Academisation
 Academisation    | |
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| Interest of | • Andrew Adonis • Ofsted • Chester Yang |
Academisation is a policy of centralisation leading to privatisation by which local authority funded schools in England become academy schools, and are then directly financed by the Department for Education. The rationale for academisation was that it gave schools more control over their finances and their curriculum, and broke the link between schools and local authorities, with academies receiving their funding directly from central government instead of through a local council.[1]
Enforced academisation
| "The Great Schools Robbery" |
In 2023 filmmaker Chester Yang produced a documentary entitled "The Great Schools Robbery" about how schools are being sold off to the private sector through enforced academisation. The film exposes the privatisation of state-owned schools in England, and the role of Ofsted in converting them into academies. A school that is rated as 'inadequate' by Ofsted is subject to repeat inspections until it 'improves'. But once a school becomes an academy, its rating is immediately removed and the academy is not inspected by Ofsted for at least two years.
Chester Yang was interviewed by Crispin Flintoff on the Not the Andrew Marr Show of 26 May 2023.[2]
Origins
The academisation programme began under Tony Blair's New Labour government through the Learning and Skills Act 2000, which amended the section of the Education Act 1996 relating to City Technology Colleges. Academisation was first announced as part of the Fresh Start programme in a speech by David Blunkett, then Secretary of State for Education and Skills, in 2000. He said that the aim was "to improve pupil performance and break the cycle of low expectations."
The chief architect of the policy was Andrew Adonis (now Lord Adonis, formerly Secretary of State at the Department for Transport) in his capacity as education advisor to PM Tony Blair in the late 1990s.[3]
Academy schools were known as City Academies for the first few years, but the term was changed to Academies by an amendment in the Education Act 2002.[4]
Developments
In 2005, LibDem education spokesman Ed Davey argued that Academies were creating a "two-tier education system" and called for the academy programme to be halted until "a proper analysis can be done". At the subsequent election, Academies were supported by all three main political parties, with a further cross-party initiative to extend the programme into primary schools being considered.
In 2010 the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats coalition government announced plans to expand the academy programme with the Academies Act 2010. In May 2010 the then Education secretary Michael Gove wrote to all state schools in England inviting them to opt out of Local Authority control and convert to Academy status. Gove also stated that some academies could be created in time for the new Academic year in September 2010. By 23 July 2010, 153 schools in England had applied for academy status, lower than the prediction that more than 1,000 would do so. In spite of the expanding Academy programme, in August 2010 Gove announced that 75 existing academy rebuild projects were likely to be scaled back. Nevertheless, by September 2012, the majority of state secondary schools in England had become Academies. Monthly updated information on existing academies and free schools, and applications in process, is published by the Department for Education.
Since then, the Conservative government announced in 2016 that all schools were to become academies but subsequently backtracked. Then, in March 2022, the Department for Education published a White Paper which contained the ambition for all schools to be part of a strong academy trust by 2030. Whilst that was published under former Secretary of State Nadhim Zahawi, who was followed by several secretaries of state in the months afterwards, and despite the shelving of the Schools Bill, that ambition remains the stated aim for schools policy.
As of September 2022, the Labour Party has slowed its opposition to academies, with Shadow schools minister Stephen Morgan and his colleagues having said they will focus on “improving outcomes, not meddling with structures” if they win power, but have not set out concrete plans for the school system. Labour has confirmed it will not support forced academisation, but has also pledged to leave well-performing academy trusts alone, suggesting a hybrid model of academies and local authority maintained schools will be here to stay under Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership. And while the Government continues to favour all schools being in multi-academy trusts, Morgan says Labour will protect the right of single-academy trusts to continue to stand alone.[5]
