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; and how many of those schools have been waiting (a) less than 9 months, (b) between 9 and 18 months, (c) 2 years, (d) 3 years and (e) over 3 years; and how many such schools are in the process of being issued an academy order.

As of 1 July 2018, there are over 2,000 open sponsored academies. As of 1 June 2018, 103 local authority-maintained schools had previously been judged inadequate by Ofsted and were in the process of having the sponsor confirmed. The details of the length of time elapsed between being judged Inadequate by Ofsted and being matched with a suitable sponsor for these 103 schools are as follows in table 1:

Table 1: Number of academies previously judged inadequate - time elapsed between Ofsted judgement and match with suitable sponsor

Source: Open academies and academy projects in development MI – June 2018

Ofsted MI – 30 June 2018

In cases where schools in receipt of an academy order are yet to have a suitable sponsor confirmed, 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.

When a local authority-maintained school has been inspected by Ofsted and is judged Inadequate, the department receives notice of this. However, Ofsted will need to carry out a moderation inspection. Therefore, the department cannot act until this has been finalised. Due to this, we are unable to say how many local authority-maintained schools that have been judged Inadequate are in the process of being issued with an academy order.