Chancellor announces mass academisation programme
All change…again! The chancellor announced in his March budget that there will be a drive to make all schools academies, thereby relieving Local Authorities of their responsibilities for the education of children in their area. Needless to say, this will not be going down well with LA’s or unions.
Chancellor announces mass academisation programme
All change…again! The chancellor announced in his March budget that there will be a drive to make all schools academies, thereby relieving Local Authorities of their responsibilities for the education of children in their area. Needless to say, this will not be going down well with LA’s or unions.
Over £1 billion is reported to be invested in the academisation programme. The plan is for schools to convert to academy by 2020 or have an academy order in place in order that there is a commitment to convert by 2022 (you will be an academy like it or not). So, no immediate panic. There is some irony that Labour are highly critical of a mass academy programme as it was Labour who first introduced academies but to be fair to them, the intention was to support schools in urgent need of improvement. Since 2010 schools have been able to choose to become academies by becoming “converter academies” (the financial incentives helped increase the numbers). This latest approach means that there will be no choice as the thousands of schools still to convert will have to consider how this will work. Furthermore, the intention is that ultimately schools will all be in multi academy trusts – although one might be cynical and argue that there are simply nowhere near enough trusts to take in all the schools that “need to convert”. On top of this, it looks like the school day will be extended for extra curricula activities. Staff and pupils will be delighted at having a longer day!
HR Implications
Implications from a HR aspect include TUPE issues, consultation with all stakeholders (staff from HR angle obviously), and a massive amount of work for pension professionals due to the vast amount of taking people out and then putting them back into the Teachers’ Pension scheme.
Staffing levels will need to be reviewed, not least of which will be in the school office. Be prepared – having spoken to many a school administrator over the years, it seems the consensus of opinion is that the administrative function of the school will need some review due to the vastly increased workload that academy status brings. Now might be an opportune time for administrators in schools to research what the extra admin burden will look like in order to review the whole admin function in good time. I suggest schools talk to colleagues in current academies to help the planning process. It’s not just about the time of conversion – it’s about identifying the admin needs going forward.
On the extra-curricular matter, it will be interesting to see how employment matters are addressed in terms of hours of work, extra planning, overtime, staffing levels, etc. Draft legislation is expected by the end of the week.
Services
Of course one of the biggest problems will be where to get services from. LA services will undoubtedly reduce over the coming years. It is unlikely that LA’s will be offering SLA’s for payroll, HR etc. in the long term, so start thinking where those services will be sourced from. Ooh, I know a great Payroll and HR provider……