Lord John Nash and his wife, Lady Caroline Nash, are the co-founders of Future, a charity they launched in 2005 to support disadvantaged children and young people. Recognising the grounding and enabling role of schools for many disadvantaged children, Future secured the approval of the Labour Government to support an academy school in 2008. Although Pimlico Academy – the school taken on by Future Academies – was already in special measures, thanks to its dynamic leadership team it achieved an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ rating just 2½ years later.
Since then, Future Academies has gone from strength to strength, today running 10 academies across London and Hertfordshire, learning institutions that serve circa 7,000 students, including a new primary free school it established that has also received Ofsted’s ‘Outstanding’ rating. More recently, Phoenix Academy also achieved ‘Outstanding’ in every category when recently inspected by Ofsted.
In addition to his philanthropic pursuits and role as a venture capitalist, Lord John Nash has also served as a non-executive director of the Department for Education from 2010 to 2013 and schools minister for the Department of Education from 2013 to 2017. Commenting on the announcement of Lord Nash’s appointment as the Department for Education’s new minister in the Lords, then-Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove said he was delighted that Lord Nash had joined the education team, reflecting on his vast knowledge of the education sector and ideal position to drive through reform standards and continue to raise standards.
As schools minster, Lord Nash was responsible for free schools, faith schools, independent schools, academies and school capital. The number of academies across the UK rose from approximately 2,000 to circa 7,000 during his tenure, which also saw the creation of hundreds of free schools. As minister for the Department for Education, Lord John Nash oversaw the passage of five Acts of Parliament through the House of Lords. In 2013, whilst taking the Children and Families Act through the House of Lords, he was approached by the Earl of Listowel to include the Staying Put facility in the legislation.
In those days, when a young person in foster care reached the age of 18, government payments to their foster parents ceased. Many of these parents wanted the children to stay with them during the holidays while they attended university but simply could not afford to support them.
The Earl of Listowel appealed to the Department for Education to provide foster parents with a reduced fee to cover time during college holidays. Costing the UK Government somewhere in the region of £25 million per year, the scheme would enable young students to stay with their foster families throughout college holidays.
Unfortunately, the newly elected Conservatives had already embarked on a raft of government service cuts due to the poor state of public finances. Nevertheless, recognising the benefits of the Earl of Listowel’s proposal, Lord John Nash recommended the scheme to Michael Gove.
Lord Nash recounts the conversation lasting less than a minute before he secured Michael Gove’s approval, with Mr Gove himself having been adopted. On breaking the good news to the Earl of Listowel, Lord Nash recalls the Earl being moved to tears, recounting it as one of the most emotionally charged moments of his ministerial career.
Lord John Nash was also the driving force behind the Boarding Schools Partnership, a government programme that enabled many more students in care, as well as those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to attend private day schools and private boarding schools on full bursaryships. Committed to safeguarding the welfare and opportunities of children and young people across the country, Lord Nash today serves as an advisor to the Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation, an organisation created to facilitate bursary schemes for disadvantaged students.