, with the new curriculum being taught September 2028.

5.RISE, Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams are in place. The aim is to break the link between young people’s backgrounds and their future success. Over 60 RISE  advisers (educational experts with direct experience of improving schools) work at 2 levels:

• Universal support to help all schools improve
• Targeted interventions for eligible schools.

For school improvement targeted interventions,  RISE  advisers engage with the eligible school and its responsible body to agree an improvement plan. Improvement is expected over 12 to 24 months and is monitored by regular Ofsted inspections. The four priorities for the South West are improving English and maths attainment, the quality of reception education, attendance and inclusion. Rise advisers have been appointed in Devon with local schools now part of the scheme see the regional guidance for the South West for information about what is on offer.

Boards to consider: Does our board ensure governors/trustees stay up to date? How does it do this and how can it demonstrate that it is happening?

6.Attendance as a priority: The government is being urged to show greater “ambition” to restore school absence to pre‑pandemic levels following its White Paper pledge to boost attendance rates. The target of over 94 per cent attendance by 2028-29 would still be below pre-Covid levels, when it was regularly above 95 per cent. Last year saw the biggest improvement in overall attendance in a decade, but with 1 in 3 schools failing to improve, the DfE has set out a roadmap for every school to increase its efforts to support pupils back to class. Every school has been issued with AI-powered minimum attendance improvement targets for the rest of this academic year. The attendance baseline improvement expectation (ABIE) is based on schools’ circumstances, including location, pupil needs and deprivation. The targets will not be published or shared with Ofsted, but schools that fail to meet the new attendance expectations will be referred for support to RISE teams (see above, noting South West priorities).

By school type, the absence rates across the 2025/26 academic year so far were:

• 18% in state-funded primary schools (3.80% authorised and 1.38% unauthorised)
• 17% in state-funded secondary schools (5.16% authorised and 3.02% unauthorised)
• 97% in state-funded special schools (9.54% authorised and 3.42% unauthorised)

As ‘Working together to improve school attendance is statutory, governors/trustees need to engage with their responsibilities around this educational priority, so see the DfE School Attendance Guidance Training Webinar, Effective governance that supports stronger attendance. and DAG Busy Governance Guide to Attendance for more information.

Boards to consider: How does attendance in your school(s) compare with national data?  How do you know? Has your board undertaken the DfE Attendance Training?

7.Staffing

Teachers pay: The School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) has been asked to make recommendations on pay for the next three years including directed time allowance. In its annual school costs technical note, published last month the DfE forecasts schools will be able to afford an overall pay increase of just 2.7 per cent over the next two years, so schools will therefore need to realise and sustain better value from existing spending as the treasury has stated that no additional funding will be provided beyond existing settlements. The STRB is likely to recommend something above the 6.5 per cent DfE suggestion, but well short of the pay restoration unions are calling for, so industrial action may be back on the cards.

Employment Rights Bill: Designed to deliver stronger protections for workers, it will:

• Reduce qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims and remove statutory cap on unfair dismissal compensation
• Extend rights for those on zero-hours or highly variable contracts
• Provide day-one rights and strengthen leave entitlements
• Require employers to be under a stronger duty to prevent harassment in the workplace
• Clarify Flexible working rights.

There is a phased roll-out, with reforms being introduced gradually across 2026/27. Day-one rights for certain leaves and statutory sick-pay reforms comes into effect now, see this factsheet.

Employers’ national insurance contributions: The grant to cover the increase will only cover the current academic year and be rolled into mainstream funding for 26/27.

8.Pupil Premium

Auto Enrolment: This process in Devon has Identified many pupils who were entitled to FSM but were not previously receiving it and secured millions of pounds in additional pupil premium funding. The move to auto enrolment is in large part thanks to the tireless campaigning of Alex Walmsley, Devon Association of Governance (DAG) Board Member and Devon Education Forum (DEF) Vice Chair. His tenacious approach ensured that Devon County Council investigated and then implemented the scheme.

Income Data: Ministers are reviewing how pupil premium should be allocated, this could mean that income data rather than free school meal claims is used to identify where the funding goes, the latest innovation, parent pupil matched data (PPMD) is being developed, but not sufficiently well developed to be launched. The government plans to run a consultation on a new system this summer. Meanwhile, the existing FSM scheme will be expanded with families receiving Universal Credit able to access free school meals from the 2026/27 school year.

9.Maximising value for pupils: A suite of guidance for schools on how to maximise value. The programme supports schools and trusts to allocate resources effectively across 4 pillars, with current initiatives, plans and tools to secure better deals, optimise budgets and reinvest savings.

• Commercial – Achieving better value when buying
• Assets – Maximising school and trust resources: managing financial and physical assets
• Workforce Support – Strategic workforce planning for schools and trusts
• Developing capability, including digital and commercial – Improve your schools and trust’s digital and financial planning.

School Uniform guidance (draft) urges schools to take action before parents purchase school uniform this summer, with most sales take place just before the start of the academic year.

10.New food standards have been developed alongside nutritionists and public health experts and will apply to all breakfasts and lunches served by schools. The government has launched a nine‑week consultation on healthier options with parents and children, alongside a new national enforcement mechanism to monitor the new standards and ensure they are applied consistently.

11.Parental engagement and complaints: Recent polling of 5,400 teachers conducted with TeacherTapp found 93% of teachers have received no training in handling parent complaints and 83% of schools have no staff member with specific responsibility for parent engagement.

Following a considerable rise in parental complaints to schools, the white paper indicated that the government plans to design minimum expectations on parental engagement to make it clear what families can expect from schools and what schools will expect of families. With regards to complaints, complaints guidance was published last term to encourage calmer, more constructive dialogue between parents and schools. The guidance from Parentkind developed in collaboration with the DfE, Ofsted and the National Governance Association (NGA), is in response to growing concerns about escalating disputes and abuse directed at school staff.

Ofsted have also released a blog discussing how they deal with complaints from parents about schools. They regularly see examples of parents not fully following the school’s complaints process or bypassing the school entirely, when a parent goes to Ofsted directly, they are encouraged to approach the school first.

12.Increased Government funding for…

The Breakfast Clubs scheme starts its Phase 1 National roll out of free breakfast clubs from April 2026. An £80 million investment, for 2,000 new schools to join the 750 schools already in the pilot delivering free breakfast clubs.

Nurseries: £45 million allocated for new or expanded nurseries. The second phase of the government’s project to turn empty classrooms into nurseries has closed, with phase three of the programme aimed at local authorities to develop multi-year funding proposals for a “locally led model” from 2027 to 2030. See also ‘Getting children ready for reception’ a strong practice document supporting schools and early years settings (including PVI providers and childminders) to strengthen their approach to transition into reception.

Libraries: Funding of £5 million for state secondary schools to buy new books, roughly £1,400 per school, in addition to the pledge of £10 million to provide every primary school in England with a library by 2029.

Boards to consider: Does our school have well trained finance governors/trustees and does the board provide full accountability for the funding it receives as evidenced by up to date statements on the school website?

 13.Support for your Board:

Effective Governance Resources. The DfE published support for maintained school governing bodies, academy trust boards, leaders, governance professionals and clerks.

• Working with governance professionals (clerks)
• Governing strategically in your school or academy trust
• Producing effective board reports for strong governance
• Creating an effective and agile governance structure
• Recruiting governors and academy trustees.

This differs from the maintained schools governance guide and academy trust governance guide, updated this academic year which focus on compliance and regulatory responsibilities.

How are you doing? This could be a time for boards to consider undertaking some form of self-evaluation, a formal appraisal process, or at its simplest a 10 minute chat with the chair when each governor/trustee is asked from their perspective how they feel the board is doing, what is done well, what could be better and what support does each individual governor need to be the best they can. This type of appraisal could provide vital insight as to what the board will look like going into the next academic year and what support will be needed to deliver good governance.

Boards to consider: Do we have an understanding of continuity of responsibilities within the board to ensure governance is effective going into the next academic year?

 14.Be aware…

Last year, the DfE published its Restrictive interventions, including use of reasonable force, in schools guidance to clarify how schools use rarer interventions like restraint. Effective this month.

Environmental Sustainability: The DfE are clear that senior decision makers, and governors should support and drive school sustainable activity. Sustainability leadership and climate action plans in education guidance has been updated and states that a nominated sustainability lead and climate action plan should be in place. Whilst this guidance is non-statutory, the DfE Estate Management Standards now include these requirements. Need some help with this area?  Have a look at the DAG Busy Governance Guide to Environment Sustainability for help.

Relationships, sex and health education guidance: The DfE updated relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education guidance last year. The guidance is to support schools in addressing misogyny and incel culture, violence against women and girls and related factors. For the first time, secondary school pupils will be taught topics such as how online content can impact a person’s understanding of sexual ethics and behaviour, staying safe in public spaces and positive concepts of femininity and masculinity. The guidance is statutory from September 2026.

Violence against women and girls strategy: This whole government initiative ‘Freedom from violence and abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls’ is the first step in an approach to addressing violence against women and girls (VAWG). Under the £20 million package, teachers and families will be empowered to address harmful attitudes and behaviours head on, with young people taught to identify positive role models and challenge unhealthy myths about women and relationships. Three new pilot programmes launched:

• £3million investment in a teacher training fund over two years to support the new curriculum
• £5 million pilot of healthy relationship training delivered by external providers
• £3 million pilot programme to tackle harmful sexual behaviours.

Grants for schools are listed on the Devon County Council website page ‘Grants for schools’  and remember general grants are available from your local district council, many provide weekly email updates, see their websites for further information.

AI: The DfE launched a package of measures to transform how schools use AI. AI guidance sets out how schools can safely and effectively use AI, also providing information on how Ofsted view the use of AI in classrooms.

According to the National Education Union’s recent report on AI in Education, 76% of teachers are already using AI, up from 53% last year. The question is no longer whether AI is being used, but whether it is being used well. Around 49% of schools do not yet have an AI policy in place, let alone a clearly defined role responsible for overseeing its use. If AI is already embedded in day-to-day practice, who is ensuring it is being used safely, consistently and in line with school priorities?

Boards to consider: How do we ensure that we stay up to date and aware of what is happening within the education sector including AI both locally and nationally?

 8.Training for free…

Food: Online training on the school food guidance for governors with free training from NGA.

Prevent in education, training designed by DfE for school governors to understand their responsibilities. Free online training: Tuesday 21 April 5pm to 6.15pm.

Governors For Schools have a range of free eLearning modules, the selection available:

• Introduction to school governance,
• Becoming a trustee
• The English School System
• SEND
• Reducing exclusions
• School improvement
• Wellbeing culture
• Anti-bullying
• Recruiting a headteacher
• Working with your governance professional.

Clerking Handbook.  A free clerking handbook guide from the National Association of Governance Advisory services (NAGAS).  Advice, examples and resources to support this key role for academies and maintained schools, recommended by the DfE, download at www.nagas.org.uk

Boards to consider: Is your board trained and up to date, and how do prove it?

Finally, a bit about what DAG can do to support your governance… In addition to over 150 articles each year and bespoke resources all free to DAG members, we support members coming together online to discuss the latest issues affecting governance in our community networks.

DAG Community Network for governors and trustees and a separate one for clerks and governance professionals provide support each term to come together in a free interactive session for academy and maintained boards. Each forum has a theme and is facilitated by DAG board members or associate members with considerable governance experience, dates for this term will be available soon, contact [email protected] for details.

…and don’t forget our in-person conference next month

Devon Association of Governance Conference

Exeter Racecourse

Thursday 14^th May 2026 4.30pm

Inspirational Governance – more than just metrics

Why schools should provide enriching life experiences to expand education from narrow to broad and how those in governance should support them

The DAG Conference this year will provide an opportunity for members to be part of a social and learning evening, with key note speakers and time to network, enjoy a buffet and a short musical event by Devon pupils. All designed to support members to consider why the things that happen around the curriculum are so important to the children in our schools. How they offer an important space to have fun and relax away from the pressures of school work whilst boosting confidence to interact socially with others, extend social networks and provide new skills and abilities.

Ted Wragg Trust

Moira Marder, Chief Executive Officer has dedicated her career to improving outcomes for children and transforming schools through collective effort. Moira’s leadership style is rooted in optimism, teamwork, and a sense of purpose to keep the spirit of the late educationalist Professor Ted Wragg at the heart of everything the trust does.

Plymouth Marjon University

Dr Tracy Anne Hayes, Associate Professor of Education. Her work focuses on young people, communities and the natural environment. With a background in youth and community work, science communication, and outdoor learning, she is passionate about fostering curiosity, creativity, and inclusive practice.

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AdventureMind

Belinda Kirk, explorer and author runs AdventureMind, a ground-breaking research and conference series that explores the link between adventure, wellbeing and mental health. She also oversees Explorers Connect which has encouraged over 30,000 ordinary people to engage in life-changing outdoor challenges.

Further details and registration via the DAG website www.dagdevon.uk.  Early booking is recommended as places are limited.