Free Schools and Academies

Lord Young of Cookham Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Cookham (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Evans for initiating this debate, which has already produced some high-quality speeches. The contribution of my noble friend Lord Harris was one of the most compelling and persuasive that I have heard for a very long time. The Secretary of State should not just read it but watch it.

I looked at the list of speakers for this debate, saw the number of highly qualified noble Lords and paused before adding my name because, in 50 years in this building, I do not think I have ever spoken in an education debate. However, I have always taken an interest in education, as a local MP, as the parent of children who attended state schools and now once again as a governor in a multi-academy trust, as in the register. Much has changed since I was first a governor, in the 1960s. We had short meetings then, dominated by a head and a forceful lady from the Inner London Education Authority. We had slightly longer meetings in the 1980s when I was again a governor, because the fertile mind of my noble friend Lord Baker had introduced a fresh initiative, LMS—local management of schools—which we were getting our minds around. Now, as a trust member, I have taken a renewed interest in governance. I make no complaints that the entry requirements are now slightly higher. I had to have a DBS check and do online safety requirements for certificates on equality and diversity awareness, safeguarding and prevention, and NCSC security. I make no complaints about that at all.

However, some of the challenges facing the trust that I am on are the same as those for maintained schools. The 2.8% pay offer, not accepted by the unions, is currently unfunded, as indeed is the national insurance increase. Teacher recruitment and retention is a problem for all schools, but particularly for schools that are supporting children from more deprived backgrounds, as many multi-academy trusts are. They often have a higher number of children with SEND, needing more staff to support them, without clarity about how that will be funded. I welcome the steps taken by my noble friend Lady Barran when in government to rationalise the assessment of SEND and reduce delays. That needs to be built on.

Some of the other challenges for the trust are different. I will mention just one. The trust I have joined, which has an outstanding chair and CEO, is expanding, with local schools wanting to join. However, the time it takes to go through the process of adding schools leads to unnecessary uncertainty and a diversion of effort. Taking on a single academy is less difficult, but taking on a maintained school can take up to 12 months, with the property services division of the local authority often responsible for delay. Anything that the regional directors at the DfE can do to minimise delays for trusts that want to expand would be enormously welcome.

I have seen the benefits of academies where a school in special measures joins the trust. The trust then has much more direct control over that school than an LEA would have, and it can share resources with that school for a time, turning it around. I have seen the rapid improvement that is needed with a school, with a focus, for example, on issues such as non-attendance, and with teachers and pupils from stronger schools helping out with weaker schools. The trust with which I am involved is geographically concentrated. That means we can help a small number of schools in a much more focused way than the broader-based LEA could.

I listened with some dismay to the speeches of the noble Lord, Lord Storey, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle. I have found no evidence of the bad practices that they mentioned at the schools in my group.

My final point has not been mentioned so far. The success of the academy movement has meant that some LEAs have been left with but a handful of primary schools. That means they have been even less able to support the schools remaining in their control. This reinforces the imperative for academy rollout to be completed, rather than delayed as the Government are suggesting at the moment.