Agenda item

Purpose: To outline to the Overview and Scrutiny Management Commission the draft recommendations arising from the review into the effect of schools becoming academies on the capacity of the Local Education Authority.

Councillor Alan Macro introduced the report to the Commission which summarised the work carried out by the Stronger Communities Select Committee and a Task Group, made up of Members from the Select Committee.

Councillor Macro highlighted a number of main issues raised and reviewed by the Task Group:

• The funding arrangements were not fair, those applying at the early stage would potentially receive more funding than they were entitled to creating disadvantages elsewhere;
• The Secretary of State had written to schools encouraging them to become academies and detailed the benefits of converting to academy status;
• There were significant costs to be carried by the Local Authority in supporting the legal work required to convert a school to academy status;
• There would be a direct impact on the Local Education Authority as the number of LA maintained schools were reduced and there was less use of council services;
• Academies have the freedom to buy services from any source;
• The Local Authority was offering a set of services but had decided that some services could not be offered to academies;
• It was unclear what action might be required by the Local Authority for a failing academy;
• The Local Authority retained some statutory responsibilities to provide Home to School transport, Special Education Needs (SEN) support of non statemented pupils, assessment and provision for statemented pupils and the need to ensure attendance.

Councillor Alan Macro referred the Commission to Section 8 on pages 16 and 17 of the report which outlined  nine suggested recommendations to be taken forward to the Executive subject to the Overview and Scrutiny Management Commission’s approval.

Councillor Quentin Webb raised the concern that there was no recommendation for the Head of Finance to monitor the costs incurred by the Local Authority.  Costs of converting schools to academies would vary considerably, for example Park House was a relatively simple conversion but Kennet school was a particularly complex legal case to manage and the costs were considerable.

Councillor Irene Neill commented that recommendations 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 all carried requirements to manage costs and ensured there was no detrimental impact on Local Authority maintained schools.

Councillor Jeff Beck proposed that Members accept the report’s recommendations which should be put forward for consideration by the Executive.

Councillor Jeff Brooks made a number of comments:

• Academies were a major Coalition Government initiative;
• The Local Education Authority (LEA) was left to run a rump of maintained schools;
• Kennet School had elected to convert early to academy status for financial gain;
• There was a real need to assess the implications on the LEA as the number of maintained schools was reduced.

Several Councillors raised a number of concerns regarding the phrase “at full cost” in Recommendation 1, Section 8.1.1 on page 16 of the report.  It was queried whether it meant just the recovery of all costs or did  it include a margin to create a commercial rate that would not disadvantage non-academy schools.

Ian Pearson (Head of Education Service) reassured Members that the costing of services had been carefully considered.  The Education Service was planning to provide high quality services to schools and children.  Those services offered must recover all their costs and there would not be any subsidies from maintained schools.  Considerable thought had been put into the business case and trading strategy covering the services offered.

Ian Pearson then advised that the funding of academies was changing, early conversions had been over funded by the DFE (not Local Authorities) and more recently the ready reckoner showed smaller funding benefits.

Councillor Jeff Brooks asked if secondary head teachers were aware of the change.  Ian Pearson confirmed it had been discussed at a meeting of maintained and academy school head teachers.  Ian Pearson commented that the LEA had offered to work with schools considering academy status and provided information and signposting support to head teachers.

Councillor Jeff Brook expressed concern regarding point 7 on page 15 “of the report “The minimal amount of consultation that appears to be required with parents is a concern” and he thought it was sad that it was so light touch.

Councillor Alan Macro stated the authority did not want to discourage schools converting to academies. The Task Group had identified a number of questions and issues it wanted to raise with the Government.  In particular, the need for academies to cooperate with Local Authorities in managing children who moved into the area in year, and with the provision of attendance information.  It was agreed to draft a letter requesting a meeting with the Government to discuss the issues raised by the Commission.

RESOLVED that:

Councillors Irene Neill and Alan Macro would write a letter requesting a meeting with the Government.

Councillors asked Councillor Alan Macro to draft an amendment to the report’s recommendations that covered the need for academies to cooperate with Local Authorities in managing children who move into the area and with the provision of attendance information.  (See recommendation 9 listed below).

Councillor Jeff Beck proposed that Members accept the report’s recommendations with the amended recommendation 9 added.  Councillor Dominic Boeck seconded the proposal.  At the vote it was carried unanimously. 

The suggested actions (recommendations) for the Executive finally agreed were:

1. The Head of Education Service, in conjunction with other appropriate Heads of Service, should actively seek to sell services to academies at full cost, where this makes sense for service delivery and is also to the benefit of other schools.  Efforts should be made to ensure that contracts are established for a minimum period of three years;
2. The Head of Education Service, in conjunction with other appropriate Heads of Service, should monitor service reductions to ensure continued viability of delivery and identify corrective action if necessary;
3. The Head of Education Service should encourage the Schools’ Forum to ensure that any financial transfers to academies are in line with real costs and not to the detriment of other schools;
4. The Head of Education Service should monitor the extent to which the Local Authority remains responsible for certain academy capital costs to ensure that this does not have a detrimental impact on Local Authority budgets;
5. The Head of Education Service should monitor the conversion of schools to academy status and the setting up of Free Schools within West Berkshire, including those outside the District boundary which might have an impact on West Berkshire schools, in order to continually evaluate the impact to the Local Authority;
6. The Head of Education Service should request that the government looks at meeting the Council incurred costs of academy conversions in line with the financial support given to governing bodies who wish to convert;
7. The Head of Education Service should ensure that academies are meeting the requirements of their Funding Agreement with the Secretary of State to support ‘weaker’ schools;
8. The Head of Education Service and the Head of Cultural Services should encourage academies to make sites and facilities available for community use at a reasonable cost.
9. The Secretary of State should be asked to ensure that academies are required to cooperate with other schools and the LEA, specifically, in the areas of accepting children who move into the area in year and sharing the names of the children on their roll, with the LEA;
10. The Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People and the Youth Service should distribute the approved report to West Berkshire’s Members of Parliament to seek their help with pursuing the concerns raised and potentially arranging a meeting with a representative of the Department for Education.

Councillor Brian Bedwell on behalf of the Commission thanked Task Group and Councillors Alan Macro and Irene Neill for their report and recommendations.