The Government recently launched its Schools White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving. One of the most encouraging aspects of the White Paper is its recognition of the importance of partnership working and local context. As a place-based partnership of schools serving a diverse borough, we know that strong outcomes are rarely achieved in isolation. They are built through shared expertise and a collective commitment to improving opportunities for children and young people.
Flexibility in how schools work together
Reassuringly, the White Paper’s focus is not on imposing a single structural model, but on ensuring that schools in every area are part of a collaborative network that supports improvement and inclusion.
Camden Learning is a member of the Area-Based Education Partnerships Association (AEPA), which represents place-based school partnerships across the country. The organisation has welcomed the White Paper’s recognition that collaboration between schools can take many forms.
A spokesperson for AEPA said:
“We support the overall ambitions set out in the government’s Schools White Paper, especially the emphasis on place-based collaboration between schools, local authorities and local partners.”
“We are reassured that there will be no forced academisation and that schools will continue to have the freedom to operate in local collaboratives, as maintained schools, or to join a trust.”
“This flexibility is key to ensuring that decisions about governance and partnership are made with the needs of children and local communities at their heart.”
“From our extensive experience of bringing together diverse school communities, we know that there is real strength in collaboration and that this can take many forms.”
“Whatever ‘family’ our schools choose to be part of – whether a trust, a local partnership, or as maintained schools working closely with others – we remain committed to partnerships that deliver excellence, equity and opportunity for every child.”
Ensuring schools help shape the next steps
For Camden Learning, this flexibility is essential. Our partnership brings together schools of different types and governance structures, united by a shared commitment to improving outcomes for children across the borough. What matters most is not the formal structure of collaboration, but the strength of the relationships between schools and the shared sense of responsibility for every child’s success.
Camden Learning is well-placed to deliver the White Paper’s aims to strengthen local collaboration, accountability, and resource pooling, and to double-down on the schools-led nature of our partnership. It will be vital that all Camden schools continue to have a genuine voice in shaping the reforms that follow. School leaders and teachers understand their communities and the realities of delivering inclusive education. Our shared insight will be essential in ensuring that national ambitions translate into practical, sustainable improvements for children and young people.
Whilst we await further clarity from the Department for Education, our approach in the coming period will be based on the principles that young people benefit from a coherent, locally aligned school system regardless of their type of school; that any approach we take will be schools-led and in consultation; and that we will retain what works for Camden and seek to build on what is already working in practice.
Supporting pupils with SEND
The White Paper sets out important directions of travel on several complex areas that warrant thoughtful reform. Among the most significant is how the education system strengthens mainstream inclusion for pupils with complex needs while ensuring schools remain places where every child can succeed. These are challenges that school leaders are confronting daily, and addressing them effectively will require both national leadership and strong local cooperation.
Camden provides a clear example of how this can work in practice. Our schools operate in a borough with relatively high levels of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and increasing complexity in pupils’ needs. In response, schools across Camden have continued to work closely with one another and with local partners to support staff, share expertise and ensure that children receive the support they need to thrive in their local schools and communities.
This collaborative approach has helped deliver strong outcomes. Camden pupils with SEND typically achieve better than national averages, placing the borough among the strongest performing areas in the country for this group of learners. However, these successes have been achieved alongside growing pressures on school resources and staff capacity. For that reason, the White Paper’s commitment to increased investment in SEND provision, local collaboration, and wider education funding is an important and welcome step.
Turning national policy into local action
The proposed reforms also highlight the importance of building greater consistency in how complex needs are understood and supported. New national inclusion standards, drawing on evidence and expertise, have the potential to provide clearer guidance for schools and a more consistent experience for families. At the same time, implementation will need to recognise that local areas differ significantly in their demographics, resources and existing partnerships.
This is where place-based partnerships play a crucial role. Organisations like Camden Learning provide the infrastructure through which schools can work together to interpret national policy and adapt it to their local context. By creating spaces for collaboration, challenge and shared learning, these partnerships help ensure that responsibility for inclusion and improvement is distributed across the whole system rather than concentrated in a small number of schools.
For example, the Camden Learning SEND Hub is a professional network that helps schools learn from each other and develop best practice in classroom provision for children with SEND. Led by Kentish Town Primary School and supported by a wide network of school partners, our Hub is there to support Camden’s schools, bringing together a community of leaders to share and reflect, while providing a vital space for strategic thinking and professional development. The impact has been significant, with staff feeling more confident in supporting autistic pupils and schools reporting improved pupil regulation, engagement and participation.
Collaboration rooted in place
The White Paper’s wider focus on collaboration across education, local government and other public services also reflects the reality that many of the challenges facing children and families extend beyond the school gate. Strong local relationships, including with health services and community organisations, are essential if schools are to respond effectively to the needs of the children they serve.
Camden’s education strategy to 2030, Building Back Stronger, set out the ambition for a school system that breaks down the barriers to learning by calling out inequalities, acting to address them, and making sure children and young people feel a strong sense of belonging to school and community so that no one is left behind.
By building on strong local partnerships and supporting school-led solutions, the Schools White Paper has the potential to strengthen the foundations of a more inclusive and collaborative education system. In Camden, we stand ready to play our part in that work.
