The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) says commissioners would help provide strategic oversight for all school provision across a county or city. It describes the current arrangements as “fragmented” and says that education reforms have created a two-tier system between local authority-maintained schools, and academies and free schools.
Under the IPPR model, commissioners would decide whether to open or close schools, including academies and free schools; ensure school improvement support is available; use soft powers to challenge schools to improve; and, where other measures have failed, broker a change of provider in underperforming schools.
Commissioners would also be able to force schools to expand if the local authority was unable to get agreement from non-maintained schools to create new places where there was a need, run tendering competitions for new school providers, and co-ordinate and commission education provision for 16- to 18-year-olds.
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