DFE: No exit from academy chains, joining is a oneway street

The government response to the Education Select Committee's Fourth Special Report into School Partnership and Cooperation (Published Jan 15):
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmeduc/999/99904.htm

Question: It appears logical that in a mature education market, schools should have the flexibility to move between partnerships where this is the right thing to do for their pupils. We recommend that the Government explain how a school consistently judged 'Outstanding' would be able to leave an academy chain where this is against the wishes of the chain management. (Paragraph 94)



Answer: 'From our experience to date, it is extremely rare for an academy to wish to leave a multi-academy trust. If an academy within a trust (with or without a sponsor) is rated 'outstanding' by Ofsted and wishes to leave the trust, it might be possible for them to exit by mutual consent.

'An agreement would need to be reached between the academy, the controlling trust board and the Secretary of State, in order to make new funding arrangements to allow the academy to stand alone, join another chain/multi-academy trust or become a sponsor of weaker schools.

'We are not convinced of the benefit of allowing an academy to exit a chain without the consent of the trust board. There is a risk that allowing this would undermine the role of the multi-academy trust, creating a situation in which the trust is afraid to challenge an outstanding academy for fear the academy might leave.

'We are also mindful to avoid a situation in which academies that, with the support of the multi-academy trust, have achieved an "Outstanding" rating cannot sustain this level of performance once they lose the benefits of the support of their chain. Further, promoting a system in which an academy can join a multi-academy trust, benefit from its support and then leave does not create any incentive for strong multi-academy trusts to offer this support to other academies.

'If an academy has undergone a period of improvement, their role within their multi-academy trust will evolve from being the recipient of support to having a role in supporting weaker schools and sharing good practice with other schools in the trust. An academy wanting to leave a multi-academy trust would constitute a significant change to an open academy.

'We already specify and publish the process for how an academy can join a multi-academy trust (with the consent of the Secretary of State) and we will consider how we can reflect in guidance the process of leaving a multi-academy trust.'

Also...

Question:
Inspection of academy chains 20.
The committee said: 'We recommend that Ofsted be provided with the powers it needs to inspect academy chains. (Paragraph 90)

The DfE answered: 'Ofsted already have powers to inspect groups of academies, either because they themselves have an interest, or where the Secretary of State asks the Chief Inspector for advice.

Giving Ofsted the power to inspect sponsor chains would not provide any information about the sponsors that the DfE does not already have.

 It is not appropriate to try to seek 'parity' with powers Ofsted already have to inspect local authorities, because academy chains and local authorities are very different bodies...'

'...Academy chains will vary enormously in their structure and approach. It is unclear what chain functions Ofsted would be inspecting and what information they would hope to glean that could not be gained from inspecting individual academies. We are not convinced that there is additional value in a "top down" approach over and above existing powers to inspect groups of academies from the "bottom up".

Question: The Government should set out how organisations in the middle tier will be held to account for strategic oversight of partnership working in all schools and how they will ensure that gaps are not allowed to develop or remain unfilled, particularly in rural and coastal areas. (Paragraph 84)

Answer: 'Information on the role of academy sponsors, chains, and sector leaders such as NLEs are all available on the DfE's web pages. Accountability for academy trusts, including multi-academy trusts, is through the funding agreement with the Secretary of State.

'Breach of that agreement can ultimately result in its termination. In future, accountability for academies will move to Regional School Commissioners to inject sector and professional expertise into the management of the system, providing the means by which the Secretary of State exercises his accountability on a more regionally-informed basis. In addition, we will continue to increase the location and activity of accredited sector leaders.'