9 Conclusion
208. The landscape of schooling in England has been
transformed over the last five years. As an administrative feat
the delivery of so many schools into academy status has been remarkable
and all the more so given the large reductions in staffing levels
at the central department. Academy sponsorship has encouraged
and facilitated the contribution of individuals not previously
involved in education provision and laid down a challenge to maintained
schools to improve or face replacement by the insurgent academy
model. The development of outstanding Multi Academy Trusts like
Ark and Harris offers an alternative system to the one overseen
by local authorities while the unified Ofsted inspection regime
and published performance data generally allows fair judgement
of comparative performance.
209. At the end of this Parliament there are more
good schools in England than ever before: 82% of primary schools
and 71% of secondary schools have been rated by Ofsted as good
or outstanding.[327]
Time and research will improve understanding of which factors
have contributed most to this welcome development. In the meantime
the Government should stop exaggerating the success of academies
and be cautious about firm conclusions except where the evidence
merits it. Academisation is not always successful nor is it the
only proven alternative for a struggling school.
210. One of the two major themes which has run throughout
our evidence base and our report is the speed with which the Government
pressed ahead with academisation and the need now to reflect and
refine its policy going forward. The second major theme has been
transparency. The DfE needs to be far more open about the implementation
of the academies programme and how it assesses and monitors schools
and chains. We welcome the appointment of the regional schools
commissioners as a step towards making oversight more local again,
but any lasting solution will need to be more local still and
develop effective working with local authorities. This is particularly
important in the case of stand-alone academies which have the
potential to become isolated without challenge or assistance from
other schools, an academy sponsor or the local authority.
211. One of the benefits of the expansion of academies
has been the opportunity to develop competition between the providers
of oversight, support and intervention systems for schools, whether
they are academy chains or local authorities. Academy trusts have
no legitimacy other than that earned through effective performance
in their schools and can be "paused" from expansion
or lose schools if they underperform. Whereas there were few if
any alternatives to local authority oversight in the past, now
a weak education authority knows that it must improve or lose
schools from the maintained sector forever. For children, parents
and the community it is the quality of education, not the status
of the provider which is the measure of success. Too often in
the past the democratic mandate of local authorities acted as
a protective cloak for failings and excused slow or inadequate
intervention. The tension which now exists between the maintained
and academy sectors is a healthy one.
212. Both academies and state maintained schools
have a role to play in system-wide improvement by looking outwards
and accepting challenge in order to ensure high quality education
for all children.
327 Ofsted Annual Report on Schools 2013-14, p8 Back
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