Please explain to me the benefits/drawbacks of becoming an academy?

Yes, I meant Educational Psychologists - sorry. Looking at SEN specifically, the LA retains funding for SEN administration, assessment and coordination, transport for SEN pupils and monitoring of SEN provision. It also retains funding for parent partnership, guidance and information in connection with SEN. The LA pays the academy for provision for SEN pupils with individually assigned resources where this is required.

As Admission says, academies generally cannot reclaim VAT on expenditure. They receive a VAT grant to cover this which is supposed to ensure they have broadly equivalent purchasing power. I don't know enough about how the VAT grant is calculated to be able to say whether or not it actually achieves that aim.

Prh47 - do you mean Educational Psychologists? LAs still have to provide the statutory elements of EP work (ie assessments around statementing), but other SEN assessments will not be ringfenced by whatever is left of the LAs, neither will support I suspect.

Another little gem in terms of funding is that academy schools have to pay VAT on purchases that are not staffing, which maintained schools do not generally.
So actually the financial advantages are not as good as they might first think. Part fo the extra funding si to cover this. When you then add in the fact that the DfE knows that they are double funding in certain bits of funding that academies get and this could be sorted out next April, I would have not suspect that they will be any better off.

As a school we will not be doing anything until we access the effects of the cuts to our funding next April and we are far more confident that we know what the funding is going to be a bit further down the road.

Regarding funding, it isn't quite as simple as saying they won't get any help from the LA.

The LA receive money from the government to fund schools in their area. The LA deducts some of this to provide central services, regardless of whether or not the schools actually want these services or feel they are getting value for money from the LA.

Academies are funded direct from the government. The school gets more funding but doesn't get some of the services from the LA that normal schools do. However, the LA still receives funding for some central services including educational psychiatric services and SEN assessments. The LA is free to offer other services to academies in return for a fee. If the academy wants the service and feels the price is reasonable it can pay.

Academies can set their own pay rates, so they can pay teachers more or less than they would get in LA schools. They also have more freedom regarding the curriculum.

Academies set their own admission criteria, although the rules are fairly restrictive in terms of what they can actually do - they cannot, for example, become selective schools unless they are already selective prior to conversion.

The new academies are largely the same as the existing ones created under the last government but they no longer need an external sponsor.

I believe they can pay teachers less than they would get in state sector.

I think teachers can be required to take on more extra curricular/curricular responsibility, forego PPA time etc in Academies than State. Not a teacher so don't take as gospel.

SEN rules/reg's more complicated in Academies.

Can set their own curriculum(s) to some extent.

Complaints from parents are dealt with differently and you are more curtailed than in the State sector.

The Academies Bill - sets out differences, whether you think they are good/bad will depend on your political/educational opinions I suppose
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldbills/001/2011001.pdf

Lots of articles re academies on the TES website.

There is also a website called 'Say no to Academies' or similar if you google it.

Suspect big saving will be for schools that don't have a school intake that requires a lot of non-academic support. I think that the LA reserves a sum to pay for a pool of services, that schools then access.

Obviously, if you are a school that "takes less out" of that pool than currently "puts in" (or has reserved, on your behalf, by the LA) you'll make a profit when you get your whole budget, to allocate yourself.

Obviously, the schools that "take more out" are going to be a bit stuffed.

Personally, I don't think it's very fair. But there you go.

Keeping it simple (because I don't know in detail myself) they get extra cash because they will not get any help from the LA which they get at the moment included. So, they will have to buy in certain services - like payroll calculation etc I expect they will be able to buy it from the LA if they want, but they won't have to.

After paying out for all these extras they will then be able to spend what they save from this extra however they wish.

I also think they will be run more like companies too - so there will be a board rather than governing body.