Confederation of School Trusts Chief Executive Leora Cruddas CBE said: "The commissioning guidance is a step towards making the commissioning process more transparent and consistent. We welcome that this will not be applied as an algorithmic approach, but rather intelligence-led commissioning. Much will depend on the implementation of this process and it will be important that regulators continue to work closely with the sector during the implementation phase.
"It is really important to recognise that these are complex decisions involving ever-evolving organisations and this guidance is not intended to provide an exhaustive checklist or set of formulae for making decisions.
"Some of the metrics suggested, particularly on workforce, have not been widely used before and it will be important to keep these under review, along with the continuing impact of the pandemic on the comparability of grading and inspection arrangements.
"Alongside the new approach to commissioning, trusts will continue to build their resilience and capacity. This is why CST has set out our own draft assurance framework for building strong trusts."
