your thoughts on the whole academy thing?

[ArfurBrain]

My child's secondary has just announced consultation into becoming one.

By my reckoning, this now means all the town's secondaries will be (potentially) academies.
I dare say many of my questions will be answered at the parents' evening. But the whole academy thing appears to be so rushed that I'm sure there are loads of issues which no-one really knows what will happen until they rear their heads, so to speak.

From a social point of view, what implications might this have on the town?
Admissions etc?

What will happen to those academies which have a less afluent parent pool?
SEN services?
Exclusions?
I mean if all the schools are no longer in LEA control, whose responsibliy is it to ensure each child gets a school place ?

And as I understand it, once a school has become an academy, it cannot go back to LEA control,
I sort of feel our children are being guinea pigs in a ratheruncontrolled educational experiment.
Would just like to know what MNetters feel.

....PS Let us know how you get on.

"How will the school guarantee that national pay and conditions for teachers will be maintained?"

I have heard (NASUWT), that schools who try to make a contractual agreement with teachers that pay and conditions won't be affected will have their academy application denied.

Cannot number 1 be covered by insurance - like volunteer Charity Trustees buy?

Seems unlikely that the gov both wants schools to be academies and then turns down their applications...

Not if the government wants schools to become an academy specifically to get rid of teacher's pay and conditions.

teachers'!

Kez100; You may be right, but my understanding was that even with insurance you still have to act with due diligence. As there is so much law to know, I find it difficult to know how I can be duly diligent without the running of the school becoming a full time job. I am well informed but this only serves to make me aware of how much I don't know! I am also aware of how very badly thought through much of the policy is. For example, once a school becomes an academy, the DfE says it will take 7 years to opt back into LA control, but it has put no mechanism in place for this to happen.....

Excellent set of questions, darvitwendy - appreciated by those already under the thumb of an impending academy.

Thank you Dandy Dan - This is my first time on Mumsnet so I am learning how the site works. Lesson 1. If you write in the message box and then go back to check something on an earlier page you lose everything you have written!! I had to write to bloomin' questions twice!

Darvit: I do agree that it is looking like voluntary Governing is being pushed to its limit.

I am sure you are right in saying that it's badly thought through. I work in tax law and that legislation has for years, under labour, been badly written; it doesn't appear to be very much better considered under the new coalition.

I don't think it has anything to do with breaking down union powers. In fact, if you are a good teacher, I would imagine you might find there are more chances to build on your career and pay as schools ensure they keep you. It may be more of an issue for a poor teacher but, thinking of learners only, that's a good thing for their education.

Yes, and thank you for the questions.I'm sure I will beneeding them in the future. Cannot see my childrens school avoiding this for the four years they will still be there.

DDs school is planning to convert.
They have a page on their website explaining the steps and the process.
They also publish answers to questions.

NB Insurance - the vast bulk of councils / LEAs do not insure their buildings. They 'self insure' as the premiums would be huge and they have the resources to rebuild a school if needed. A stand alone academy will HAVE to pay for insurance. Premiums for a secondary will be around £100,000 a year ish

Also, it pays to be aware of how much money is spent on services from LEAs etc.
I don't know what your LEAs do, but on the Hampshire site we can get information like this
www.hants.gov.uk/education/schools/budgetshares/schoolbudgetshares.php?dfesno=4175
I've picked Thornded because its a highly successful Comp. Not sure if its considering conversion.

Insurance (for the time being) is being considered a 'reimbursement item' - that is the DfE will reimburse whatever it costs to insure your school!!
Another cost to the tax payer that is a result of unintended consequences (did I mention university tuition fees?)

As far as I can tell - in very basic terms - if a school is well run then the implications for pupils should be really good. I know if our school signs up before August, we will receive more than £500 extra funding per pupil. After August it goes down to £230 ish per pupil.

The main concern at my school is that the staff won't be protected and they could take away the additional mat leave/sick pay and pay structure etc. Depends if you trust the senior team.

I think the aim is for the stupid red tape we get from the LEA to be taken away (trust me there's a lot) but I'm not sure that will disappear by becoming an academy.

What's in a name anyway? Ayrshire's secondary schools have Academy in their name. East Renfrewshire tends to have High School. North of the border, we dont have this governors thing unless its a private school.

recycledteen
you do have governing bodies but they are called parent councils

PrincessScrumpy; I have read a lot around the subject of academies and never come across per pupil funding having anything to do with academy status (see my earlier direct quote from Michael Gove "The government is clear that becoming an academy will NOT bring about a financial advantage." his caps)

Do you mind letting us know which school you are referring to?

I am pretty confident that whatever you have been told, that the PPF is not to do with the change to academy status. The issue of funding to LA's is very real but that funding will change in August whether you are an academy or not.

It sounds as if someone is being, at best, disingenuous. Funding to schools goes down in 2011/21. Estimates from a question in parliament to Sarah Teather this week indicate that Per Pupil Funding will decrease by about £278pa from £5,360 this year (source DfE)to £5,082.53 next (source Sarah Teather DfE) next school year.

If you are being told that this is to do with you becoming an academy then (I suspect) you are being misled and I would be suspicious of whoever told you and also their motives.

• 2011/12 not 2011/21 (sorry)

darvit, you are correct, scrumpy - have a look at this
www.education.gov.uk/schools/adminandfinance/financialmanagement/schoolsrevenuefunding/settlement2012pupilpremium/a0070273/calculators

thank you all for your input!

As you say the LEA money will go direct to schools but there is a risk there is no financial benefit because of loss of economies of scale. Has this been costed. Academies are having to link up or bel part of companies like Edact (whose managing director creams off £265K whilst managing 11 academies) to achieve these economies of scale.

Note Edact had to change its name following a scandal about financial mismanagement. The academy system seems rife for abuse at misusing tax payers money without their being a robust method for stopping it. We will be mad to let it happen but the government legislation makes us powerless to stop it.

Even so I think we should get involved in the consultation process and question any attempt to railroad. Parent governors in particular can be persuaded not to rush a decision - and too look long and hard.

Are there extra carrots being given to rush these decisions? To be honest I have never known the public sector to be fast at decision making process and this is looking shifty to me. At our school, a uniform change took four years and a upgrade of the sports hall took three! There must be something going on which is causing Governing Bodies to move with the speed of light.

LEA also have rules which cut out cheaper local alternatives for procurement of expensive things like new buildings and major improvements. A change from that will be a very good thing.

I can see - in the longer term - academies joining back together to source things to gain economies of scale. That would be advantageous because private sector procurement is traditionally much more efficient than private sector. However, there is also a case that the freedom, without perhaps as much transparancy, might be open to greater misuse and pressure over weaker bodies of trustees/directors?

There are so many matters - some present and some future - I'm not sure there is a correct answer.

My initial feeling would be to sit and wait. Accept loss of carrots while the future pans out. However, the future problems are not necessarily going to rear their heads very quickly and, if the Government do cut LEA school budgets to squealing point, schools will be forced to jump in the next few years anyway before major problems can be seen, then maybe it will be better to go now and bag the carrots.