Maintained Schools: Standards

(asked on 7th February 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many local authority maintained schools which have failed an Ofsted inspection receiving an inadequate judgement are still waiting for an academy sponsor to be confirmed six months after their inspection date.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 20th February 2018

As at 1 January 2018, there were 74 local authority maintained schools who had received an inadequate Ofsted rating and were in the process of being matched to a suitable sponsor. Some of these schools have been re-inspected and are no longer inadequate. 19 local authority maintained schools have also received an inadequate Ofsted rating and are in the process of being issued an academy order.

When an academy is judged inadequate by Ofsted, the Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC), on behalf of the Secretary of State, can terminate their funding agreement. This is a power rather than a duty, meaning the RSC may decide to implement other measures to improve the school rather than terminate the funding agreement to bring about a change of trust. Not all academies receiving an inadequate judgement from Ofsted will be matched with an alternative academy sponsor. As such, we do not routinely record the time taken between an Ofsted inadequate judgement in relation to an academy and the academy being re-brokered to a new trust.

Further information on trust transfers and grant funding is available on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-trust-transfers-and-grant-funding.

Of the 74 local authority maintained schools issued with an academy order following an inadequate Ofsted judgement, 26 remain unmatched to an academy sponsor for over a year, 4 remain unmatched for two years or more and 9 have not been matched to an academy sponsor for three years or more. No school that has received an academy order, after becoming Ofsted inadequate, has been unmatched with a sponsor for four or more years.

In cases where schools in receipt of an academy order remain unmatched to an academy sponsor, the school will be supported in other ways. This can include a preferred sponsor providing interim support, support provided by the local authority or another sponsor, or a teaching school alliance.

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