17 April, 2026

Top education news stories

Explore this week’s news roundup to uncover the key challenges and priorities for schools across the country.

6 min read

1. Former MAT director to lead on Ofsted trust inspections

Watchdog appoints Matthew Purves to take charge of £20m project to develop inspections of multi-academy trusts, writes Tes.

Ofsted has appointed a former trust director to take charge of developing its multi-academy trust inspections. Matthew Purves, who leads the schools watchdog’s inspector development arm, Ofsted Academy, has been named as the senior responsible officer for the £20 million project.

Mr Purves was the director of education services at Lift Schools in 2020 and 2021, where he was responsible for curriculum, safeguarding, wellbeing and teacher and leader development.

Before that, he was Ofsted’s deputy director for schools, and worked at the Home Office and the DfE.

Trust inspections are currently expected to start in the 2027-28 academic year.

The government said these will focus on leadership, governance and impact, school improvement, high-quality education, support for staff, use of resources and promoting pupil wellbeing.

As set out in the recently published schools White Paper, trust inspections will also be used to hold trusts to account for their role in the local community. Ofsted has been given £20 million over the next two years to develop and implement trust inspections.

Source: Former MAT director to lead on Ofsted trust inspections (Tes.com)

2. Updates to Working Together to Safeguard Children: What you need to know

From joined-up working to racism to extra-familial harm, a number of significant changes have been made to the Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory safeguarding guidance, writes SecEd.

A number of changes and updates have been made to the statutory safeguarding guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children.

The DfE has published a new edition of the guidance, replacing the 2023 version. It outlines what agencies and organisations, including schools, should be doing to protect and promote the welfare of children and young people under the age of 18.

Among the updates, the guidance includes new advice on racism, discrimination, domestic violence, extra-familial harm, Family Help, and joined-up working, among other areas.

On specific harms, the guidance strengthens expectations around domestic abuse, teenage relationship abuse, coercive control and extra-familial harm. New references address online harms and group-based exploitation, reinforcing that children may face multiple simultaneous harms.

A new section on Family Help brings targeted local authority services, including Early Help, Child in Need and youth offending support, under one umbrella. Schools are advised to familiarise themselves with local thresholds, protocols and how their Local Safeguarding Children Partnership is operating under the new arrangements.

Notably, the guidance now explicitly states that children who may be causing harm to others should still receive a safeguarding response, with practitioners expected to remain “curious” about underlying vulnerability, including the impact of SEND and trauma. Rose recommends additional training on exploitation and adultification to support DSLs in navigating these cases.

Schools should also review the updated training requirements in paragraph 140 alongside the proposed KCSIE 2026 changes – a consultation on which runs until 22nd April, with the finalised document due before September.

Source: Updates to Working Together to Safeguard Children: What you need to know (sed-ed.co.uk)

3. Educational psychologist shortage puts SEND reforms ‘at risk’

EPI research suggests pupils in some areas are 20 times less likely to get support from an educational psychologist, writes Schools week.

Delivery of the government’s new “experts at hand” SEND support service is “at risk” because of a chronic shortage of educational psychologists, an EPI has warned.

Pupils in some areas are 20 times less likely to get support from an educational psychologist, the Education Policy Institute research suggests, prompting calls for government to boost funding and training.

James Zuccollo, the EPI’s director for school workforce, said: “This report highlights a stark reality: we cannot deliver the government’s goal of inclusive mainstream education while the educational psychologist workforce remains critically under-resourced.”

“The £1.8 billion ‘experts at hand’ programme provides a welcome framework, but its sufficiency is entirely dependent on a stable EP pipeline.”

“Given the length of specialist training required, the government’s three-year delivery timeline is at risk without additional investment to reach adequate staffing levels.”

Furthermore, the report warned of a “stark disparity in levels of EP provision”, with estimates showing some areas have one professional per 480 pupils, while others have just one for every 9,400. EPI found the 20-fold disparity in access was driven by a “substantial national shortage.

The report also found official data undercounted the workforce by “about a third”, and missed around 1,300 full-time professionals working in traded services, academy trusts and private practice.

However, “this hidden workforce is not evenly distributed to plug gaps in deprived areas”.

Source: Educational psychologist shortage puts SEND reforms ‘at risk’ (schoolsweek.co.uk)