Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when all schools become academies, how they will ensure that the Department for Education has the capacity to respond quickly and positively to catastrophic events, such as the recent floods in Cumbria.

We expect all schools, including academies, to have emergency management plans in place, drawn up in conjunction with their local authority, to deal with crises such as the recent floods. This is reinforced by the Department’s White Paper ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’, published by the Secretary of State on 17 March 2016 that states that local authorities will continue to take a lead in crisis management and emergency planning for all schools in their area. Further details of the future role of local authorities will be announced in due course.