It turns out that creating a level playing field for school choice is about more than just providing school guides or websites with search and matching functions, or text messages to nudge parents to complete applications.
Last week Utton received a reply to his letter from the DfE, which argues that the new funding system provides a " level playing field" for schools and suggests that if he feels he has a funding shortfall, he should speak to Kent county council (which is responsible for distributing the funding).
"I genuinely believe if we don't put money in to create a level playing field, not all schools can afford to give a basic entitlement of arts and creative subjects". The RSC works with almost 600 schools in disadvantaged areas and she added that in some, "visionary" teachers were keeping their subjects going despite diminished resources.
Most of the former rules, if not all of them, were put into place to help create a "level playing field" among the schools.
Is this a level playing field, with non-chain schools treated the same?
But nevertheless, the conclusion of the report is that there should be a level playing field for how all schools are commissioned, funded and regulated.
The IGCSE will give our students a better grounding for the IB or A-levels, and we will have a level playing field with the independent schools which offer it," says Hutchinson.
To me, it has to go beyond just the numbers, because it really is about whether you can have a society where people perceive a fair and equal opportunity, a level playing field, where things like schools, job prospects, health-care outcomes, et cetera are not completely dependent on to whom you're born and where you go to school.
'It's not a level playing field out there because schools have been playing dirty and saying you can do a language but it's in the same block as drama or other popular subjects, which loads it against us,' says Byrne, one of 50 academics who wrote to The Observer two years ago calling on the government to reverse its policy and reintroduce compulsory languages.
The practice also allows educators to enjoy a level playing field, where inner-city classrooms, charter schools, private schools and even homeschooled children all have access to the same learning and opportunities.
The competition will be run as a "level playing field" across all the Harvard schools.
