Ai: Civitas report on the Future of Independent Education: findings and recommendations | HMC Spring Conference 2025

The Civitas’ Commission on the Future for Independent Schools in England provides an in-depth review of independent schools and their role in England today, as well as a constructive long term vision for their future. The Commission specifically offers four pathways in exploring for the future of independent schooling:

• Seeking a collaborative and world-class sector by improving the coordination of independent-state partnerships.

• Exploring independent schools as community hubs, unleashing the power of partnership in delivering on society’s greatest needs, while benefiting from the opportunities of independence.

• Encouraging the cultural breadth and accessibility of the independent sector which depends on schools that are different, innovative, distinctive, affordable and well understood by government.

• Levelling the playing field for the most disadvantaged so that independent schooling can transform the lives and opportunities of disadvantaged children and so the sector can expand on that ambition.

The Commission uses dozens of expert interviews, nationally representative polling, analysis of fee data, and a survey of school heads and bursars to provide a comprehensive picture of independent schools. It then uses this picture, as well as comparison with international examples, to set out a vision for the future landscape of independent schooling in England. The ambition of the Commission has been to cultivate a sector that displays excellence, cultural breadth, independence, accessibility, and collaboration.