Labour's Schools Bill is a backwards step and will hurt the most disadvantaged

When I left the legal profession after working at two leading international law firms, it was with a clear aspiration: to develop an educational model that would offer children from some of the most disadvantaged communities the same opportunities enjoyed by many of my more privileged peers.

- MOUHSSIN ISMAIL

I was fortunate to be granted the rare privilege of founding a government-funded state school in Newham, the second most deprived borough in London. Thanks to the freedoms afforded by the academies programme, that school now outperforms many independent and grammar schools. It regularly sends pupils to Oxbridge and Ivy League universities on full scholarships worth £250,000 each. I am by no means alone in this achievement. Across the country, others have used the opportunities of academisation to become beacons of hope in their communities and rank among the highest in national league tables for educational outcomes.

I later moved to Star Academies, a high-performing multi-academy trust (MAT), and am now at the City of London Academies Trust. I have seen first-hand the transformative impact that well-led MATs can have on schools that were chronically underperforming. Across the country, MATs empowered by academy freedoms are changing the life chances of children in some of our most challenged communities.

One size does not fit all

It is this insight that underpins my concern about the Government's Schools Bill. From my perspective, the bill represents a regressive step. Rather than addressing the most pressing issues - teacher shortages, underfunding, escalating behavioural challenges, a fragmented complaints system, the special educational needs (SEN) crisis, and the enduring impact of the pandemic - the bill centres on the centralisation of control in ways that risk dismantling a decade of hard-won progress.