Academies in Special Measures

[Rosebud05]

As no-one seems to know on the thread that's going, I thought I'd put it in the title as I'm actually now intrigued.

When an academy goes into Special Measures, what help does it get and from who? Whose - if anyone's - responsibility is it to support it out of Special Measures?

Its my understanding that so long as everything goes according to plan Academies can do what they wish, but come the problems it is the local authority and the taxpayer that has to take control and resolve any problems.

Elbowfan
how can the LEA get involved? They are not LEA schools. The LEA has no more rights than over a private school in trouble.

I look forward to hearing if anybody knows - my local Academy will be on that list soon ....

Thank you for this - it has been playing on my mind :o.

Someone, somewhere has to know. Surely Govey has thought everything through.

I wouldn't bet on it, tbh, hassled.

He's never so much as acknowledged that academies aren't always successful, let alone considered a plan to help them.

It is their own responsibility to get out of special measures, and they buy in support from wherever they wish, which could mean the LA, or a consultancy, or from elsewhere in the chain (if part of a linked group).

The political overseer of this is SoS for Education, as all academies are controlled directly from Whitehall.

So if Anytown Academy is judged Unsatisfactory, and the HT/SLT and the Governing Body a) won't or can't change - set in their ways, incompetent, overwhelmed or whatever, and b) won't go, does the SoS have the power to fire them? And then what happens?

If a school is in an Ofsted category ie 'special measures' or 'notice to improve' (and there will be lots more of these with Wilshaw at the helm), then the SoS can use the powers he gave himself in the Education Act of 15 Nov 2012 (rushed through parliament with speed usually reserved for anti-terrorist legislation) to disband its governing body, replace it with an Interim Executive and bring in a sponsor (or another sponsor, I guess if it is a sponsored academy).

Ultimately, he can just pull the plug on funding.

It's all a bit totalitarian, isn't it?

BUT
they cannot "pull the plug" on a full school without finding places for all the pupils
the one I am watching has 600 pupils and every other school in the area (funny that) is full
so if they "pulled the plug" they would be in breach of bucket loads of Education Acts
and LEAs would demand funding to plug the gap

ding ding end of round two

The whole concept of schools under direct Whitehall control was beyond the wildest dreams of those who like nationalisation and are of a totalitarian mind set.

I think they can be taken over

They can do what they want. And we are letting them.

Hey ho. Fetch the sledgehammer.

Edith
you have fallen at the first hurdle - there is no conspiracy, only cockup
asiatic
by whom?
Nesbitt
please define "they"

BTW
my catchment school has already failed, been academied, gets a new building and is about to fail again - this is not a theoretical discussion for me ....

I don't think Edith was implying conspiracy - I think she was making the point that sometimes things go so far round to the right that they end up on the extreme left.

I want Gove on a webchat. I want to know that someone somewhere in the DFE has thought this through. Is there nothing in the Education Act that references this sort of scenario? Because you're right, it's never going to be as easy as pulling the funding plug - where would the obligation to find places for those children go? Back to the LAs?

And I'm sorry this is so horribly real for you. It must be worrying. No consolation, I know, but you won't be alone.

Hassled : my kids are at the WONDERFUL comp over the boundary. they are safe. But the little sods who airgun my windows are at the "academy"

Also, Gove is an opinionated twonk
BUT the Academy idea was first taken up by Labour (Bliar and Broon) - with the assumption that "the market" would magically make things better
and the lack of safety nets is a direct result of the labour policy
at least Gove's academies are not allowed to remove standing governors (parents in particular) unlike the Labour sponsored ones where there are in some cases NO parent governors.

DH has worked at the sponsored academy with 2200 pupils and no outdoor space, no parent representation on be board of governors and no coherent competition .........

They = the government. Gove and Gibb in particular.

Academies are not proven to work by any reasonable measure. They were a bad idea under Labour, driven to the extreme under the Tories' drive to privatise everything.

Nesbitt
the problem is that since the abolition and fragmentation of ILEA
many of the London LEAs were dysfunctional due to their small size
and THAT is what politicians saw every day
and it was the idiot Bliar who wanted half the country to go to Uni and abolished the catchment system (parental "choice" FFS) that resulted in failing schools

• case in point = my local : 100 kids per year go to other schools. No wonder its failing.

At least Gove is HONEST about being elitist.

I didn't mean to imply conspiracy. And I had no idea this was competitive hurdles

What I wanted to do was point out the unintended effects of what the Blair government set up. For it is a huge centralisation, and puts a much greater range of powers in the hands of SoS than had ever been contemplated before. It's not conspiracy to think that politicians like to accumulate power. Nor unusual to suggest that the Blair government was authoritarian.

Ok, the facts...

When a school goes into special measures it is set targets to meet. It will be inspected regularly to monitor progress.

For a maintained school the LA must write a statement of action which, amongst other things, states the level of support the LA will commission. This varies from LA to LA. For example, some provide additional funding, some do not. HMI from Ofsted will tell the LA how the statement of action can be improved.

The LA can:

• require the school to enter into a contract or other arrangement with another school, a college of further education or some other named person to improve the school

• appoint additional governors

• ask the Secretary of State to replace the governors with an Interim Executive Board (IEB)

• take back the school's delegated budget

The Secretary of State can:

• appoint additional governors

• replace the governors with an IEB

• close the school

For an academy, the Academy Trust (i.e. the body which controls the school) must produce the statement of action. As for LA produced statements, this must state what additional support the Trust will commission. There is nothing to stop the Trust commissioning support from the LA if the LA is willing and able to assist.

The LA does not have any powers to force the academy to do anything. The Secretary of State can:

• appoint additional governors, removing existing governors at the same time

• stop funding the academy

• close the academy

I should point out that at least one major teaching union wants to see the powers of LAs with respect to schools in special measures substantially reduced. I believe their argument is that LA bureaucrats do not understand education and that turning round a failing school should be left to the teachers.

talking, yes Gove does have powers to remove standing governors and replace them with interim executive boards. He granted himself these powers in the Education Act which passed through parliament in Nov '11.

Schools in special measures require lots of input, which is very expensive eg consultants in every week etc.

This will be a huge strain on a single school's budget, with no local authority safety net.

If local authority bureaucrats don't understand education, there's not much hope for people who sell carpets for a living and the like, I would say.

Rosebud05 - Yes, Gove has the powers to remove governors and replace them with IEBs but he did NOT give himself those powers in the Education Act. He has those powers under the Education and Inspections Act 2006 section 69. The powers go back even further than that but were re-enacted in the EIA.

The key factors in coming out of special measures are:

• strong leadership from the head teacher

• creation of a school identity

• self assessment to sustain improvement

There is nothing on that list that necessarily requires lots of very expensive input and certainly not consultants in every week. As per my earlier post you cannot assume that the LA will provide a safety net for maintained schools. Some LAs delegate all their school improvement budget to schools, so the individual school has to fund everything required to help it get out of special measures. Some LAs have a small team that provide a certain amount of support to all schools and will provide additional support to schools in special measures. Few have enough money lying around to pay for expensive consultants to visit a school on a weekly basis.

I am not personally saying that LA bureaucrats don't understand education, just reflecting the views of one of the teaching unions. However, one could equally take the view that if the LA bureaucrats don't understand education there is no reason to believe that people who sell carpets for a living would do a worse job.

And can I again remind you that the LA do not run the school nor do they have any significant input into the day to day operations of the school. It is run by the governors and the management team. The management team, including the head teacher, is appointed by the governors. The bulk of the services provided to schools by the LA require little or no knowledge of education.

It requires additional input, which is an expense, particularly if a school need to find that money themself. If those things were in place, the school wouldn't have gone into special measures. Schools in crisis times like this often also need to fund additional staff (sickness, people leaving) etc.

My point is that, historically, most LA schools come out of special measures. As yet, it's unknown whether academies will.

Though I guess this is where the academy chains (some of them profit making, let's not forget) come in - they will have reserves to fund any necessary changes.

How depressing this all is.

Apart from the academies that have just gone into special measures recently all have come out again.

And my point is that even LA-controlled schools often have to fund any extra expense out of their own budget. So the difference between academies and LA-controlled schools is not as great as you might think.

Have their been academies in special measures before then? I don't mean schools that were closed down and re-opened aka the old Labour academies, as that's not the same thing. I'm specifically interested in the track records of sponsored academies coming out of special measures.

Yes. If I recollect correctly there have been three sponsored academies that have gone through special measures.

Unity City Academy in Middlesbrough opened in 2002 and went into special measures in 2005. I am not certain when it came out of special measures but it obviously did at some point as it is still operating and not currently in special measures.

Richard Rose Central Academy in Carlisle opened in 2008, replacing two schools. It was placed in special measures in January 2009 and came out in November 2010.

Finally, Sheffield Park Academy in Sheffield opened in 2006 and went into special measures in September 2009. It came out of special measures in March 2011.