House of Commons - The Academies Programme

The Academies Programme - Public Accounts Committee Contents

3 Implications of enlarging the Academies Programme

13. Following the general election in May 2010, the new Government announced plans to open up the Programme to allow all schools to seek academy status. It invited approaches from all those interested in doing so, with applications from schools judged outstanding by Ofsted to be considered first. The relevant legislation was passed on 27 July 2010. The Programme now also includes outstanding schools converting to academy status - 'converters'.[26] As at 5 January 2011, there were 407 academies: 271 sponsored and 136 convertors.[27]

14. The introduction of converter academies means that there are two distinct dimensions to the Academies Programme. Nevertheless, the Department considered it was still important to view the Academies Programme as a single entity, with the unifying feature being the use of autonomy to maximise the educational benefits for children and young people. It assured the Committee that the numbers of sponsored academies would continue to increase, supported by sponsors with a good track record.[28]

15. The overall success of the sponsored academies partly reflects the earlier Programme's clear objective to 'raise standards of education in some of the toughest, most difficult areas in the country'.[29] The extension of the Programme means that its original objectives and measures of success no longer fully reflect its aims. The objectives of the extended Programme are expressed more generally as 'using academy freedoms and collaborations across schools to raise standards for all children, while narrowing the gap between the attainment of the most and least advantaged'.[30] It cannot be assumed that academies' performance to date is an accurate predictor of how the model will perform when generalised over many more schools.[31] If well directed, however, a policy of combining high-performing schools and greatly improved sponsored academies into one Programme has the potential to drive further substantial improvements, and create opportunities that would also benefit the majority of schools that sit outside the Programme.[32]

16. The scale of the Programme's financial management and governance risks will increase as the number of academies grows. Previously, even with fewer academies, the Department's resources for monitoring and administering the Programme were overstretched. When the Agency took over responsibility for the then 203 academies from 1 April 2010, it needed to redeploy resources to oversee academies from other areas of its work.[33] Now in 2010-11, there are already 407 [34] academies and the policy currently allows outstanding schools to convert at any point during this academic year until 1 April 2011, after which conversions will be carried out on a termly basis.[35]

17. Reflecting the priorities of the coalition Government, the Department has changed its organisational structure. The changes were partly driven by the increases in the numbers of academies, and included the creation of a new directorate responsible for the Academies Programme. The Department currently has 123 out of 2,500 full-time equivalent staff working on academies. It conceded that employing sufficient people with the right skills was an increasingly tough challenge, particularly in the context of the Department as a whole having to make a 33% reduction in its administrative budget.[36]

18. The Agency similarly had to transfer an additional 47 staff from within the organisation to reinforce the 80 posts originally allocated to academy functions when it took on its responsibilities in April 2010. At the time of the Hearing, the future of the Agency as a Non-Departmental Public Body was under review.[37] The Department considered that in due course further staff would be needed in the Department and the Agency to cope with the expansion of the Programme.[38]

19. The Agency indicated that it had received a clear mandate from government to revise and develop academies' financial control framework. It would be seeking to draw on lessons from the further education sector, where standards are now much higher than they were, and where many Agency staff have direct experience of the improvements made.[39]

20. We have serious concerns that the processes for monitoring academies' financial position and performance, which the Agency inherited from the Department, are not fit for purpose.[40] In future there must be greater clarity about what is required as opposed to what is recommended.[41] Too much in the current framework is permissive, and there is insufficient mandated practice to prevent individual academies adopting practices which do not comply with basic standards of good financial management and governance.[42]

21. The Department and the Agency told us that they were currently consulting academies - in particular their finance directors - on the development of the framework. They would be seeking to achieve the right balance between sufficient assurance through an effective control framework and arrangements that will not inhibit the policy of autonomy for academies.[43] We and the Comptroller and Auditor General sought assurances that the consultation would lead to a clear, robust framework in which non-compliance would not be accepted.[44] We further suggested that the Department and the Agency seek the advice of the National Audit Office when finalising subsequent editions of the Academies Financial Handbook.[45]

26 Academies Act 2010 4 (1); Qq 73-75, 80 Back

27 At the time of the Hearing (27 October 2010), there were 324 academies: 267 sponsored and 57 converters (Qq 77 and 78). Numbers can be updated from http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/academies/a0069811/schools-submitting-applications-and-academies-which-have-opened-in-201011 Back

28 Qq 73-84 Back

29 Q 1 Back

30 http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/academies/a0061222/academies-act-2010 Back

31 C&AG's Report para 20 Back

32 Q 91 Back

33 C&AG's Report paras 3.18 and 3.19; Q144 Back

34 Number as at 5 January 2011. Back

35 http://www.education.gov.uk/popularquestions/a0064988/we-are-interested-in-opening-as-an-academy-what-happens-now-that-we-have-missed-the-deadline-for-a-september-opening Back

36 Qq 144, 148, 150-151 Back

37 Subsequent announcement of Young People's Learning Agency closure and creation of Education Funding Agency from April 2012 http://readingroom.ypla.gov.uk/ypla/ypla-michael_gove_to_les_walton_re_white_paper-le-nov10-v1.pdf Back