Agenda item

To consider the motion together with the officer response.

The Chairman reported receipt of the following motion from Councillors Jon Hubbard and Glenis Ansell.  The Chairman referred members to the officer response to assist Council in its consideration of the motion.

“Central Government have announced plans to force every school in Wiltshire to be forced to convert to an Academy, even if the headteacher, governors and parents would prefer the school to remain within the Local Authority Family.

These forced changes to how schools are run have been condemned by teachers, parents and politicians alike – the Conservative chair of the influential 1922 committee in Parliament recently commented that the plans could lead to the creation of “new and distant bureaucracies” rather than delivering greater freedom and autonomy for schools.

Wiltshire Council has estimated that the average cost for converting each school in the County to an academy is £10,500. These costs include legal fees, accountancy, staffing issues and other costs such as changes to estate management.

Figures recently released by the Department for Education also confirmed that the average cost per school to central government for the conversion of a school from Local Authority control to being an Academy was just under £66,000.

The Secretary for State for Education has also confirmed that it is her intention to scrap the position of ‘Parent Governors’*** as part of her reforms to England’s schools.

Council Notes:

So far in Wiltshire 71 schools have converted to academies; indicating that an estimated £4,815,000 has been spent by central government on converting the schools and potentially a cost of £766,500 to Wiltshire Council.

With 165 schools still to convert this would mean an additional cost to Central Government of almost £11m and a bill for Wiltshire Council of over £1.7m.

Council Believes:

The estimated £12.5m that will be spent forcing the remaining schools in Wiltshire to convert to academies would be better invested in delivering local services for residents in the county and providing additional resources for schools in our communities.

That Schools in Wiltshire would be worse off without the insight and local knowledge brought to the County’s Schools Boards of Governors by parents and local residents.

Council Calls On:

Wiltshire’s MPs and Peers to actively lobby in Parliament to protect Wiltshire’s schools from unnecessary and unwanted reform being forced on them and for Wiltshire to instead be given the estimated remaining £12.5m of funding for a fairer funding for Wiltshire Schools or for investment in our communities.

Officers at all levels to ensure that this Councils opposition to forced academisation to be reflected in any consultation responses submitted by the council”.

, Councillor Jon Hubbard acknowledged that, since the submission of his motion there had been a change in government policy on this issue. The programme of immediately forcing schools to convert to academies had been withdrawn, although the Government would continue to encourage the academisation of schools. This would still have an impact on Wiltshire schools including a cost of approximately £76,500 per school conversion.

Councillor Hubbard suggested that the detail of the proposal could in fact end up forcing most schools down the academisation route. He considered that the risks to the Council should be investigated and proposed with the consent of his seconder, Councillor Ansell that the matter be referred to scrutiny.

The Baroness Scott of Bybrook, OBE, stated that whilst she was content with the referral, Cabinet members were already discussing the implications of the change in Government policy with a view to setting up a group to look at the detail as it emerged. Consideration would need to be given as to how this would be undertaken by the Executive and Scrutiny.

Councillor Laura Mayes, Cabinet member for Children Services explained that the Council had responded to the White Paper highlighting its concerns.

Councillor Simon Killane was supportive of the referral to Scrutiny, most appropriately by the Children’s Select Committee and also considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee in the context of its overall workplan. He added that there could be a role for the Schools Improvement Task Group in this

Having been put to the vote, the meeting;

Resolved:

To refer the matter to Scrutiny and to suggest that Scrutiny set up a working group to work with the Executive to investigate options for Wiltshire Council to be able to explore what routes are available for it to support Wiltshire Schools perhaps with a county-wide multi academy trust.