The chair of the charity set up by ministers to promote free schools has said the government’s flagship policy has “lost its way”.
David Ross, the Conservative party donor who is chair of trustees at the New Schools Network, said the free school scheme had become “too slow, too bureaucratic and too closed to new ideas”.
A new report today from the NSN, published to mark the formal launch of its £1 million innovation fund, called for ministers to make a “long-term commitment” to free schools, including a “renewed” focus on “promoting innovative approaches”.
Ross is joined by former directors of the charity – many of whom are influential policy leaders under the current government – and ministers in his rallying call to refocus on the free school scheme.
