Following the Chancellor's Autumn Statement, CST's Trust and School Funding Policy Specialist, Susan Fielden, reflects on what we learnt from the statement - and poses seven areas of interest for the sector to consider.

School trusts are facing substantial unplanned and unfunded costs. Analysis of budget information and survey data by CST has found that, without further financial support, more than half of trusts could be in deficit by 2024/5 with the remainder down to worryingly low reserves.

The rights and protection of transgender people are currently contested and rapidly developing areas of law. The analysis this briefing contains is set in the context of recent developments and the wider law, but it does not attempt a full discussion of the law of transgender rights; any such attempt would at present become rapidly out of date as new case law emerges.

CST’s policy position on funding pressures as of September 2022, including action taken over the summer and longer-term work.

Following analysis of Budget Forecast Return submissions, shared by over 70 Trusts representing more than 700 schools, we have produced an infographic highlighting the scale of economic challenge facing the sector.

The paper explores ways in which the outcome of the SEND Review and Green Paper consultation could shift the way society thinks about people with learning disability by avoiding deficit language, that suggests people with learning disability are somehow incomplete or worth less, and makes the case for a more ambitious vision of what a good life is - placing greater value on difference, common values, the process of learning and more, to provide a healthy balance to meritocratic values of academics, occupation, and wealth.

The Schools White Paper and SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper together bring the ‘system’ into view. Both papers offer an analysis of the education system and provide firm proposals on matters of system governance. System governance refers to the structures, mechanisms, and processes by which the organisations responsible for delivery are held to account. The White and Green Papers propose to do this largely (but not exclusively) through commissioning and regulation.

This paper sets out six questions that we should consider as part of the regulatory review.

Trusts have become a central part of the English education system, providing the core of school-to-school support, improvement and governance. This means that it is increasingly important for us to know what high quality looks like in a trust. In this paper we have reviewed the evidence from four countries: England, the US, the Netherlands and Sweden. The latter three countries were chosen as they have somewhat similar (though by no means identical) systems. This literature review draws on a search conducted using several evidence bases, websites of government agencies, and a general google search. We also drew on the references to other studies in those sources.

This briefing from Stone King deals with two specific developments of vital importance for School Trusts: the standards they will be expected to meet, and how the Department for Education may intervene if they are found to fall short of those standards.

The guidance provides a selected overview of the evidence of the impact of the pandemic on children’s education. We provide a map of the different funding streams and the grant conditions associated with them. Finally, we offer a strategic approach to planning over a three-year period.
Updated April 2022.