In the intervening years we have seen the actual number of schools converting to academy status over the past few years has gone up and down in a succession of waves.
It seems a long while since the heady days of 2016 and Nicky Morgan’s ill-fated statement that all schools would be academies by 2022. In the intervening years we have had heard a variety of messages circulated by the Department for Education (DfE) but no firm policy on the advancement of the academy programme has been forthcoming. The actual number of schools converting to academy status over the past few years has gone up and down in a succession of waves which seem to more or less follow wider political events such as general elections, Brexit and of course the Covid pandemic.
So where does this leave us now at the end of 2021 and midway through the term of this Parliament? Notwithstanding his recent departure, Gavin Williamson’s address to the Confederation of School Trust conference back in April seems to provide us with the best idea of current Government policy on the issue. Whilst the speech did not drop any bombshells it did underscore the Government’s vision that all schools should be ‘part of a strong multi academy trust(MAT)’. It did not however provide any timeline or other mechanism for forcing maintained schools or single academies to join multi academy trusts. The main takeaway points from the speech were the consultation on the triple Requires Improvement test and the roll out of the ‘try before you buy’ mechanism for interested maintained schools. The former (being a proposal that any school judged as Requires Improvement on three consecutive occasions would be forced to join a MAT) remains in the consultation phase and the latter, whilst accepted by many trusts to be an interesting idea, does not seem to have flown off the shelves.
The financial incentives for schools looking to convert or trusts looking to expand remain fairly static and do not in themselves seem to have acted as a lever to persuade schools to take the plunge.
In the absence of either stick or carrot many schools, councils and academy trusts have been left wondering what the future holds with regards to the roll out of the universal academisation programme. Some councils (notably Swindon) have taken the Government’s softly-softly approach as a reason to row back on their previously stated intention of asking all remaining maintained schools in their borough to convert to academy status. In contrast other organisations, notably a number of Church of England and Catholic dioceses, have accelerated their academy programmes.
Given the recent research exercise conducted by the DfE on the perceived benefit and obstacles in schools joining MATs, the Department are clearly looking at the root causes preventing single academies and maintained schools from joining MATs. There seem to be a number of issues at play, but the overwhelming message is that schools are worried about a lack of autonomy. This is a tricky issue for the DfE to unpick, as autonomy means very different things to different people. It might be that this identified trend leads to revisions to MAT governance though perhaps more likely the ‘try before you buy’ scheme will be pushed harder to allow schools to experience in real time what it feels like to be in MAT.
The fact that we are still dealing in suppositions at this stage is probably indicative of where the academy programme is at the current time. However, we are well overdue a White Paper from the DfE and the recent change in Secretary of State and some of the more junior ministerial positions may well bring fresh eyes to the programme. Watch this space!
This article was first published by LASBM in their December 2021 newsletter
Senior Associate
Tom.Briant-Evans@brownejacobson.com
+44 (0)330 045 2888
Regardless of the outcome of ballots on industrial action, unless there is drastic change to funding for schools in relation to pay increases, it will be unusual to find any organisational budget that is not impacted by the current economic situation.
There’s been little evidence of interventions or financial management reviews this year and it appears the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has re-focussed on financial delivery. It’s also telling that there were no discernible changes to the reporting of financial irregularities in the Academies Trust Handbook 2022.
The Children’s Commissioner, Rachel De Souza, has recently published a report “Beyond the labels: a SEND system which works for every child, every time”, which she intends to sit alongside the DfE’s SEND Review (2019) and SEND Green Paper (2022) and which she hopes will put children’s voices at the heart of the government’s review of SEND system.
As well as providing day-to-day support to help you focus on managing your settings, we also provide training and professional development on a range of topics to keep you and your staff up-to-date.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHCR) recently issued new, non-statutory guidance regarding the wearing of natural or protective hairstyles, specifically in reference to their representation in uniform, behaviour or standalone appearance policies.
Emma Hughes, head of HR services at Browne Jacobson, explains how CST’s updated executive pay report and the linked benchmarking service from XpertHR can help trust boards make robust decisions on pay.
There’s greater opportunity than ever for parents, carers and guardians to voice any concerns they have relating to their child’s education and for their concerns to be heard and to be taken seriously. While most staff in schools and academies are conscious of their legal duties relating to complaints management, many are struggling to cope with such a significant increase in the volume of complaints they must manage.
This guidance has been prepared to support academy trusts (Trusts) who want to hold a fully virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM) or a hybrid AGM, as we know that Trusts may want to be prepared for future disruption as well as having a general interest in holding more meetings virtually. The guidance also applies to other meetings of the Members (known as General Meetings).
We’re pleased to collaborate with Lloyds Bank, who recently asked us and audit and risk specialists Crowe UK to offer guidance that academy trusts would find helpful when considering setting up a trading subsidiary.
The DfE has published new guidance and opened the application process for window two of the Trust Capacity Fund (TCaF) for 2022/2023, with a fund of £86m in trust capacity funding focused particularly on education investment areas.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was established in March 2015. We now have its report. As you would expect with such a broad scope, the report is long and makes a number of far-reaching recommendations. In this article, Dai Durbridge highlights seven of the 20 recommendations, sets out how they could impact on schools and suggests what steps to take now.
Browne Jacobson’s education team has been named as winner of the ‘Legal Advisors to Education Institutions’ category at the Education Investor Awards 2022 for a record sixth time.
Since the new Suspensions and Exclusions Statutory Guidance was published, we have received a lot of questions about the use of managed moves. For the first time, the Statutory Guidance does explain what a managed move is, but in relatively broad terms and does not cover the mechanics of how a managed move should operate.
Over 3000 young people from across the UK and Ireland took part in a virtual legal careers insight event, aimed at making the legal profession more diverse.
Holly Quirk, an associate barrister in Browne Jacobson’s Manchester office, was awarded the Legal Professional of the Year Award at this year’s Manchester Young Talent Awards.
The risk of assault against staff is, sadly, something that all schools need to consider carefully. Here one legal expert explains what they can do to protect staff and ensure they fulfil their duty of care.
An engineering company in Tyne and Wear was fined £20,000 after a worker fractured his pelvis and suffered internal injuries after falling through a petrol station forecourt canopy, whilst he was replacing the guttering.
Browne Jacobson’s education team has again been confirmed as a national powerhouse after securing five Tier 1 rankings relating to Education in the latest edition of Legal 500 and maintaining a Band 1 UK-wide ranking for Education in Chambers & Partners UK 2023.
