My Lords, in speaking to Amendments 23, 24 and 25, regarding consultation about the identity of a sponsor that has been identified for an underperforming school, I shall also use the opportunity to set out the case for Clause 9 remaining part of the Bill.
I hope by this point in the debate that noble Lords will be all too familiar with the strong case for the central pillar of the Bill—that is, that where a school is underperforming and an academy solution is needed we want the transformation to take place from day one. We do not want the process to be delayed through debate about whether that school should become an academy. We have been clear that becoming an academy with the support of a sponsor is the best way to bring about radical improvement in a struggling school. That is why Clause 8 makes clear that there is no duty to consult where an academy order is to be made because the school is eligible for an intervention.
We also do not want any delays caused by ongoing debate about who the sponsor should be for the school in question. Where it is necessary for a school to become an academy with the support of a sponsor in
order to address failure or bring about necessary improvements, regional schools commissions will decide the most appropriate sponsor.
However, I have committed during a previous debate in Committee, as well as in my letter sent to the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, today, to reflect on whether any further commitments can be made to ensure that parents will always be engaged if their child’s school is causing concern.
Amendment 25 seeks to require Ofsted to report on, and in some cases inspect, an academy trust prior to the Secretary of State entering into an academy arrangement with that trust in relation to a failing or coasting school. I agree with noble Lords that regional schools commissioners must have a clear picture of the performance and capacity of academy trusts operating in their local area. This information is required when RSCs make decisions about which trust is best placed to take on a failing or coasting school and when they hold trusts to account for the performance of their existing academies.
There are already strong systems in place to scrutinise and assess the performance and capacity of trusts, and I hope that when the noble Lord, Lord Watson, meets regional schools commissioners he will be able to satisfy himself of this. Regional schools commissioners already hold trusts to account for their education performance based on the individual Ofsted inspections of schools within that trust and on performance data. The Education Funding Agency already carries out trust-level reviews, assessing the financial and governance arrangements in trusts against the robust requirements set out in the Academies Financial Handbook.
In fact, the accountability framework for academy trusts reflects their status as both charitable companies and public bodies. This means that, when it comes to matters of good governance and financial management, they not only have statutory responsibilities under company law but are also accountable to Parliament for how they spend public money. Furthermore, Ofsted can already inspect a group of schools within a trust and make an assessment of the support that the trust provides to all its schools through these individual inspections and through taking the views of any schools in the trust about the support they receive. The published inspection report after such focused inspections include Ofsted’s assessment of the overall performance of the trust, as well as a summary of the outcomes of the individual academy inspections.
The noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Huyton, spoke last week of the importance of regional schools commissioners working well with Ofsted regional directors. I reiterate that regional schools commissioners already meet regularly with Ofsted regional directors to share information about academies, trusts and sponsors and discuss any performance concerns. We have shown that we take decisive action where trusts do not improve the performance of their schools. With a number of trusts we have moved a number of their schools to more effective sponsors to address concerns about the trusts’ overall performance. We also carefully monitor the capacity of trusts as they expand. Where we have concerns, we will pause a trust from further expansion
until we are convinced that it has the capacity to provide the high-quality support that failing or coasting schools require.
At his most recent appearance before the Education Select Committee, Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector for Schools, was clear that the current arrangements whereby Ofsted can inspect batches of schools within an academy trust at the same time are appropriate. Therefore, the proposed new clause is not only unnecessary but would create an additional layer of bureaucracy that prevented regional schools commissioners and trusts moving swiftly to bring about much-needed improvements in failing and coasting schools.
The noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, spoke about Ofsted inspecting chains. We do not think that it is right that Ofsted should have an additional role in judging a trust’s central functions or operating model. This would simply place another burden on Ofsted, distracting it from what is most important and from the core skill of an HMI, which is inspecting the quality of teaching and learning in schools.
However, I have already had discussions with senior members of the Ofsted team about circumstances which may arise in which we may want to organise a parallel audit of a trust, where an inspection by Ofsted of a batch of schools in the trust and the trust’s school improvement capability would take place alongside a simultaneous but separate investigation by the EFA of the trust’s central governance, management and financial competence—an area of activity which we think the EFA is more appropriately qualified to inspect.
Having reassured Peers on the processes for holding trusts to account, I turn to Amendments 23 and 24, which would require wider consultation about the identity of the sponsor for a school eligible for intervention. RSCs, supported by their head teacher boards, will use their local knowledge and expertise to identify the sponsor which they believe will provide the most benefit to an underperforming school. I see no need to consult the local authority or the existing governing body of an underperforming school about that decision, given that it is those bodies which have overseen the failure of the school or have been judged to be unable to address underperformance at the school. The quote I mentioned in last week’s debates, about turkeys voting for Christmas, comes to mind.
Dave Baker, the CEO of the Olympus Academy Trust and one of the individuals who attended the meeting with Peers the week before last, has perhaps summed up the position most compellingly:
“Where a school fails, swift action is needed and there is no time for debate and delay. As a member of a Headteacher board, I know the effort that goes into identifying and matching the right sponsor for any individual school. Where a school has failed, efforts should be spent on getting the right sponsor in place as soon as possible so that the sponsor can start engaging parents and start to secure change through decisive leadership. This should be the focus of everyone’s attention rather than lengthy debates about who the sponsor should be”.
Once an RSC has identified a sponsor for a school, the sponsor will usually be keen to engage with staff and parents about its plans for the school, ensuring that they understand what will happen next and have
the opportunity to share their views on the sponsor’s approach. This means that staff and parents still have a say on the future of the school. I have already set out in earlier debates examples of how this engagement has taken place. I would also quote Martyn Oliver, the CEO designate of the very successful Outwood Grange Academies Trust, who said:
“A prospective trust does not just ride roughshod ?over a school and its community. Outwood Grange has a clear vision and we are passionate about engaging staff and parents on that vision. The advantage of our model is that alongside the clear vision of the trust, local governing bodies are left with more space to focus on things like engaging with the local community. Ultimately parents are happy, especially when they start to see the dramatic improvements in results for their children”.
Noble Lords have also proposed that correspondence about how a sponsor for a school is identified should be published. I believe this to be unnecessary. As I have described, RSCs already subject sponsors to thorough scrutiny. The decisions of RSCs and head teacher boards are already transparent. RSCs assess applications from prospective new sponsors against published criteria. The rigorous assessment process ensures that prospective sponsors have a strong track record in educational improvement and financial management, and that their proposed trust has high-quality leadership and appropriate governance. The majority of sponsors are high-performing schools which have been subject to rigorous assessment by Ofsted and have been found to provide outstanding education. We publish a list of approved academy sponsors. After sponsors are approved, they remain under careful monitoring by RSCs and the department. RSCs take account of the trust’s capacity and its track record in turning the performance of academies around before allocating them any new sponsored academies.
A full list of RSC decisions is already published on GOV.UK and we are making RSCs’ decision-making more transparent. From December, a fuller note of head teacher board meetings will be published to cover all meetings from 1 October this year and will contain information on the criteria that were considered for each decision.
The noble Lords, Lord Watson and Lord Addington, made some comments about the Hewett School and its land. I can assure the noble Lords that the terms of our legal agreements with the sponsor in that case make it absolutely clear that it will not be able to dispose of any of the land without the consent of the Secretary of State.
I would like to take this opportunity, however, to reiterate the purpose of Clause 9, which specifies the limited circumstances in which it will be appropriate for RSCs to consult on the identity of the sponsor. Clause 9 requires that, where a foundation or voluntary school with a foundation is eligible for intervention and subject to an academy order, then the RSCs must consult the trustees, the foundation and—for a school with a religious character—the appropriate religious body about who they propose should be the sponsor. It is important that underperformance, whatever type of school it is in, is tackled. That is why we are clear that there should be no consultation on whether a failing school should become a sponsored academy, whether it is a foundation school or not, but in the case of faith schools we must also ensure that their ethos is preserved.
In many cases, a diocesan sponsor will be the best choice for a failing church school, but where appropriate—for example, where the diocesan sponsor does not have sufficient capacity to take on that school at that time—a non-faith sponsor can be put into place in such a way that the school’s particular ethos is protected. I expect that dioceses and RSCs will work closely together to agree on the best academy solutions for any failing church schools. To support those arrangements, we are having discussions about reviewing and updating the memoranda of understanding that set out the roles of dioceses and government as they relate to the academy programme, in order to reflect the changes in this Bill and the wider evolving policy landscape. These discussions are ongoing.
The trustees, foundation and religious body are specified in Clause 9 because they are being consulted specifically in recognition of their responsibility for the ethos of the school, and to contribute their views on how this may best be preserved. This is why we do not agree with Amendment 23, which proposes that parents and staff should be consulted, too.
I hope that noble Lords have once again been persuaded by my commitment to ensuring that underperformance is tackled swiftly wherever, and in whatever type of school, it occurs. I have, however, explained the reasons why Clause 9 is important in the group of schools it applies to and reiterated my belief that sponsors can, and will, engage with parents, staff and communities once they are matched with a school. As I said earlier, I have committed to reflect further on whether any more commitments can be made to ensure that parents will always be engaged when their child’s school is causing concern. In light of this, I urge the noble Lords not to press their amendments and to allow Clause 9 to stand part of the Bill.