Skip to content
Back
Latest updates

Your voice in 2025-26: what you've told us, and why it matters

This blog brings together the key findings from member surveys we've run this year. But more importantly, it draws out a consistent message running through all of it: the challenges schools face are increasingly interconnected, and they cannot be solved in isolation.

Blog
14/05/2026

This year, governors and trustees across England have helped shape NGA's work more than ever before. You've responded to our snap surveys, taken the time to share your experiences, and in doing so, given us the evidence we need to advocate on your behalf at the highest levels.

This blog brings together the key findings from member surveys we've run this year. But more importantly, it draws out a consistent message running through all of it: the challenges schools face are increasingly interconnected, and they cannot be solved in isolation.

A year shaped by your insight

At NGA, member insight sits at the heart of everything we do. In addition to our longstanding annual governance survey, we gather evidence and feedback from across the organisation – through our external reviews of governance, policy advisory groups and events, you are helping us build a clear picture of your ongoing priorities and challenges.

Against the backdrop of a busy year in education policy, we asked the governance community to respond to two additional surveys:

  • Our autumn policy survey, which captured your experiences across a range of pressing issues facing schools and trusts in 2025.
  • A survey in response to the government’s recent white paper, exploring your views on the reforms unfolding across the sector.

Your responses have already informed six government consultations across a range of areas like SEND, safeguarding and social media, as well as four policy papers you may have seen published since November, which include:

Each of our papers make recommendations to policy makers and wider practice points for the governance community.

Your insights don’t just stop there. They have also fed directly into our ongoing engagement with the Department for Education (DfE) - improving education together (IET) subgroups, where we work closely with other representative bodies as well as ongoing working groups on school funding, admissions and exclusions. These conversations sit behind the headline findings from both surveys, which we explore in more detail below.

The SEND consensus

It comes as no surprise that SEND has, arguably, become the defining education issue this year. Early findings from the autumn policy survey showed that only 18% of respondents believed current policy and funding arrangements enable schools to meet the needs of pupils with SEND.  While 83% of respondents agreed that effective collaboration with parents and local authorities is just as important as funding, 84% still identified funding itself as the single greatest challenge. What members told us is that this is not an either/or issue and shows both resources and relationships matter if the system is to work effectively.

That sense of frustration also carried through into the post-white paper survey, where there remained scepticism over whether the government’s proposed reforms will be enough to fully address the SEND crisis. While many welcomed the recognition that the current system is under significant strain and some of the specific proposals, there was also concern that the proposals do not yet provide the clarity or investment needed to definitively resolve the issue.

The most cited concerns centred on the practical implications for schools and trusts. Respondents showed concern about the impact on wider school budgets (43%), unequal access to shared resources and specialist provision (40%), and whether additional funding would ultimately be used effectively within the system (39%).

Although the government’s direction of travel on SEND is becoming clearer, significant uncertainty remains. Questions persist around the scale of legislative change required, workforce capacity and training, and how proposed inclusion standards would operate in practice. For many respondents, the white paper signalled ambition rather than immediate reform, with the detail of implementation depending heavily on the outcomes of the SEND reform consultation.

  • "It comes as no surprise that SEND has, arguably, become the defining education issue this year. Early findings from the autumn policy survey showed that only 18% of respondents believed current policy and funding arrangements enable schools to meet the needs of pupils with SEND."

    The pressure behind behaviour and attendance

    The autumn policy also explored the drivers of persistent absence, particularly as the government continues to focus on attendance through the rollout of RISE attendance and behaviour hub programmes, which aim to help schools create safe, supportive cultures where staff and pupils experience a strong sense of belonging. Governors and trustees consistently identified the same key causes of persistent absence: poor mental health, negative attitudes towards school and appointments linked to SEND or medical need.

    Alongside these concerns, many respondents also highlighted a growing deterioration in the relationship between schools and families. Boards described increasing tensions with parents, lower levels of trust and engagement, and a sense that schools are often expected to meet wider social and emotional needs without the support or services required to do so effectively.

    Many governors viewed these challenges as interconnected, reflecting wider patterns of disadvantage and community disengagement, with attendance and behaviour issues often symptomatic of families feeling unsupported or left behind. With this in mind, rebuilding attendance depends not only on school-based interventions, but also on restoring confidence and partnership between families and schools.

    On behaviour, the picture is also complex. The top challenges identified in addressing poor behaviour were:

    • insufficient access to specialist support services
    • pressures linked to SEND
    • lack of parental engagement
    • limited staff time and capacity

    Again, these issues are closely linked to the broader social pressures facing many communities, reinforcing the view that behaviour, attendance and parental engagement cannot be addressed in isolation. Building on these interconnected challenges, the white paper outlines the government’s ambition to reduce the impact that socioeconomic background can have on educational success, while also strengthening the relationship between schools and the communities they serve. Central to this vision is the belief that every child should be able to achieve and thrive, regardless of their circumstances – a vision which we, of course, welcome.

    To support this, the government has introduced and two place-based initiatives, Mission North East and Mission Coastal, which aim to tackle regional inequalities and improve opportunities for children and families in areas facing greater disadvantage. They also highlight the importance of developing a deeper understanding of the relationship between schools and families.

    Having the resources to deliver change

    The overlapping nature of education challenges also came through strongly in responses about funding and resources.  In much of the same way that behaviour, attendance and parental engagement cannot be tackled in isolation, many respondents felt that SEND reform, school complaints and capital investment are all part of the same wider picture.

    A key consideration is the scale of capital investment required to make SEND proposals workable in practice. With school budgets already under significant pressure, and one third of boards reporting infrastructure costs as a barrier to balancing budgets in 2025, the expectation that every secondary school will host inclusion bases to support pupils with SEND raises important questions about the sustainability of plans.

    Funding pressures were already a major theme in our autumn policy survey. Overall, 61% of respondents said their school or trust required urgent investment in its estate, while only 13% agreed that capital funding is allocated fairly. Together, these findings highlight a long-standing tension between the level of need within schools and the resources available to meet it, alongside a wider perception that the current funding system does not distribute resources equitably.

    Yet many boards also emphasise that, without addressing these underlying systemic pressures and funding gaps, schools’ capacity to reduce complaints and meet families’ needs will remain limited. As one participant noted:

    “Most complaints are around SEND provision, or the impact of SEND pupils on the rest of the class. If the government could fund SEND properly without crippling schools' budgets and allowing them to increase staff numbers, a lot of these complaints would not exist in the first place.”

    What emerges from both surveys is a picture of a system operating under mutually reinforcing pressures. SEND needs are driving attendance and behaviour challenges. Attendance and behaviour challenges are bound up with mental health difficulties and family circumstances. Behaviour challenges are being exacerbated by insufficient access to specialist support. And these combined pressures, in turn, are placing growing strain on relationships with families and on schools’ capacity to respond effectively.

    A question of implementation

    Our post-white paper survey covered a broad range of issues from safeguarding and mobile phones to local governance structures, MAT inspection, suspensions, admissions, and complaints. The overall picture it painted was of a sector that broadly accepts the direction of travel but continues to struggle with the practical realities of implementation on the ground.

    On safeguarding, respondents described significant uncertainty across a number of areas, particularly around gender-neutral facilities, multi-agency working under increasing strain, and a persistent lack of specialist training for staff. The consistent message emerging from responses was a clear call for more explicit, actionable guidance from government, which NGA has been echoing through consultation responses. Without it, respondents warned, the grey areas that currently exist leave schools unnecessarily exposed and vulnerable to getting things wrong despite their best intentions.

    Mobile phone restrictions told a somewhat different story. With 90% of boards already having some form of restriction in place, the practice is already widespread across the sector, yet 59% of respondents still believe a change in the law is needed. That apparent tension reflects something important: a genuine desire for nationwide consistency that removes ambiguity, supports school leaders in their decision-making, and creates a level playing field for all pupils regardless of where they are educated.

    The questions around local governance and MAT inspection attracted particularly strong views. A clear majority of 76% said that a MAT inspection framework should consider how well trust boards use intelligence from the local tier in their decision-making. The qualitative responses went further, reflecting a desire for the local tier to have genuine purpose and tangible value and to serve as the "eyes and ears on the ground" that central trust structures, however well-intentioned, cannot always be. You can expect to hear more on this in our upcoming MAT inspection paper.

    • "Yet many boards also emphasise that, without addressing these underlying systemic pressures and funding gaps, schools’ capacity to reduce complaints and meet families’ needs will remain limited."

      Your voice

      Your responses have helped us name and evidence connections with clarity and conviction. They have given us a strong foundation from which to make the case to policymakers: that the reforms currently being introduced must be adequately resourced and coherently joined up if they are to make a meaningful and lasting difference to the children and young people at the heart of this system.

      None of this evidence base exists without you. Every response you give helps us build a clearer, stronger case on behalf of governors and trustees across the country and, ultimately, on behalf of the children and young people in your schools and trusts.

      The Annual Governance Survey is your next opportunity to contribute to that picture. Your insights will feed directly into NGA's advocacy work, including our ongoing engagement with government, and will help shape the support and resources we develop for members in the year ahead. Whether you are a governor, trustee, clerk, or governance professional, your experience matters and your voice deserves to be heard.

      The survey takes around 15 minutes to complete and you can save your. Please do take the time, and if you can, encourage colleagues on your board to do the same

      Bami Olukayode

      Policy and Impact Officer

      Bami's role involves supporting NGA’s policy, campaigns and project development. She also assists with NGA’s guidance and weekly e-newsletter. Prior to joining NGA, Bami studied BSc Government and Political Science at University College Cork, Ireland.

      View Bami's full profile

      Related content