An evaluation by UCL Discovery and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, found the free schools programme – a flagship policy of the 2010 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government – has failed to improve attainment at primary level, destablised local education systems and increased pupil segregation particularly around ethnicity and income.
There are more than 650 state-funded free schools in England. Independent of local government, free schools were given ‘freedoms’ traditional state schools do not have, including over their curriculum, admissions and staff pay.
The study analysed the impact that a free school opened between 2011 and 2020 had on 328 neighbouring schools.
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