The Socialist Educational Association, a Labour Party affiliated ‘socialist society’, has launched a campaign to halt an unwelcome government u-turn that returns to the Boris Johnson / Nadeem Zahawi policy on 100% academisation of schools.

As the SEA points out, this policy was not in the Labour manifesto. Nor has it been even proposed to Labour’s annual conference or NPF, let alone agreed.

The SEA have published background on the issue at https://educationpolitics.substack.com/p/schools-white-paper-are-local-authority.

The text is below, and can be used as the basis for motions to Labour Party and trades union meetings. To add your or your organisation’s name click here .

To: Bridget Phillipson

We note with regret that the Government’s White Paper ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’:

• revives the 100% academy policy of the previous Tory government by stating ‘We will put collaboration at the heart of the system by moving to all schools joining or forming high-quality school trusts’.

• also revives the Local Authority Multi Academy Trust (LA MAT) proposal from the previous government’s 2022 white paper ‘Opportunity for All’ stating ‘we will create the ability for school trusts to be established by local authorities’, even though these Trusts, once established, would be no different to other MATs.

Previous campaigns have shown success in opposing forced academisation. We believe that

• the academisation of all schools will undermine Labour’s ambition to reform the SEND system and undermine local accountability resulting in the closure of 12,000 governing bodies and the effective dismissal of directly elected parent and staff representatives.

• government plans to revert to the academies policy of the previous Tory government should be abandoned

Instead we call on the Department of Education to publish and consult on new proposals to require all schools in a local authority area to collaborate in partnership for the benefit of all children and young people in the community, as a first step in restoring local accountability.