Dear CEO,

As Children’s Commissioner for England, I am writing to request that you ensure that each of the academies in your trust complete my statutory data collection for all schools and colleges in England by Friday 20th December 2024.

Under Section 2F of the Children Act 2004, I have statutory powers to collect data relating to children from any public sector organisation in England, meaning it is compulsory for all schools to provide the information requested. The survey can be accessed here, more information is available here.

Please note, each school or college must respond individually, and multi-academy trusts cannot respond on the behalf of multiple settings.

I would be grateful if you could promote the link with your schools and colleges, to ensure that the survey reaches as many settings as possible. You could share the survey by:

• Sending a newsletter to all schools and colleges in your trust with a link to the survey;
• Promoting the survey on your social media. My Office is promoting the survey through X (formerly Twitter). Please retweet our posts and share directly with your schools and colleges. You can read our latest posts;
• Sharing details of the survey in your leaders’ meetings. Please make sure leaders know that the survey is statutory and completing the survey will give them a chance to inform my Office’s work for the remainder of my term in office.

With a new government, this is now the moment to find out the state of the nation of support in schools. This survey of all schools and colleges in England will capture up-to-date information about children’s experiences, to celebrate the achievements of education settings in supporting their pupils, and drive improvements in this support. It asks about your support offers to pupils and their families, staff roles and responsibilities, and the characteristics and vulnerabilities of your pupils.

I will publish overall findings, not naming any individual schools or colleges, and will take them to the new Government, to inform future policy and help you in your work to make schools supportive environments for all children to learn and thrive.

I will also be hosting webinars for multi-academy trusts, school leaders, diocese and local authorities to further explore the data and recommendations. I am determined to share the findings from this survey to help improve the life chances of children across England.

Thank you, as ever, for your support.

Yours sincerely,
Dame Rachel de Souza
Children’s Commissioner for England