On the demise of the Free Schools Movement

Now, before I start, I'd like to put on record that I count Toby as a friend. Not only that, I feel that he respects me as a professional having named me the second best project manager in the business in his magnum opus?'How to Open a Free School'?￡4.99 on Kindle and expected to be reprinted as a Penguin Classic in due course.

I know free speech is important to Toby, so I shall speak out. It was either write this or write a piece on SEND but I've taken the easy way out and will address this anon. That won't be as much fun (or as self-indulgent) as this.

I appreciate that the impact of Free Schools is hardly comparable with the Butler Act. However, I can tell you that there is not a lot that beats seeing the first intake of kids enter a school that you helped create from scratch and then, six years later, hear one of them say 'I'm sticking with the brand' when moving to the secondary school that you helped establish.

A mutual friend of ours from the Free Schools Movement called me at the end of last week. Well, she didn't. She left me a voice message from her mobile as she's way too busy to speak as she has an Outstanding school to run. It's been the same for over a decade. I used to phone First Direct on Christmas Day to thank them for being there, she used to phone me to brief me on work as this was the only quiet time we both had. She sent me?Toby Young's article in The Spectator relating to the topic.?

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-is-labour-axing-the-tories-most-successful-education-policy/

Our mutual contact leads the school that appears on the list - a school which I'm proud to say I played a small part in setting up and, even after all these years, is still remarkable to visit. In fact, this was one of the highlights of a Times article that may have taken lazy journalism to a new level if it had not been trumped by their piece on SEND that still has me seething. 'Labour insiders' and 'sources close' would be a little more credible if the rest of the article didn't appear to be trapped in the time before Nat Evans was ennobled and Nick Timothy had a go at writing manifestos.

I've known Toby from the start of the free school movement, pre the 2010 election. I still like to call free schools a movement although it became a programme years ago. It was at this time I met his now boss at the Guildhall. This is probably the closest experience I've had to fanboying as 'the soft bigotry of low expectations' struck home to someone from a family of teachers from Stoke who swore blind never to get involved in education.

15 years later, 150+ schools down the track it still gives me goosebumps to think about being told by one proposer that I could never care as much as he did about opening his 1FE faith school. Peter, if you are reading this, it was very generous for you to concede that I managed this.

2011 was a heady time. One DfE bod said to me that we were building a bridge over a canyon together piece by piece. Yes, it was a little wild west but no-one could doubt the passion and commitment from people ranging from ex TV producers to community groups, parents and teachers. As it transpired, and was relatively apparent at the time, the movement also attracted some less than ideal candidates. However, statistically it would appear (as Toby states) that the programme stands scrutiny. It also has no real point of comparison as free schools have been pretty much the only game in town for new schools bar a couple of VA schools allowed through to save the soul of Damian Hinds.

Scene now set I can move on to tell you what rankled me about Toby’s piece. It didn't start with Toby although I shall return to him in due course. I'm not a journalist but I do know the pressure of working to a deadline - 150+ free school bids for starters. If the piece in the Times was phoned in, it must have been via a baked bean tin. For starters conflating the glass palaces of BSF to some of the make do and mend buildings free schools occupied is a bit off.

Now, there is an argument to say that this is simply sour grapes on my behalf.

Toby was, for a time, Director of New Schools Network, a position which I applied for after his brief tenure but was ultimately unsuccessful. Feedback from my selection process was "Tom, they hated you! They described you as the bastard child of Toby Young and [another NSN Director who doesn't know the story.]". This backhanded compliment gets better with age, not for the comparison but for the fact that I was viewed, like free schools, as ‘other’ - ironically by the very people who were paid to promote diversity in the system.

So there it was, my career in the allotment for aspiring politicians in tatters. Where had I gone wrong? Surely I knew my stuff after nearly a decade of unboxing chairs, painting walls and brushing playgrounds while brighter people than me worked to create compelling visions for school in an increasingly competitive environment. Rather than being resentful about this I was actually a bit sad as I really couldn't think of many who cared more about this policy who were actually working on the policy.

In 2017 I set up Premier Advisory Group because, like those free school pioneers, I thought I could do better. Fast forward to April 2022 when PAG / Create: successfully tendered for the DfE contract and won it, replacing NSN who had held it for a decade. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not the most commercially minded of people. This is a particular frustration of my business partner and NSN early days alumnus Charlotte Pearce Cornish.?

However, even my naivety in monetary matters would have been tested if we had won a contract that required TUPE and the development of a new division of our organisation for the princely sum of zero pounds.

The monies paid to NSN and indeed to PAG following this are a matter of public record. To say that DfE stopped funding NSN in 2020 is (now what would Toby say?) balderdash. NSN accounts paint a clear picture of what happened. DfE still ponied up ￡2m in 2020-21 - granted (pardon the pun) this was for their work on Academy Ambassadors - the loss of which still pains me.

What actually happened was donations to NSN reduced to a 'mere' ￡7,800. For me this shows the maturity of a movement becoming a programme. The fact that donors lost interest can be seen as testament to the sector moving towards an acceptance of the model. While the model is now dominated by multi academy trusts – a new breed of experts, there is still room for the odd BRIT School North.

Back in the day, Rachel Wolf asked a group of us what the major issue with the free schools programme was. I told her that it was the name. Free Schools were not going to be accepted until they were seen as simply the school down the road.?

This obsession with labelling and suspicion of 'other' is a topic I will return to when writing about SEND where a very similar issue has arisen. This has been compounded by poorly drafted Safety Valve agreements that prevent (or discourage in strong terms) the choice of one provision type over another on the grounds of type rather than cost, quality and outcomes. Ironic that the previous administration was taking pot shots at the Independent sector before Labour said 'hold my beer'.

Returning to Free Schools. While the future of the programme may be uncertain, I believe its legacy is secure. I say this from the point of view of someone who has overseen work on hundreds of free school applications. Look at any major government initiative that has been implemented without issue...I'll wait...

So, where does all this leave us?

Free Schools were a necessary intervention into a system that had become a byword for waste. When Norman Foster has designed your school and it costs ￡1,000 to replace one of those beautiful panes of glass you've probably over-engineered it a bit. Has money been wasted on certain projects, yes. Have there been notable failures, yes - although according to The Times these were either 12 years ago or yesterday.

So why did Toby write his piece? I offer three reasons.

1. We've all wanted to impress the new gaffer and Toby will be no different in this regard. Despite the demise of London Calling, James Delingpole's attacks on Gove must have grated, perhaps leaving Toby seeking to make amends.
2. Toby is a political animal. Freddy Gray's remark on the Spectator’s Americano podcast about swing voters deserved more laughs than it got. Is there a US opening he fancies?
3. My current theory is nostalgia. There are a select group of people who took on the challenge of free schools and he may worry that we will not see these times again...

Toby Young , I look forward to seeing you and your gang for our annual Stoke v QPR meet up in a few weeks. I'll be happy to tell you that disruption in the system is alive and well and it's never more needed than it is now.

Free Schools deserve more than a footnote in education policy history as do Toby and his Boss. The entrepreneurial spirit and innovation they engendered in the sector is exactly what will dig us out of the SEND mess – if the new government simply allows these new experts to get on with the job.

If the gallows Toby references have indeed been erected I would back these education entrepreneurs to escape the hangman’s noose and continue fix the system from the ground up.