18th July 2018 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Local councils are better at improving a school’s Ofsted grade than schools which become academies. Reported on the BBC, official figures show that schools rated as inadequate in 2013 were more likely to be rated as good or outstanding in 2017 if they were kept under council control, rather than schools which have been taken over by an academy chain or a multi-academy trust. Changes introduced in 2016 mean that any school rated as inadequate must be taken over by an academy.
The research was conducted by Angel Solutions, and looked at 429 schools in England which were rated as inadequate in 2013. Of these, 152 had stayed with their local authority, 212 had become academies and 65 had either closed or been taken over by other schools. 115 of the 152 local authority schools were rated good or outstanding in 2017, 75%. This compares to 92 of the academy schools, which is 59.4%. This has raised calls for the government to stand down on not allowing councils to intervene when a school receives an inadequate rating.
These figures showing that local authority schools out perform academy schools in all areas of the country has led the LGA to point out that the government is not letting councils meet their responsibilities. Local councils are supposed to ensure that every child has access to the best education it is possible to provide, but their hands are tied by the legislation created in 2016.
In contrast, a spokesperson from the department for education said that the figures are misleading. The figures are only assessed over 4 years, and it is possible that some schools take far longer to turn around than others due to individual issues within each school. The government say that putting current academies back in the hands of local authorities would be a backwards step and would actually reduce the quality of education that we can provide to students.