Hello imbreathra - thank you for your response to Sandy_bottom's school academy post. It seems you have some interesting points which would be very interesting to the barnstaplepeople readers. If you would like to re-post your comments as a news article you will be able to maintain your original formatting. Just choose the blue WRITE tab with the little pen icon towards the top of the home page. When you use this channel you can also edit the post once it has been submitted and add photos if necessary.

Sorry for the format. I could not find out how to sort paragraphs on this site.

Please contact dpclinch@gmail.com for further information and a copy of our concerns and the full Lord Hill letter and any other information you require as attachments

Thanks

13. Academy Funding
Grant payments to Academies would replace DCC services, which depend on the level of central spend in the authority. Evidence is emerging of problems re the amount paid to schools in respect of VAT. Some Academies are reporting a shortfall and are passing the extra costs on to pupils, for example increasing the cost of a school trip to incorporate the VAT element. Queen Elizabeth’s Community College would also be liable for any shortfall in the Teachers’ Pension scheme and Local Government Pension Scheme. There are no guarantees of level of funding after March 2011. Crucially, there is no provision in the Education Act for returning to Local Authority control should the governing body have a change of heart, or become bankrupt, for example. The matter would rest with the Secretary of State alone.

14. Teachers’ Pay and Working Conditions
The NUT opposes the right of Academies to set their own pay, conditions and working time arrangements for new teachers. (Please see the attached letter from Lord Hill to Headteachers)

Teachers are being told that would transfer on current pay and conditions and that the Transfer of Undertakings for the Protection of Employment (TUPE) would apply. However, the NUT and other unions are aware that the Governing Bodies of some academies have decided to change pay and conditions after transfer, eg employing any new member of staff on different arrangements from those on nationally negotiated terms and conditions, thus creating a two tier-system. (Please see the Lord Hill letter to Headteachers)

15. Cost and Resourcing of the Academy Programme
The NUT is also concerned about the cost of the Academies programme at a time of recession when
schools and local authorities are facing cuts and when Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funding has been axe


In conclusion, it is clear that move towards Academy status are being conducted with indecent haste by
a small minority. Devon NUT urges the Governing Bodies of Pilton Community College and Braunton
Community College to agree to a full consultation to take place, which would include giving ‘stakeholders
as much information as possible regarding the arguments for and against Academy status. We also
believe that a ballot should then be conducted via an independent body such as the Electoral Reform
Society. Devon NUT is willing to underwrite the cost of this process.

Devon NUT Division Secretary Jamie Wells says, “This should not be the basis on which community schools are removed from local authority control and left to the vagaries of the market, . . . the decision will be irreversible in law and the education of students could also be seriously damaged as a result.”

In a letter to Headteachers (Dec 2010) Government Minister Lord Hill said


"There is absolutely no requirement for you to enter any agreement (with unions when moving to Academy status). We consider the ability to set pay and conditions of staff to be one of the key freedoms of Academy status".

For more information please contact Devon NUT Secretary Jamie Wells at jamie.wells@me.com or dpclinch@gmai


Apologies for the format. It did not allow the paragraphs to remain once submitted

9. Academies and Attainment
There is no evidence to sustain the view that the Academies model has resulted in higher levels of pupil attainment. Of course, with the fast-tracking of “outstanding” schools to academy status this is certain to change. Among existing Academies, the evidence to date is that, as with schools as a whole, some Academies are doing well while others are struggling.

A National Audit Office Report (10/9/10) suggests that the rate of increase in Academy GCSE results is faster than in comparator schools. However the NUT is concerned that there is strong evidence that Academies may be directing students into taking less academically rigorous qualifications to boost their headline GCSE results. In 2009, 58% of students in all maintained schools obtained an A*-C GCSE in a modern foreign language, but just 14.2% of students in Academies did so. A study by the Historical Association found that only 6% of Academies surveyed taught history as a standalone subject.

10. SEN Provision
Taking funding for a proposed Academy from DCC control could damage the education of children with Special Education Needs. Devon County Council has a key role in identifying need and coordinating provision, which ensures equitable access to SEN services. There will be less funding for SEN provision in schools that remain within the authority where the its budget has been depleted by an Academy conversions such as proposed here, thus increasing the chances that families with children with SEN will face a postcode lottery and that disadvantaged children will not receive the same quality of education. Families would no longer have the safety net of the local authority to turn to if they are dissatisfied with the provision their child is receiving.

11. Academies and Exclusions
Devon NUT is deeply concerned about the high exclusion rates in current Academies, which raises concerns over whether they are discriminating against some disadvantaged groups of children and whether some Academies are using exclusion to remove young people who might depress the exam results at those institutions. Permanent exclusion rates in Academies last year were almost three times higher than those in schools as a whole and almost double the rate for local authority maintained secondary schools. Pupils with SEN are eight times more likely to be permanently excluded; children who are eligible for free school meals are three times more likely to receive either a permanent or fixed period exclusion than children who are not eligible for free school meals.

12. Local Authority Funding
Devon NUT is concerned that removing funding for a proposed Academy from the DCC budget will mean it has less to spend on other schools. The Government has stated that Academies will be funded at the same level as maintained schools but the funding formula, as it currently stands means this may not be the case. An NUT analysis of the proposed funding formula identified the problem in the way the calculation is made by the Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA) – the body responsible for Academy funding. The YPLAs methodology for calculating Academies’ funding includes a number of types of expenditure that do not go directly to schools, such as the strategic management and running costs of the whole children’s services directorate. It also included the Academy’s “share” of the local authority’s central spending on school improvement. However, this is spent mostly on schools that need additional support, not on those designated as ‘outstanding’.

Dear Sandy_Bottom

Devon NUT is extremely concerned that the consultations are deeply flawed, not least by the speed at which they are being conducted. Crucially there is no mention of opposing arguments to academy status.

Devon NUT has framed its response to the proposal by schools to move to Academy status under the following headings
1. Fragmentation
Academies are independent of the local authority and outside the Devon County Council (DCC) family of schools. DCC plays a key role in the strategic planning and management of education provision across the county and has an overview of changing education needs and how best to plan and deliver for this. Moving to academy status will further fragment education, making it harder to plan and deliver resources to schools and the community in a strategic and equitable manner.

2. Centralisation
Schools would be funded directly by the Department for Education. The Act by-passes local authorities and would bring about Government control of the schools either directly, by the Secretary of State for Education, or indirectly through a newly expanded and strengthened quango, the Young People’s Learning Agency.

3. Lack of Accountability
Unlike other schools, Academies would not be subject to democratic accountability. As a report by consultants Price Waterhouse Coopers noted: “Academies as independent schools are not scrutinised or held accountable to their local education and children’s services or democratically elected members.”

4. Isolation
Removing a school from the local family of schools will have a detrimental impact on other schools in the area. Instead of supporting and working in partnership with each other and Devon County Council, Academy status could result in Queen Elizabeth’s Community College becoming a stand alone institution, working in isolation, remote and unaccountable to its community.

5. Widening Inequalities
Academics analysed the school level characteristics of those schools which had “expressed an interest” in becoming a Gove Academy and their analysis showed that such schools were very different to Labour’s Academies. In existing Academies, the percentage of pupils with SEN, those who were entitled to free schools meals, and those from ethnic minority backgrounds were much higher than in all secondary maintained schools. In contrast these same groups have much lower representation in those schools which had expressed an interest in Academy status under the new arrangements compared with those that had not.

6. Transfer of Assets
If a school becomes an Academy its assets, including all its land, building and contents transfer from the local authority to the sponsor or Academy Trust under a leasehold arrangement - usually 125 years.


7. Lack of Proper Consultation
Under the Academies Act, a school can make a decision to apply for Academy status through a simple majority vote on the governing body. An Amendment to the Act means that the governing body must consult “such persons as they think appropriate” but the Government refused amendments specifying who such persons might be or how they would be consulted. This would effectively disenfranchise the local community.

8. Governance
The NUT is also concerned about the undemocratic governance arrangements for Academies, which differ substantially from those of local authority schools. In a maintained school there is a balance of places for key “stakeholders”, particularly elected parents, who make up a third of the governing body, staff governors, and representatives of the local community and the local authority. In an Academy, the external sponsor or Academy Trust appoints the majority of governors. Academies are only obliged to have two parent governors and there is no requirement for a teacher or staff governor.

I'll post the second part separately