AFS0066

Written evidence submitted by the Department for Education

Summary

1. Education systems across the globe have been shifting power and responsibility from bureaucrats to leaders of education.

2. The academies and free schools programmes embody that trend, giving schools greater autonomy, within a strong framework of accountability.

3. For the vast majority of academies and free schools, this autonomy is giving them the space, the opportunity, and most importantly the confidence to innovate and improve. These improvements are reflected in their results.

4. Academies are spearheading partnerships and new forms of collaboration, playing a key role in driving forward improvements in the system.

5. We believe the education experts know best. But where failure is evident, it will not be tolerated. We will take swift, robust action against signs of underperformance.

6. As numbers grow we must take decisions about how best to safeguard this autonomy whilst providing support for those who need it. We will be giving power to Regional School Commissioners, to ensure decisions are taken by those with a real understanding of what will work locally.

International evidence shows that greater autonomy drives up educational standards, and is most effective when coupled with accountability

7. School autonomy is a key feature of high-performing education systems. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) study “PISA in Focus” (2011) stated: “At the country level , the greater the number of schools that have the responsibility to define and elaborate their own curricula and assessments, the better the performance of the whole system, even after accounting for national income.” Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Macao-China and Hong Kong-China, all high-performing education systems, have high levels of school autonomy[1].

8. Autonomy driven from the bottom up is better than state-led policies. Charter schools in the USA have been successful due to the freedom they have to adopt best practice to raise standards[2]. They show that, in New York charter schools, “frequent teacher feedback, data-driven instruction, high-dosage tutoring, increased instructional time, and a relentless focus on academic achievement explains roughly half of the variation in school effectiveness.”

9. Giving schools the freedom to adopt best practice helps narrow the attainment gap for disadvantaged students. Hoxby et al (2009)[3] shows that charter schools in New York close the gap separating inner-city neighbourhood students from those of the wealthiest suburbs (the Scarsdale-Harlem Achievement Gap) – by 86% in maths and 66% in English.

10. Autonomous schools do not just improve in isolation. Studies by Bettinger (2005)[4], Hoxby (2002)[5] and Booker et al (2008)[6] show that the improved performance of autonomous schools can improve the quality of schools in the neighbouring area.

11. Autonomy is most effective when supported by a robust accountability framework. “PISA Results in Focus” (2013)[7] found that autonomous schools “perform better than schools with less autonomy when they are part of school systems with more accountability arrangements.”

12. “Education at a Glance” (2010)[8], found autonomous schools achieve PISA scores in science that are 46 PISA scale points higher than where schools lack such autonomy, or as much as 63 points higher where autonomy is accompanied by strong accountability. These are big gains – 63 PISA points is equivalent to a student’s achievement rising, across their qualifications, by around 11 GCSE grades.

Autonomy and accountability are the two key pillars of academies reform.

13. Academies and free schools can take decisions on how best to raise standards and are free to bring in new expertise to help run their schools. Academies have better governance arrangements. Academy Trust members have control of their budgets; are free to set their own curriculum; can choose the best teachers based on merit, rather than being tied to qualified teacher status; and can reward these teachers as they see fit.

14. But these freedoms are granted within a robust accountability system. We have toughened accountability for all schools. But academies and free schools are subject to a higher level of scrutiny through the rigour and transparency of their governance arrangements.

15. Academy trusts must adhere to their funding agreement and to the academies financial handbook, and produce annual accounts for scrutiny by an independent external auditor. Audited accounts and funding agreements are published; as are details of budget allocations to academies.

16. In LA-maintained schools it is the local authority that has responsibility for financial oversight. The frequency and depth of audit is variable and maintained schools are often not subject to the same rigour as academies and free schools.

There is a distinct appetite for autonomy in England, evident in all types of school.

17. Since 2010 we have had overwhelming interest from parents, community members, businesses and individuals, wanting the opportunity to create new, innovative free schools. There are 174 open free schools, which will provide nearly 82,000 places when full. A further 115 schools are in the pipeline and many more are applying.

18. There has also been significant demand from teachers and governors to run their own schools. Since 2010, 2,573 schools have converted to become academies, with another 510 in the pipeline[9].

19. Academy status is not just for one type of school. Initially there was more interest from secondary schools; secondary schools typically have more operational responsibility than primary schools (they often have a school business manager and are in control of a considerably bigger budget). This made the step to academy status easier: 56% (2,143) of all secondary schools are now academies or free schools.

20. Primary schools are smaller and have in the past been more reliant on local authorities for support. Taking on administrative functions such as payroll, or contracting with external companies to deliver services, is more of a novelty. Primary schools were initially slower to take up academy status – but now they are over-taking secondaries. 10% (2,297) of all primary schools are now academies, and there are now more primary schools that are open or in the process of becoming an academy than secondary schools. There are also 36 Alternative Provision academies and 106 Special academies.

21. The flexible models through which schools can become academies have helped primary schools take the step. A school can convert as a stand-alone academy or join other schools through a strong partnership, or ‘chain’, such as an Umbrella Trust (UT) or a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT). There are now 356 independent chains of two or more schools, comprising 1648 academies, of which 975 are primary phase. We are supporting primary schools to come together in these partnerships through the Primary Chains Grant – £50,000 is available for groups of three or more schools applying to form a MAT where the majority of the schools are primary.

22. The appetite for academy status is apparent across the whole country. There are academies in all LAs except the City of London and the Scilly Isles (which have one maintained primary each). In four LAs (Darlington, North East Lincolnshire, Bexley and Rutland) all secondary schools have converted to academy status. Another 78 have more secondary academies than LA-maintained secondary schools. In Darlington and North East Lincolnshire over half of the state funded primary schools are also academies. There are 26 LAs where 20% or more of state-funded primary schools are open as academies.

23. With the expansion of academies and free schools greater choice is being given to parents and demand for places is high. Free schools that were open in September 2012 self-reported they had received an average of three applicants per place for September 2013. The King’s Leadership Academy in Warrington opened in 2012 in an area with surplus school places but the free school is oversubscribed: it received 266 expressions of interest for 120 Year 7 places in September 2014, and of those 140 made the school their first preference in their application.

Academy growth is built on a track record of improving standards.

24. The first sponsored academies were very successful in tackling failure. Analysis published by the department last year shows that, between 2005/06 and 2009/10, the proportion of pupils achieving five good GCSEs including English and maths in sponsored academies improved by just over 21%. Nearly double the rate of improvement seen nationally over the same period[10].

25. In 2013, in secondary sponsored academies, the percentage of pupils achieving five or more good GCSEs rose by 1.8%. As academies mature, they continue to improve. Sponsored academies that have been open for three years have improved by 12% since opening (to 48.2%), compared to a 5% increase in maintained schools over the same period. In primary sponsored academies results improved by three this year[11].

26. Harris Academy Greenwich is an excellent example of the transformative impact a sponsored academy can have. Through tackling truancy and careful targeting of resources, such as the pupil premium, the academy is reporting 85% of pupils achieving five good GCSEs in 2013. This is up from 43% in 2011.

27. It is not just sponsored academies that are successful. Converter academies are maintaining their already high standards: in 2013, 81% of pupils achieved level 4 or above in reading, writing and mathematics in primary converter academies, compared to 76% in LA-maintained mainstream schools. 25% of their pupils were above the expected standard at age 11 compared to 21% of pupils across all state-funded schools[12]. In secondary converter academies, 67.9% of pupils achieved five good GCSEs (including English and mathematics) compared to 58.8% of pupils in LA-maintained schools[13].

28. Converters do better than LA maintained schools against the new tougher Ofsted framework. Converter academies in both phases are more likely to retain their ‘Outstanding’ rating from Ofsted, with 33% of primaries, and 35% of secondary academies maintaining their rating, compared to 25% and 33% respectively, in maintained schools. Converter academies are also more likely to improve from ‘Good’ to ‘Outstanding’ than LA-maintained schools, with 27% of primary academies, and 16% of secondary academies, compared to just 12% of maintained primaries and 10% of secondaries improving to an ‘outstanding’ rating. This high performance is being mirrored in the first set of free school inspection results. Four of the original 24 free schools which opened in 2011 have already been rated ‘Outstanding’, whilst 14 have achieved ‘Good’[14].

29. All academies are responding well to a new qualification regime. In converters, 43.3% of pupils are now entered for the EBacc compared to 33.8% in LA-maintained schools. In sponsored academies, the number of pupils entered for the qualification has doubled in the last year to 21.7% in 2013[15].

30. Academies drive up standards for the majority, and – importantly – sponsored academies do better for the most deprived. Results for pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) have improved faster than in comparable LA-maintained schools. In 2012, the proportion of FSM pupils gaining five or more good GCSEs (including English and mathematics) increased by 2.4% in sponsored academies, compared to 0.9% in similar LA schools. For pupils with Special Educational Needs, the proportion gaining five or more good GCSEs including English and maths increased by 3.1% between 2011 and 2012, compared to an increase of 0.3% in similar LA schools[16].

31. Such improvement is vital for economic growth. The Sutton Trust found that if we boost the educational outcomes of the less educated families to match the UK average it could mean a 4% increase in GDP by 2050, or £60 billion as a share of today’s economy[17]. Academies are helping to achieve such a boost. A study of the performance of early sponsored academies by Machin and Vernoit (2011)[18] at the LSE found that improved performance in the academies led to significant improvements in neighbouring schools. The author’s state: “We do not believe that this is a coincidence: it suggests that it is possible for performance improvements in an academy to generate significant beneficial external effects on their neighbouring schools.”

Academies succeed because they have the space to innovate.

32. Academies are at the cutting edge of the education system, using their freedoms to innovate and improve standards. “Many school leaders feel a general sense of liberation with academy status”[19] and headteachers in academies feel that they have permission to innovate.

33. There are many examples of academies up and down the country using their freedoms to improve standards. Trinity Academy Halifax has used their budget freedom to offer a responsive and performance related pay package for their teaching staff. This has greatly improved staff retention and results. In 2013, 72% of pupils achieved five good GCSEs (including English and maths), a massive improvement from 48% in 2010 when Trinity became an academy.

34. Free School Norwich has changed the way the school year is organised, to operate a six-term year, with an extended school service to help working families, and a shorter summer holiday. The extended school operates both during term time and throughout the school holidays from 8.15 am until 5.45 pm. The school is closed for only one week a year – at Christmas. The school has noticed a big impact on boys where the shorter four-week summer break has meant that standards are retained and they can hit the ground running in the autumn term.

35. King Solomon Academy has used the freedom to change their curriculum and extend the school day to deliver seven additional hours of English a week and 30 minutes of extra maths daily. King Solomon has since been rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted.

36. At Harris Academy Bermondsey have pioneered a ‘Mentors from Business’ programme, which matches men and women from top flight City companies with one-to-one with girls from their school as they prepare for their exams. The weekly meetings are held before or after the Academy day. The school also now runs a ‘Mentors from Universities’ programme which pairs year nine students with undergraduates from LSE and London South Bank University. Innovations like these have led the school to report a record 67% of pupils achieved five good GCSEs (and equivalent) including English and maths in 2013.

Academies are driving improvement across the schools system through collaboration and partnership working.

37. Collaboration is a defining feature of the academies programme. As academies have been freed from local authority control they are leading a developing system of school-to-school support: sharing expertise, providing challenge and improving standards across the education sector.

38. Academies sit at the heart of teaching school alliances. 185 of the 357 teaching schools are academies (52 primaries, 124 secondary and 9 special academies). Teaching schools provide outstanding initial training, robust teacher development and strong leadership – all based around a sound understanding of “what works”. They establish a network of alliances that drive significant improvement in the quality of professional practice, improving the attainment of every child. 1,100 academies are part of these teaching school alliances.

39. Academies also play a key role in school-centred initial teacher training centres (SCITTs). 55 academies are now SCITTs, and are fast becoming beacons of excellence.

40. Academies are leading the way in flexible models of school-to-school support. Challenge Partners, formed in April 2011, currently help 180 schools to improve –including George Spencer Academy, Haberdasher’s Aske’s Hatcham College, Parmiter’s School, and Sir John Lawes School, to name a few, alongside maintained schools. Jon Coles of United Learning Trust, Dame Susan John of Lampton Academy (a converter academy), and Dame Yasmin Bevan of Denbigh High School (a converter) all sit on the Challenge Partners Board. For an annual fee, each school receives a yearly peer-led inspection which considers pupil performance; quality of teaching; school improvement systems; and areas of outstanding practice. The schools can access the appropriate support through the Challenge Partners framework.

41. Some academies decide to enter into more formal partnerships with other academies through a UT or MAT: 46.9% of academies are part of a UT or a MAT. A higher proportion of primary academies are within chains (59.3% of primary academies), working together to share staff and services.

42. UTs allow academies to maintain their identity and a direct contract with the Secretary of State, but each academy in the group will come together to form an overarching trust. Academies in a UT can collaborate by jointly procuring services or formalising a group wide school improvement support function.

43. In a MAT, a single trust is responsible for a group of academies. Academies in MATs can pool resources, share staff, benefit from economies of scale through centralising administrative function and share best practice. This model is continuing to evolve. In response to demand, we adapted this model to allow different categories of schools, for example voluntary-aided and -controlled schools, to be part of the same MAT.

44. Academies themselves are driving the evolution of these models, and hybrids are commonplace. For example, Reach2 employs both MAT and UT models. The overarching trust takes an active role in supporting their academies to improve standards, such as by holding mock inspections to identify any areas of development. The academies within the trust maintain their identity.

45. A number of ‘Outstanding’ schools are taking partnership work a step further, becoming a sponsor of underperforming schools in their own right. Converters make up almost half of the total approved sponsors; 286 academy converters are now sponsors, 129 of which were approved in the last 12 months.

46. Outwood Grange Academy became an academy in September 2009 and has since taken on 10 academies, six of which have been open for more than a year (four sponsored and two converters). Outwood Grange academies provide excellent tailored support to all students, especially those who are underachieving: all teachers and staff have high aspirations for their students and this is seeing them close the gap. On average, their academies have seen an improvement of 11%, and Ofsted have attributed much of their success to the targeted support and challenge provided. Outward Grange Academy is also a teaching school and uses the teaching school alliance to provide primary expertise.

47. Greenwood Dale Foundation Trust is based on the Nottingham Academy (‘Good’ with ‘Outstanding’ Leadership, 2012), which opened as an academy in 2009. The trust, which has 22 open academies, takes on the most challenging projects to turn them around. Since 2012, nine of the 11 sponsored academies open for a year or more have improved achievement by 9% on average.

48. Leigh Academies Trust, led by the Outstanding (2009) Leigh Technology Academy in Dartford, and is currently sponsoring five schools – four sponsored academies and one special school converter. The two secondary schools, which have been open for more than a year, are reporting improvements of 17% and 12% pupils achieving five good GCSEs in 2013.

49. In 2012, REAch2 was established by Hillyfield Academy, an outstanding primary school, and is a primary only sponsor. They have grown rapidly with 21 open academies under its Umbrella Trust model, with 10 more in the pipeline. It is REAch2’s ambition to grow to 60 academies within 6 separate MATs, which will include a variety of sponsored, converters and new provision.

LA inaction means we must act to tackle failure in maintained schools.

50. Too many schools in too many local authorities have been allowed to languish, unchallenged and unsupported. There are 471 LA maintained schools in an Ofsted category, 41 of which have been in this category for more than 18 months. Since 2007, 56 LAs have not issued a single warning notice, despite individual school underperformance in their area.

51. Where LAs have intervened in failing schools that action has not been of sufficient standard. One in three LA-driven action plans are considered to be of too poor a standard to secure the necessary improvements[20].

52. LA reaction to financial failure is equally unimpressive. The EFA found that, in early 2013, there were seven local authorities with at least three schools each which had been in deficit continually for five years[21]. Some of these deficits amounted to well over 10% of the school’s annual revenue and, in a minority of cases, over 25%.

53. To dither, and not take effective action in the face of failure, is unacceptable. We have a moral duty to take swift action where we know children’s education is suffering. When a school is put into an Ofsted category of concern we contact them within five days to begin the process of finding them a high quality sponsor. Since 2010, we have turned 645 underperforming schools into sponsored academies and 237 are in the pipeline.

54. Our actions are changing schools for the better. In Haringey, Downhill’s Primary School performance was unacceptable and the school was issued with a notice to improve in January 2011. Following a lack of action to improve standards we issued an academy order (December 2011) and appointed an Interim Executive Board. In September 2012, the academy opened as Harris Primary Academy Philip Lane. In March 2013, Ofsted found the academy to be making reasonable progress in raising standards for all pupils. The academy achieved results of 69% achieving Level 4 or above in reading, writing and maths in 2013.

55. In Portsmouth, ARK appointed the outstanding Dame Sharon Hollows as Principal of Charter Academy, previously the underperforming St Luke’s Church of England Secondary School. They extended the school day to enable additional English and maths tuition. Results have more than trebled (to 48% achieving five good GCSEs) since the school became an academy, despite a challenging cohort with almost 50% of pupils eligible for free school meals.

56. Willington Academy in Kent opened in 2010, replacing Willington Enterprise College, and sponsored by the Leigh Technology Academy Trust. From a base of just 35% of pupils achieving five good GCSEs in 2010, the academy saw this rise to 58% in 2012. The academy is reporting a further rise this year to 70%. Ofsted noted that the “outstanding leadership of the …senior leaders, including governors, has been instrumental in significantly raising students’ achievement from very low to good”.

We take the same approach when tackling failure in academies and our accountability framework enables us to take robust action.

57. No matter how high-performing the school system, there will be failure. Wherever there is failure we must take swift and decisive action. If we have concerns about an academy, we will investigate immediately, diagnose the problem, and insist the academy brings in appropriate support to make improvements.

58. Where adequate progress is not made, we will issue a pre-warning notice. Since 2011, we have issued 38 pre-warning notices to academies and free schools, of which three have required the further issuing of a warning notice. All of these are published on our website.

59. Academies have responded well to this challenge. In the eight academies issued with a pre-warning notice in 2011-12, the proportion of pupils achieving five good GCSEs including English and maths saw improvements of an average of 16% in 2012.

60. Where improvements are not quickly achieved, we move to change the sponsor. North Shore Academy in Stockton-on-Tees opened in 2010: in February 2012 they were placed in special measures, and results that year dropped to just 22% achieving five or more good GCSEs. By May 2012, we had ensured a change of sponsor. In 2013, the school reported a leap in results of 30% (52.6% good GCSEs).

61. Where necessary we will take action to tackle broader problems across a whole sponsor. When a number of Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) schools were underperforming, we issued eight pre-warning notices to individual academies, we re-opened discussions on schools that were due to join AET, and we placed an immediate pause on future expansion. In discussion with AET’s senior leaders, we set clear objectives and outlined our expectations about improvements to both governance and performance.

62. Our action against the minority of underperforming free schools has been equally robust. In September 2013, we were alerted to significant concerns in Al Madinah Free School in Derby; by November 2013 we had plans in place to replace the school’s trust. Following a special measures judgement in May 2013 on Discovery Free School, the Secretary of State asked Ofsted to bring forward their monitoring visit; and following their report of inadequate progress on 12 November, Lord Nash requested a further action statement. The trust were unable to provide evidence that they were capable of bringing about the rapid improvement required; the Department informed the trust on 13 December it was terminating the funding agreement with effect from 4 April 2014.

63. Where financial management and governance are sub-standard, we act. To date, the EFA has issued three financial notices to improve (FNTIs), and will investigate any case where there is cause for concern. FNTIs withdraw certain financial freedoms, such as trusts’ delegated authority to dispose of assets, or to write-off debts. The FNTI will also set out specific actions that the trust needs to take to deal with the cause of the EFA’s concerns, such as recover from a deficit. The EFA will always publish FNTIs and the reports of investigations.

64. Our strong financial accountability regime allows immediate action to be taken. At King’s Science Academy, where we unearthed serious financial concerns, we notified the police, are recovering the funds and have required the school to urgently address all failings.

We have a robust system for assessing sponsors and free school proposers, but we also provide support to build capacity.

65. Sponsors work within a tight accountability framework. We have set the bar very high for aspiring sponsors, interrogating applications to ensure they have educational expertise, a strong business plan and high quality individuals

66. We regularly assess sponsor capacity. In the small minority of sponsors where safeguards could not prevent failure, we intervene to stay their growth and to scrutinise improvement plans for their existing academies. Since January 2013, 25 academy chains have been prevented from taking on additional projects.

67. We have a similarly high application standard when assessing free school applications. Each is considered against rigorous, published criteria, focusing on the capacity and track record of proposers, with extensive due diligence checks. This oversight continues throughout pre-opening, and we will defer or cancel projects where we have significant concerns. Every free school is inspected by Ofsted against the Independent School Standards prior to opening.

68. To keep failure to a minimum we provide support to sponsors and free school proposers, to build their capacity. We are helping existing sponsors to improve via the Sponsor Forum – a termly meeting of experienced sponsors – at which representatives can learn from one another. Our Academy Ambassadors programme is helping to increase business expertise in the academies sector: so far 43 business representatives have agreed to provide support to existing academy trusts. For newly-approved sponsors, we run induction events, featuring experienced sponsors. Of the 191 new sponsors approved since January 2013, 50 attended the first of these events in October.

69. For free schools we provide a range of support from pre-application to their first Ofsted inspection. Our delivery partner, the New Schools Network assist prospective groups with their application. Once approved, projects receive a project development grant (£220k for primary, special and AP; £250k for 16-19; and £300k for secondary/all through) and a named lead in the department. Education advisors will help develop the schools education offer and recruitment of key staff. Once open the academies are allocated a named lead official in the EFA to support them in their first year. They also receive several monitoring visits from a DfE education advisor to support their educational development.

The future system will further embed autonomy with clear accountability whilst ensuring greater input from sector leaders.

70. We want to shift the management and maintenance of the academies system, including sponsors, to a more local level. This will enable greater sector leadership, and ensure outstanding education leaders have a central role in shaping, management and oversight of the system.

71. We will move as many decisions as possible about academies, their sponsors, and free schools from Whitehall to a regional level. Proven educational leaders – eight full-time Regional School Commissioners (RSCs), each advised by six headteachers from outstanding academies – will have delegated authority to act for the Secretary of State in regions.

72. These RSCs, and supporting Head Teacher Boards, will take decisions on the creation of new academies; they will monitor performance, sanction intervention, and will ensure the sponsor market can fulfil local need. But the RSCs will not interfere with the autonomy of academies and free schools that are performing well.

73. We have concluded that placing the role of oversight at a regional level will enable the system to be even more responsive to local needs and attitudes, and will draw more effectively on the expertise of the local leaders. It will provide a focus for school to school support and a channel by which to form new partnerships; it will ensure new academies in the area have a choice of sponsors unique to them; and it will guarantee that decisions around intervention will benefit from local understanding from the very beginning. The RSCs will ensure local accountability whilst enabling academies to continue to enjoy the autonomy that is so critical to their success.

December 2013

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