Our response to the White Paper

Uncategorized February 23, 2026 Comments: 2

Monday 23 February 2026

The Headteachers’ Roundtable enthusiastically welcomes the vast majority of the Department for Education’s White Paper, published today. It contains many elements we have long campaigned for and aims to address failings we have previously highlighted.

As a sector we have sacrificed the wellbeing of our children and our school staff in pursuit of improved academic standards; fifteen-year olds in the UK rank as the unhappiest among their peers from all 27 EU countries; between 2003 and 2022, we have seen the greatest decline in a sense of belonging to school across 36 OECD countries to now be amongst the lowest.[1] The ongoing problems with staff recruitment and retention are well documented. However, we have long known that improving academic standards and improved pupil progress can go hand-in-hand with enhanced pupil wellbeing, sense of belonging and far better teacher retention.

The White Paper is an ambitious vision to ensure the best of both worlds. It retains the best of hard worked advances over the last decade and builds on progress made, opening the door to the possibility of an inclusive and innovative system for all.

We particularly welcome:

  • The intention behind suggested changes to the SEND system – although we have not seen the separate SEND Paper and so cannot comment on the detail.
  • The stated £3.6bn additional funding by 2030 to make schools more accessible and create more specialist places is very much needed.
  • The commitment for agencies to work together to improve outcomes for children, particularly within local geographical areas.
  • Targeted deprivation funding and rewarding the “big asks” with additional resourcing to encourage inclusive practice.
  • The exploration of a different method of allocating pupil premium money to better support the long-term disadvantaged.
  • Emphasis on oracy, literacy, numeracy and critical engagement with digital content; the extension of careers and civic responsibility deeper into the wider curriculum.
  • Reform of the Progress-8 measure to be more inclusive and previously stated commitments to adopting Becky Francis’ Curriculum and Assessment Review.
  • The positive reframing of home-school relationships including specific data collection for staff that have faced racist abuse.
  • Determination to ensure all young people have an entitlement to enrichment whilst at school; however, careful reflection on different school contexts needs to be considered as large urban schools will have far more opportunities than those in rural environments.
  • Further research into the lived experiences of school and trust staff from ethnic minority backgrounds and/or who have a disability to ensure these colleagues are better supported and thus retained more successfully.
  • Increasing maternity pay for teachers to eight weeks at full-pay (this is still nowhere close to matching that of other public sectors and does not yet include associate staff) plus, greater support for those wishing to work flexibly after returning from maternity leave is to be strongly welcomed. We would particularly like to acknowledge the extensive work of Emma Shepherd and the MTPT in this area as well as long established campaigns by WomenEd.
  • A very strong commitment to continuing professional development for all working in schools, strengthening the golden thread between ITT and ECF, through to NPQs and a career long perspective.
  • The specific measures being put into place to both support and retain headteachers, particularly those serving more challenging contexts which recognises the need for strong retention leadership strategies.
  • Refreshing of governance, especially to reflect the interests of local people and especially parents/carers.

However, there remains much that still needs to be further explored, thought-through and, essentially, funded. Some of our remaining questions and concerns remain around:

  • As RISE teams begin to work more closely with schools, colleagues on the ground report considerable accountability overlap with Ofsted; this is adding to stress and workload and needs to be urgently resolved.
  • There is a great deal of reference to future work in the arena of school funding, particularly for inclusion, addressing disadvantage and SEND; however, we urgently need a timeline for this, schools are under intense financial pressures, and the sector needs to be heavily involved in any proposed changes to have some hope on the horizon.

We agree fully with the White Paper’s assertion that education can be a self-improving system and, crucially, that the skills, knowledge and dedication is already within the sector.

We would encourage the Department for Education to urgently consider the well-known tenets of effective implementation, including that from the EEF. New approaches will need to be introduced overtime to avoid initiative overload but plans can start to be shaped to build consensus and confidence. The Headteachers’ Roundtable, both as a group and as specialist individuals, would welcome being involved alongside others, to ensure any developments have the impact we all want and need.  

No matter how fabulous the White Paper’s intentions are, school and trust leaders on the ground know that more than simple aspiration is needed to make them reality. The Headteachers’ Roundtable response therefore can be summarised as: We love your vision; we now need the resource to make it happen.

[1] We-used-to-have-it-all-April-2025-1.pdf

Stepping onto the SEND rollercoaster

Uncategorized January 17, 2026 Leave a comment
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A DfE announcement on Friday, marked another step towards the forthcoming SEND reforms. It follows National SEND Conversation panels and release of capital funding before Christmas, setting out plans for a “landmark teacher training programme”

This journey will be a rollercoaster, one that Heads Roundtable are well-versed in navigating. Decades of experience running special schools, AP provision, mainstream resource provision and a legacy of highly inclusive mainstream practice, (often to the detriment of inspection outcomes and against the national or regional priorities of the time) means our team are highly skilled in the pitfalls of this work and acutely aware of the absolute necessity of doing so.

The expansion of mainstream resource provision and SEND teacher training plans are positive steps towards an inclusive approach to education. The challenges are well known and, now, widely acknowledged: increasing need and complexity alongside diminished resource and a Venn diagram of pressures that conspire to prevent what is needed for young people. Hard work and goodwill on their own have long been shown to be crushingly inadequate. So, after decades of neglect, is this the start of the solution?

We’ve celebrated the strong culture of communication and consultation from the DfE. So, it was not difficult to participate in the Inclusion in Practice: Call for Evidence, National Conversation Panels or consultation meetings. It is unsurprising that some have responded with predictable calls of “its not enough” or “whataboutery”; our profession is so used to being short-changed and under-equipped it is hard to rewire responses. We are equally also not blind to the challenges, barriers and potential short comings.

SEND training for all

It is patently clear inclusion is at the core of great teaching and should hold a central place in initial teacher training, ECF and throughout a career. Its absence has been shocking. When all staff are equipped with professional knowledge and expertise, develop skills to work positively with parents and have adequate resource to to do so for each child then we will start to actually see the difference.

We hope the focus is on sustained, evidence-informed development that ensures staff can plan, deliver and assess in ways that are ambitious, inclusive and accessible. Investing in knowledgeable, trusted support staff and teachers who understand responsive planning, adaptive classroom practice and resource selection, allows children to not just access but excel in their work and is transformational.

But this is rich hunting ground for those who seek to profiteer. We need clarity about what we mean by evidence-informed, secure practice in SEN and equally to respect the mastery and expertise of staff to be developed with the autonomy appropriate to their setting and expertise. One-size-fits-all approaches will undermine those with genuine, hard-earned, and rich expertise, and risk alienating the very teams we need most.

Training must also be informed by research on high-quality CPD, one-off courses measured on completion do not cut it in this complex field. Regular, sustained, context-specific CPD, delivered by experts in their field is powerful and builds an empowered, confident and adaptable workforce.

Resource Provision expansion

In the same vein, the best resource provisions do not all look the same. They are unique, sophisticated settings that adapt to suit the needs of their highly-valued student body. There are varieties of size, specialism, integration with mainstream and links to special schools. These aspects cannot be centrally directed.

The ambition, expertise and deep care within these provisions is a beacon in our system. Adaption, intervention, scaffolding and partnership is evident in every aspect forming a powerful network that continually reviews and responds, allowing students to grow and thrive as independent young people.

Equally, even the most committed advocate needs adequate resource and ongoing support to ensure these bases are created with sustainability and longevity at the heart from the start. Under-resourced or built, staffed and supported on the cheap, they will fail and the long-lasting consequence of that is simply unthinkable at this scale.

In highly successful provisions, the inclusion and sense of pride emanates across the organisation, it is a central pillar in the culture of exceptional schools, deep in the DNA of all involved.  Unsurprisingly, we feel the extension of this approach is a positive step to broaden the availability and expectation of inclusion. However, we would guard against those who speak an enthusiastic language of inclusion but do not match with authentic actions if they disadvantage performance tables or admission cohorts. In this arena, talking and walking are very different things.

It is no surprise accountability has been a factor of many of the recent conversations; whilst current approaches still drive the curation of a cohort and standardized outcomes in dashboard form, genuine system-wide inclusion will always be at risk.

We applaud the bravery to seize the agenda of this conversation, appreciate the start of investment and would urge courageous commitment to ensure implementation authentically and ethically matches intent.

A Year at the Roundtable

Uncategorized December 19, 2025 Leave a comment
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Twelve months ago, we shared a blogpost that outlined the roles that HTRT had played across our system, a year later we now refresh that review as we aim to fulfil our goal “to provide a vehicle for people experienced in school leadership to influence national education policymakers so that education policy is focused on what is best for the learning of all children”. HTRT members are varied in experience, perspectives, location and engagement but collectively the impact we have been able to have over time is noteworthy.

When speaking to TES in March, Caroline and Keziah were clear that a change of government would not bring a utopian solution to the challenges facing education and that much of our role was to bring pragmatic but persistent focus to the issues at hand.

HTRT has long been engaged in discussions about accountability, members have been actively involved with both Ofsted and DfE in both the pilot inspections and the launch of the new framework. There has been comment in published articles, podcasts, political conference engagement and partnership with other bodies about how the full potential of the Inclusion focus could be grasped and the extent to which this has been truly realised. The discussion has been broached at ministerial level as well as with the leadership of Ofsted, it is an ongoing process. There is further interest, alongside Headrest and others, in how the implementation of the framework is playing out, how it is affecting leaders in a range of different settings and whether it resolves the serious concerns around Headteacher wellbeing and workload that the original review was intended to address.

On Curriculum and Assessment, we welcomed the review and the approach to it taken by Dr Becky Francis, several members publishing articles before during and after the conclusions were shared.  We now focus on implementation and how leaders will be supported to ensure that the maximum benefit is made from some important shifts. HTRT colleagues have also been clear about the importance of student voice in their curriculum, and of the value of a careers focused approach and work experience to ensure young people retain engagement and ambition in their studies. As the Gatsby Benchmarks evolve and we understand the importance of place-based approaches all these factors will need to align.

The recruitment and retention of leaders and school staff across the profession has been a key focus area for many HTRT colleagues. A series of webinars and articles within the Equity Season took the lead in outlining the need to “Unblock the Pipeline” to leadership at all levels, exposing longstanding issues in diversity and equity, equally supported by published books, keynotes and discussion in this important area.  Challenges to the Gender Pay Gap and leaders MAT pay, including aligned work with WomenEd and the MTPT Project, were soundly raised by colleagues.

The pressures as well as the joys of Headship were a feature of a number of published articles, some with sector insight and some searingly honest about our own personal experiences. A range of podcasts, a number of Festival of Education sessions, keynotes at conferences, for example ASCL’s New Headteachers, and facilitation on leadership courses across the country shows the breadth of HTRT’s involvement in this field from supporting recruitment to policy review in the DfE expert steering group on NPQs.

A national discussion on Inclusion has seen HTRT members at the forefront. Working alongside and within The Difference and Whose Losing Learning, Centre for Young Lives, Show Racism the Red Card, Boys Impact and the APPG to ensure all aspects of inclusion matter and are genuinely accounted for. Strong representation at all levels has influenced this debate and sat around the policy table. On disadvantage and SEND, HTRT colleagues are strongly part of a solutions-based approach to the significant issues we are facing: published books, case studies, articles, podcasts, conference speeches and keynotes stand before the both overt and subtle lobbying and dialogue at government level. Representation in the SEND development Group and panel discussions led by the Schools Minister as well as direct lobbying to the Treasury on matters such as the 2-child benefit cap show the impact of HTRT at local and national level.

Our continuing engagement with DfE and wider government has been considerable, for which we are very grateful. From meetings, receptions, ongoing dialogue and wide-ranging consultation on policy development the engagement has been broad with civil servants through to ministerial contact. Members have hosted ministerial, Education Select Committee and APPG visits across the country from the South East to Manchester to Norfolk. It has been noticeable how much the department continue to listen, both seeking and reflecting on feedback. This remains encouraging.

Underpinning all of the above however, remains the ongoing problem of funding. It will be hard to be creative about curriculum, attract and retain school staff or address the increasing inequities and inequalities of our society without sufficient and sustained funding. This remains at the forefront of our work and is increasingly urgent. We are encouraged by the creativity of the department to seek to reduce costs for schools and maximise value, we welcome the removal of thousands from child poverty along with the determined focus to address the complexities of SEND resourcing. We sincerely hope the New Year brings clarity on a reprieve from the escalating financial pressures on school leaders, as the distant hope of any salve from a Spending Review in 2027 will be too little too late for many.

A Statement From Headteachers Roundtable

Uncategorized October 2, 2025 Leave a comment

We are deeply saddened to hear of the news of an attack at a synagogue in Manchester today.  We are aware that many will be affected by information that will undoubtedly be present in news reports over the next few days. 

Our thoughts are with any affected directly or indirectly. We also have great empathy for those working in and with schools, leaders, teachers and non-teaching staff who will be supporting each other and young people to try and understand events. We wish them every support as they undertake this difficult work.

At all times our values as professionals are deeply rooted in what we do. Sometimes these have particular resonance. We continue to advocate for mutual respect, integrity, compassion and consideration in a positive and diverse society. 

HTRT Statement on Ofsted’s New Inspection Handbook

Uncategorized September 9, 2025 1 Comment

Headteachers Roundtable welcome the revisions that have been made to the initial school inspection proposals. We are pleased that Ofsted have engaged with a range of stakeholders and that this engagement has been in good faith, we can see some changes that have been made and hope that much more is evident in the implementation that follows.

We are also pleased to see the inclusion of the development of a similar schools’ comparison measure, it will be important this reflects the DfE approaches and that both embrace factors which are currently not included and therefore allow perverse incentives that skew perceptions of achievement and inclusion. We are concerned however, that inclusion remains a single area which runs counter to the widespread understanding across the system that this should be an embedded design principle for schools not a separate consideration.

The widely held view of almost all who work with schools is that inclusion is a design principle and not a bolt on. In trying to judge inclusion as a specific area and then bolting it on to other areas, Ofsted misses this point entirely. We cannot know how inclusive a school is without knowing who in the local area attends the school, who doesn’t and why. Once again, Ofsted is refusing even to ask these questions.

Heads and school leaders still remember what events triggered the compulsion for reform and are concerned that this framework may not remove any of the intolerable pressure that had tragic consequences and contributed to the exodus of many talented leaders from our profession. There is caution about the unintended consequences of significant additional workload at the start to the academic year within very short timescales, it is inevitable that many will rewrite evaluation documents, and that terminology and focus will change. This iteration of the framework still includes more areas for inspection, even without 6th Form or EYFS considered and single word judgements simply appear to have been replaced with two-word summaries.  

The new framework has to be seen and felt to be fair to all, students, parents, teachers and leaders. We will be attentive to how it translates into practice, it remains unproven that this is a process that will be done with schools rather than to them as the deficit of trust has still to be recovered.

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