2nd November 2016 1:00
By Blue Tutors
Along with the decision to make all schools academies, in the previous coalition government, the Education Secretary introduced the idea of free schools. Free schools are state-funded schools opened by charities, academy trusts, community groups, parents and teachers, as opposed to traditional state schools which are entirely under the control of the local authority. Their introduction was in response to a shortage of high quality school places for students in the UK, and part of Cameron’s campaign pledge for 500 new schools within 5 years.
Why open free schools?
As they are not under the direct control of the local authority, free schools have much more flexibility, operating in the same way as academies, outside local authority control, and not having to follow the national curriculum or staffing constraints. This gives local communities the option to establish schools with more choice and control in order to cater for specific groups, for example the school to be opened in Solihull for marginalised students having already left mainstream education. Recent data has also shown that free schools are more likely than equivalent state schools to receive an Ofsted rating of ‘outstanding’. Nick Timothy, director of the New Schools Network claims that "free schools are better placed to drive up standards and give parents what they want because they give more control to heads, teachers and governors, rather than politicians and bureaucrats."
Despite its potential to alleviate strain in an overloaded and underfunded system, the scheme was criticised as lacking the long-term planning needed to handle the dramatic increase in demand for school places, as it does not strategically prioritise areas of greatest need and or address the uncertainty in local budgets leaving parents unsure whether there will be a place for their child.
Free school failures
Since their launch in 2011, the Department for Education has spent nearly £2 million on free schools which failed to ever open. Free schools, although not run the government, are entitled to funding from the DfE to cover ‘essential costs’ prior to opening in the form of a project development grant, and, critically, it is not possible for the government to recoup this grant money in the eventuality that the school does not actually open.
The number of such schools using government funds to set up yet failing to ever admit a single pupil is on the rise; almost 10% of the 60 schools scheduled to open in 2015 failed to do so. The DfE states that the 345 free schools that have opened to date are provide essential extra school places and more choice for parents, and that “costs are controlled very carefully to deliver value for money for the taxpayer”. On the other hand, opposition MPs claim that this spending “borders on criminally negligent” and the free school initiative should be scrapped along with the academies, as it is unacceptable to waste such sums during a funding crisis.