2026 schools white paper: Plans for wider school reform

The government’s Every Child Achieving and Thriving white paper, published on 23 February 2026, sets out long-term reforms to the school system in England. It includes a major section on reform to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision.

The white paper was accompanied by a consultation on the SEND and wider school system proposals, which closes on 18 May 2026.

This briefing focuses on the white paper’s wider proposals for reforms to schools.

The white paper’s SEND proposals are considered in a separate Commons Library briefing.

What does the schools white paper propose?

The schools white paper proposes reforms in several areas.

Raising attainment and reducing absence

The government has set several national ambitions relating to attainment and absence, which include:

• halving the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers at GCSE (measured via attainment 8)
• raising attainment so that, on average, children leave compulsory education with GCSEs at grade 5
• reducing school absence by 1.3 percentage points, to 5.85% by the 2028-29 academic year, equivalent to 20 million more days in school

The white paper also reaffirms plans to change the school accountability system, including reforms to the attainment 8 and progress 8 measures, a new progress measure for low prior attainers, and a high‑attainment measure capturing pupils achieving grades 7 or above in English and maths.

Moving to a trust‑led school system and strengthening local collaboration

The government sets an expectation that all state‑funded schools will join or form a school trust. This would extend multi‑school groupings across the system.

Local authorities would, for the first time, be allowed to establish their own trusts, albeit with some remaining limits on the degree of local authority control. New standards for trusts would focus on inclusion, value for money, and community collaboration. Ofsted would be required to inspect trusts as whole entities.

The white paper does not set a deadline for all schools to join trusts, and stresses “quality over pace”.

The white paper focuses on shared local responsibility, particularly for early help and for children with additional needs. The white paper argues that the current system lacks clarity on how local authorities, schools, health and other services should work together.

Enrichment, belonging and behaviour

New frameworks will be introduced for:

• enrichment (civic engagement, arts, nature, sport and life skills)
• pupil engagement (belonging, safety and relationships)
• behaviour and bullying, including refreshed guidance

Additional measures include improvements to the school complaints system, setting expectations for home-school partnerships and developing school profiles with clearer information for parents.

On behaviour, the paper proposes options to keep suspended pupils on‑site, duties to set work for excluded pupils and monitoring data to detect problematic pupil movements suggesting “off‑rolling”.

Funding for disadvantage

The government plans a consultation on reforming how disadvantage funding is distributed, which is likely to include proposals on:

• a stepped funding model that allocates money according to pupils’ household incomes and extent of disadvantage
• geographically weighted funding
• breaking the link between having to be registered for free school meals to attract deprivation funding
• introducing support and external reviews to improve how schools use disadvantage funding such as the pupil premium

Place‑based missions

The white paper announced two new geographical missions:

• Mission North East, which would focus on improving outcomes for white working‑class children and increasing collaboration between similar schools
• Mission Coastal, which would focus on improving outcomes in coastal communities

Workforce measures

The government reiterated its commitment to recruiting 6,500 additional teachers and confirmed it would:

• introduce a new teacher-retention programme from 2026
• double the length of full maternity pay (from four to eight weeks) for teachers and make similar changes for support staff
• launch the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB)
• expand continuous professional development for teachers and introduce mentoring and leadership programmes for headteachers
• introduce retention payments of up to £15,000 for headteachers in high‑need areas

Sector reaction

Stakeholders in the education sector have expressed a range of reactions to the proposals in the white paper.

Reducing disadvantage and funding reform

Commentators have welcomed the white paper’s central focus on reducing attainment gaps between disadvantaged children and their peers.

The Education Endowment Foundation and the Sutton Trust praised the focus on reducing disadvantage, but warned targets would be challenging and would require effective implementation and wider action on poverty.

Thinktanks including the Education Policy Institute supported more targeted funding, noting persistent gaps among long‑term disadvantaged pupils.

Some unions, such as the Association of School and College Leaders emphasised the need for additional funding, not simply redistributing existing budgets. ASCL also raised concerns about real-terms reductions, over the longer term, in pupil premium funding.

A trust‑led schools system

The Confederation of School Trusts broadly supported the white paper’s focus on moving to a trust-led system.

The Local Government Association welcomed a more central role for local authorities, but raised concerns about a lack of detail on implementation, and cautioned against compelling schools to join trusts.

The Shadow Education Secretary, Laura Trott, said the proposals appeared inconsistent with some other government policies on academy trusts, and with provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is currently before Parliament.

Workforce proposals

Teaching and leadership unions broadly welcomed the commitments on maternity pay, but argued that there were still urgent wider workload and wellbeing concerns for school staff.

Some other organisations were more critical. For example, the Teacher Development Trust argued that the continuous professional development plans in the white paper needed more focus on giving teachers and leaders more agency in choosing suitable development. The Teacher Development Trust also warned that previous schemes to financially incentivise teachers and leaders to move to challenging schools and high-need areas have had limited success.