Most behind-closed-doors meetings that once analysed plans for the future of schools have already been canned, Schools Week can reveal, as ministers prepare to scrap the controversial gatherings entirely.
One regional advisory board has not assembled in the past 14 months, prompting one leader to note that some groups “have essentially ceased to exist”.
But, with the meetings – which are designed to inform officials on the decisions – due to end this month, the government has been warned that it risks handing civil servants a “monopoly on wisdom”.
Mark Boylan, a Sheffield Hallam University professor of education, said: “Whatever the issues with the composition of advisory boards in the past and the lack of representation of community schools, at least they were senior leaders who understood how schools work, the process of transferring schools, supporting schools.
“The regional officers do not have really detailed, close local knowledge of all the schools in their region – nor could they.”
Rulings ‘in isolation’
Advisory boards consist of current and former academy bosses and are intended to inform, scrutinise and challenge regional director rulings on trust growth plans. From next month, regional directors will decide on the applications without their help.
Plans set to be considered by senior civil servants will continue to be published online each month, with their decisions released later.
However, Chiltern Learning Trust CEO and advisory board member Adrian Rogers believes it will leave decision makers with “a lack of local knowledge”, with rulings made “more in isolation”.
Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Pepe Di’Iasio urged the Department for Education to keep channels open for leaders and other experts to “provide advice and feed into this process”.
One board member said regional directors often have “temperature checks” during meetings to understand “where the sector was”.
Under the new system, there will be “a deficit in terms of their information base for decisions and their understanding of what is going on on the ground”.
And, in the absence of the meetings, there is a “danger … certain figures or certain MATs may, due to relationships and size, come to dominate that informal space”.
Most meetings cancelled
Schools Week analysis of advisory board documents shows just 33 of the 79 meetings (42 per cent) scheduled over the past 12 months actually went ahead. Just 8 per cent were cancelled the year before.
Our analysis suggests the north-east advisory board has not met since 2024. The east of England was the only region not to have had a cancellation in the past three years.
Dr Jenny Blunden, a south-west advisory board member and Truro and Penwith Academy Trust chief, noted some boards “have essentially ceased to exist”.
Another board member attributed this to a “definite drop in the number of academisations going through”, following Labour’s decision to axe three expansion grants towards the end of 2024.
The loss of appetite is reflected in the figures. On average, 17 conversion applications were lodged each month last year, compared to 59 in 2024 and 2023.
Transparency questions
Advisory boards have long been criticised for lacking transparency. Schools Week analysis three years ago found just one in 10 meetings received public representations.
Officials have said they will continue to provide advance notice of proposals to be considered and all representations will still “be considered by decision makers”.
The DfE said it “remain[s] committed to being transparent and accountable in our decision-making practice”.
Rulings will be published as they are now: when decisions have been made by regional directors outside of meetings, the only details included are whether it was approved or rejected and if “further actions” are required. They do not give reasons.
Boylan argued that the changes will leave regional directors with a “monopoly on wisdom”.
Pointing to situations in which underperforming schools are forced to academise or move trusts, he added: “The proposal … is made within the office of the regional director and then [under the new system] the office of the regional director makes the decision without the input of anybody else. What’s the point?”
Why do it?
The government said the change was being made as the schools white paper “sets out that it will renew its approach to decision making” by updating commissioning guidance. It is not clear when these changes will be made.
The white paper said that “demanding expectations” will be set through new trust standards “by overhauling the school trust quality descriptions”.
The DfE did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
