Academy Status

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Thursday 31st October 2013 Commons Chamber

[John Cryer]

I have no hesitation in agreeing with the hon. Gentleman about that, and I was about to praise him for his work in supporting the campaign for the school to remain a maintained school. A number of children from his constituency are at the school and we have worked together successfully on a number of issues in our area, of which this is the latest. I have no hesitation in praising Redbridge council for doing an excellent job. As I said, it has managed to invest £110,000 in the fabric of the school. That is pretty unusual given the scarcity of resources at the moment, yet the council managed it, and the local councillors deserve praise as well. I also thank the Department for Education.

There are, however, issues relating to the processes that lead to academisation—to use a fairly modern sort of phrase. Before I raise those with the Minister, let me make it clear that I am not making a party political argument. I was not a fan of academies when the Labour Government were in power—in fact, I was not a fan of quite a few things they did. I have not checked this, but a while ago I was reliably informed that I voted against my own side 84 times when we were in government. That must be some sort of record and it goes to show that I am not above having a crack at my own side if I think it necessary.

It is widely agreed that two things contribute to improvements in schools—good leadership and good teaching—but neither necessarily arises out of academy status. I am sure there are academies with good leadership and good teaching, but there are also state maintained schools that have both those things. Serious concerns have been highlighted in various media reports about the governance and accountability in academy schools and free schools, although we are focusing on academies.

We have seen stories in the press about chains of academies that are starting to form and which have been accused of moving investment from the schools to other things. Their chief executives are earning very high, perhaps inflated, salaries, and large sums are spent on hospitality and junkets. The Select Committee on Education is yet to look at the record of academies. I am sure it will find that there are good ones, but also that there are question marks over accountability and democratic processes, which are not in place.

The process by which schools become academies raises questions for the Department for Education. There are, for instance, conflicts of interest. On 20 December last year, the BBC revealed that at least four advisers contracted to work on the sponsored academies programme by the Department for Education are also Ofsted inspectors, which I would say was a conflict of interest. There are also a number who, according to the same report, have financial interests with academies and free schools but also work for the Department—again, there are questions to be answered.

On 13 February The Independent reported that the Department was busy offering money—in other words, inducements—to schools, which seems to have happened mainly in the north-west. It was reported that 32 schools in Lancashire were offered sums of £40,000, or slightly less, for that purpose. They were told, “If you become an academy, you will receive a cash injection of £40,000.”

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

I am glad my hon. Friend has mentioned what is going on in the north-west, because there has been a lot of concern in schools in Lancashire, Merseyside and elsewhere about the approaches made by brokers—not just financial inducements, but a lot of pressure put on to a school to convert to academy status. Does my hon. Friend agree that one reason there is so much opposition to these conversions is the concern among parents, and others, about the use of unqualified teachers? That has been allowed in academies since July last year.

[John Cryer]

We had a debate earlier this week about the use of unqualified teachers. My view is that teachers should be appropriately qualified, and there is a question about that. Parents also have serious concerns about admissions. Once the local education authority is taken out of admissions, who co-ordinates that? Will there be an element of anarchy because no central body is controlling admissions? In other words, will it be a free-for-all?

On 11 February, The Guardian reported a claim by the National Association of Head Teachers that academy brokers—that phrase is new to me—are given targets by the Department for Education on the number of the schools they must convert. One question I wanted to ask the Minister is whether those targets exists. Are academy brokers told, “You have to convert so many schools by such a point in future”? The same story recorded one head who claimed she had gone to a meeting and been told she was not allowed to leave until she had made a decision on the future of her school. Clearly, that is an unacceptable way to treat anybody, including a head teacher.

There are also examples of head teachers and governors having to concentrate on demands placed on them by the Department rather than concentrating on improving the school. I am thinking of schools that have problems—failing schools in special measures or schools that are given an Ofsted verdict of requiring improvement. They might find that their time is taken up engaging with the Department in discussions on the future status of the school rather than engaging in improving the school.

I have seen a number of Ofsted reports that make it clear that that is happening. For example, one report—I cannot mention the local authority or the school because it is in another constituency, and mentioning it would be a contravention of parliamentary convention—states:

“Another significant barrier to improvement has been the amount of time the headteacher has been involved in the discussions about transferring to an academy…Lengthy and time-consuming meetings with parents, unions, staff and external agencies have taken leaders’ and governors’ focus away from school improvement”.

I have a feeling that, over the next few years, we will see in the media stories of financial mismanagement arising from a lack of accountability, checks and balances, and democracy in the governance of academies and free schools. A parallel can be drawn with the situation when the Government introduced co-operation for further education colleges in 1992. Some of the colleges were fine and worked perfectly well but, because of the lack of accountability, a series of scandals followed—they were documented pretty closely by a number of publications—in which some principals, because they were given a free hand, abused their position. They got up to all sorts of things, financial and otherwise, that were deeply questionable.

To conclude, I have a number of questions for the Minister. I should like him to answer them, but if he does not have answers to hand, I should like him to write to me with the information. Are any contractors who are paid by the Department also Ofsted inspectors? Is anybody working in any way for the Department who has a financial interest in academies and/or free schools? Are academy brokers required by law to abide by the civil service code of conduct? The answer to that last question was given some time ago in another Adjournment debate, and it seemed to be that they are required to abide by the code of conduct. However, in a later Question Time, the Secretary of State equivocated and did not say whether they must abide by the code of conduct or not.

I asked whether brokers are given targets for converting schools to academy status. Is it legitimate for schools to ask academy brokers to declare any conflicts of interest at the outset of their engagement? In other words, would it be legitimate, at the first meeting, for the schools to say, “Is there any conflict of interest you would like to bring to our attention or of which we should be aware?”

As I understand it, when the Academies Commission reported in January 2013, it found that there was no evidence that academies performed significantly better than maintained schools. Is that so? Will the Minister confirm that TUPE rights apply to all staff who are transferred from maintained schools to academies?

I thank the Minister for replying to the debate. He has drawn a bit of a short straw by getting the Adjournment debate on a Thursday afternoon. By the way, it appears that the massed ranks of Parliament have turned out for it, compared with previous Adjournment debates I have introduced. That shows what an important issue this is. I have been to Adjournment debates on Thursdays with the Minister and one Whip, and no one else. Today, there is a magnificent turnout on both sides of the House. I pay tribute to the hon. Members who are here and the Minister.

[The Minister for Schools (Mr David Laws)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Leyton and Wanstead (John Cryer) on securing this important debate and raising these issues, in which he takes a close personal interest. I assure him that I have no problem being here this evening, and I am actually the duty Minister for tomorrow as well so I would be here anyway. I do not know why I am getting all these short straws.

I also pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Mr Scott), who intervened. Although he is not the constituency MP for the school, I know that he has taken an interest on behalf of concerned parents and others in the area, and we have listened closely to both hon. Members on this issue.

The hon. Member for Leyton and Wanstead asked several questions, including about the circumstances of the individual school, which I shall go into in detail; about general policy on academies, which I wish to cover; and some specific questions about the performance management of academy brokers and potential conflicts of interest between Ofsted inspectors and others. On those latter points, I shall write to him—as he anticipated —to ensure that I can supply detailed answers, because I do not have the answers to some of those specific questions to hand.

It is now three years since we expanded the academies programme to enable all schools to become academies, including the ability for primary schools to become academies in their own right for the first time. We did this because we believe that teachers and heads should have more freedom to run schools and more power to innovate in the best interests of their students. More than half of secondary schools and a significant proportion of primary schools are now academies, with more converting every month.

Schools across the country are taking advantage of the freedom that academy status gives them, including having more control over their funding. The decision whether a school should become an academy is, rightly, entirely voluntary for the overwhelming majority of schools, and will remain so. More than 2,500 schools have decided to convert and have become academies. These range from small rural primaries to large secondary schools. We expect these academies to work in partnership with other schools to share their knowledge, experience and expertise, with the highest performing institutions helping the weaker institutions to improve.

In addition to the converter academies, there are now almost 900 sponsored academies. We have made it clear that we want to turn around underperforming schools by finding new academy sponsors for them. As the hon. Gentleman said, this is about raising standards and getting better leadership and governance in weak schools. It is not good enough that some children are left to struggle in schools where a large proportion of the pupils are unable to achieve minimum standards year after year. We want to find lasting solutions to underperformance so that all children have the opportunities that they deserve. This is crucial because each child has only one real chance in life to secure a good education. That is why improving schools rapidly is really important.

Our priority now is to continue tackling poorly performing primary schools so that all pupils have the skills they need to succeed in secondary education. There are schools whose history of underperformance and inability to sustain improvements are causing us real concern. That is why we are working with local authorities across the country to secure better outcomes for their pupils, sometimes by transforming under- performing schools into sponsored academies. In several areas we can point to dramatic improvements in schools that have been failing for some years, but with a new sponsor they have seen significant improvements in performance over time.

In the case of Snaresbrook primary school in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency, the school was judged by Ofsted in June to require special measures. It is worth saying that Ofsted found that the achievement of pupils, quality of teaching, behaviour and safety of pupils and leadership and management at the school were inadequate. As the hon. Gentleman will appreciate, that is a serious matter where prompt action is required. As a result of the inspection, we asked the governing body to consider the benefits of becoming an academy and we proposed an academy sponsor based on a nearby outstanding school. Our policy remains that becoming an academy with the support of a strong sponsor is often the best way to ensure rapid and sustained improvement. However, in this case we recognise that Snaresbrook primary school does not have a long history of underperformance and was previously judged good by Ofsted.

We also acknowledge that the school has made progress since being placed in special measures. The local authority acted swiftly in removing the head teacher and chair of governors, brokering a partnership arrangement with a nearby outstanding school, and providing specialist English and maths consultants, among other changes. We also recognise that in this year’s national tests—not all the data are checked and in the public domain yet—pupil performance appears to have improved significantly at key stage 2. We understand that the school’s results for reading, writing and maths are the best for five years, and among the highest in Redbridge. I understand that pupil progression has improved this year, and that the number of pupils making at least two levels of progress at the end of key stage 2 will be above the local authority and national average.

Those changes, complemented by representations from the hon. Gentleman and the hon. Member for Ilford North, led us to conclude, after Ofsted had looked at the situation, that we needed to review the decision we were making. The changes led Ofsted to conclude at a monitoring inspection earlier this month that the school’s improvement plan is fit for purpose. Inspectors also commented on how leaders have made clear their expectations and ambitions for the school regaining and sustaining its former reputation as a high-achieving school. We will therefore continue to monitor the school’s progress in coming out of special measures, but, as the hon. Gentleman knows, we do not currently plan to intervene in Snaresbrook primary school to force academisation on the school.

However, we are not treating Snaresbrook differently from any other school judged inadequate by Ofsted. At all stages, we have been clear that our goal is school improvement. We will always seek to work with local authorities and schools to find solutions on which everyone can agree, as we have done successfully in many parts of the country.

[Bill Esterson]

I will not ask the Minister about qualified teachers today—we have done that a lot recently. On school improvement and whether academies do better than the state-maintained sector, does he accept that all the evidence—not just that from the Academies Commission —is inconclusive when comparing improvement in like-for-like schools?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)]

Order. The hon. Gentleman must stick carefully to the narrow terms of the debate. I am sure the Minister will bear that in mind.