Academy Freedoms for all….
……………..if you are an outstanding school the Academies Bill allows you to become an academy, independent of your local authority. But what does it mean in practice and how do you get there?
What is an Academy?
Academies sit outside the local authority maintained sector. They are independent schools operating in the state sector but without the burden of much of the regulation that applies to maintained schools. Academies are still inspected by Ofsted but are funded direct from central government and this avoids the “top slicing” by the local authority to their central services (admissions, SEN etc).
What does it mean for you and your community?
As an Academy a school has more flexibility and can operate for the greater benefit of pupils and the local community. As it sets its own policies, procedures and budgets It can:
- Promote the availability of the school to the local community by setting its own admission arrangements
- Support parents and carers’ working practices by arranging school days and term-times to accommodate families’ working needs
- Facilitate employment, providing wider practical learning to complement existing educational specialisms, taking account of local business needs and skill shortages and working advantageously with existing local business partnerships
- Secure the best staff available by offering improved terms
- Extend services to the community by tailoring services and support to local needs
With these freedoms, comes greater responsibility. Operating outside the local authority sector means that you will need to become a charitable company and that you may not be able to access some of the services previously supplied by the local authority. You will be directly accountable to central government and will stand or fall by whether you can deliver the performance measures in your funding agreement.
How do you get from here to there?
It is a mixture of hearts and minds, and paperwork!
At a local level you will need to:
- ensure you have the support of your staff
- If you are a foundation, trust or voluntary school ensure you have the trustees’ support
- consider ways of ensuring the pupils; parents and local community are made aware of the proposals
- liaise with the local authority on the TUPE transfer of staff to the academy
- ensure the land arrangements are agreed and proceed smoothly during the conversion process.
Structurally you will need to:
- Establish a charitable company, the academy trust,
- Set up governance arrangements to meet your needs
- Agree and finalise the Funding Agreement with the Department for Education. This document provides the framework within which the academy will operate and sets out:
- how much funding the academy trust will receive
- The governors obligations in running the academy.
- Any performance management targets you are required to deliver
- Agree the terms of the long lease for the school property from the local authority.
- Agree the terms of the TUPE transfer of staff and ensure the Academy Trust is adequately protected against any claims arising from staff disputes against the previous employer.
- Ensure the policies adopted by the new academy are compliant with the law and good practice.
When everything is in place the Department for Education needs to approve the documentation and sign the Academy Order to specify the date of conversion.
We have worked with approximately 100 academies and trust schools and have extensive knowledge of all aspects of the process required to take you from your current status to becoming an Academy.
If you would like to discuss your plans for, or concerns about, becoming an Academy please contact Richard Freeth of our Education team on 0121 214 3710 or via email on richard.freeth@anthonycollins.com