Former prime minister Tony Abbott has accepted an offer to become Scott Morrison’s special envoy on indigenous affairs, saying school attendance and performance will be his major focus.

Mr Morrison offered the Liberal backbencher the envoy role after leaving him out of his new-look cabinet, in an effort to heal the wounds of last week’s damaging leadership spill.

Mr Abbott has written to the new prime minister accepting the job, but has made a number of recommendations, The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday.

“What I expect to be asked to do is to make recommendations on how we can improve remote area education, in particular, how we can improve attendance rates and school performance because this is the absolute key to a better future for indigenous kids and this is the key to reconciliation,” he told the paper.