Burnham's public service reforms still need a plan for schools

The incoherent structure of the English school system threatens to derail the government’s education priorities, warns a new Institute for Government report.

With some groupings of schools run by trusts and others overseen by local authorities, some spanning the whole country, others a single neighbourhood, the IfG report says the Burnham government should set out a clear long-term vision for school governance – including what should be controlled centrally or locally – to help deliver its education agenda.

The first part of the Public Services Performance Tracker 2026 series, the IfG’s annual data-driven analysis of public services funded by the Nuffield Foundation, sets out the IfG’s verdict on the government’s goals on attainment and absence, the teacher workforce, SEND reform, schools funding, and the structure of the school system.

The report also warns that the SEND crisis threatens to crowd out the government’s other education priorities and swallow most of schools’ funding uplift this parliament.

The report finds that:

• On most metrics the SEND system is moving in the wrong direction, with fewer than half of pupils with SEND saying they enjoy school and the average secondary pupil with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) missing nearly a day of school every week.
• Current growth would see nearly one in 10 pupils having an EHCP by 2030 and SEND pressures could absorb around two-thirds of schools’ funding uplift over this parliament.
• The disadvantage gap is growing, not closing: meeting the 2040 target requires the gap to narrow by 0.5 points every year for 15 years – despite it widening by 0.4 points a year before the pandemic.
• Absence is on course to fall at the fastest sustained rate since the mid-2010s, but this would only partly unwind the pandemic’s disruption. 
• Teacher numbers are rising – at the current rate, the government could add around 20,000 teachers by the end of the parliament – three times its 6,500 target. But hitting that target does not mean schools have the teachers they need.

Amber Dellar, report author, said: “The structure of England’s school system is drifting without a clear destination. For a government that is being so deliberate about how public services are delivered, at what level and by whom, it is striking that schools are still governed so incoherently. If Burnham wants public services to work together, the structures behind them need to work together too.

No issue looms larger for schools over this parliament than the crisis in the SEND system. The government has a huge amount riding on its ability to make progress before its reforms fully kick in – including its spending plans for the parliament. But the SEND system is still moving in the wrong direction, making that trajectory look optimistic. Ministers should either revise the timetable or strengthen the reforms needed to deliver it.”

Mark Franks, Director of Welfare at the Nuffield Foundation said: “The report’s findings underline the urgency of reforming the SEND system to make it more effective, fair and sustainable, as  pressures on schools and the public finances continue to mount. While there is broad agreement that the current system is under strain, uncertainty and concern remain about whether future levels of investment and the nature of reform will be sufficient to provide high-quality support for all  children and young people.”