Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many stand-alone academies have been placed by Ofsted into the requiring improvement or special measures categories.

279 stand-alone academies have been judged to require improvement (including those judged to be satisfactory – the equivalent grade - under the pre-2012 inspection framework) or in special measures at their most recent Ofsted inspection. This is 14% of the stand-alone academies inspected. 1705 stand-alone academies (86%) have been judged by Ofsted to be outstanding or good. By way of comparison, 3178 maintained schools were graded as requiring improvement (including those graded as satisfactory under the pre-2012 inspection framework) or special measures (19% of the maintained schools inspected) and 13,565 (81%) were judged to be outstanding or good.

The strong accountability regime for academies allows the Department to tackle underperformance swiftly. In 2014 the Department introduced eight Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) to strengthen the oversight of academies and free schools. These RSCs, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, can intervene by: bringing in additional expertise; challenging the academy trust to make changes to its leadership team; and issuing pre-warning notices and warning notices to drive improvement.