Academies

(asked on 2nd April 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 1 April 2019 to Question 237753, how many of the schools currently awaiting rebrokering have been waiting for longer than (a) one month, (b) six months, (c) one year, (d) two years and (e) three years or more.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 8th April 2019

As at 27 March 2019, our records show that 93 academies are in the process of transferring to different trusts.

Table 1 shows the amount of time that these academies have been awaiting transfer, following approval from the Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) for the academy to move trust.

Table 1: the amount of time academies have been awaiting transfer for

Numbers of academies transferring between trusts

Less than one month

11

Between one and six months

47

Between six months and one year

31

Between one year and two years

4

Total

93

Source: 27 March 2019 Academies MI System

Academies may transfer to other trusts in a range of circumstances. In some cases, the relevant RSC may intervene due to concerns about academy performance. A substantial majority of academy transfers are voluntary agreements between trusts. For example, we are encouraging single academy trusts to join multi academy trusts which is happening at a steady rate.

When transferring an academy from one trust to another, there may be a number of things that can take time to resolve with the incoming trust who has agreed to take on the school, such as issues relating to land, or private finance initiative contracts; financial matters; or the process of transferring staff from one trust to another.

Where there are concerns regarding an academy’s performance, we would seek to, wherever possible, put in place school improvement support while the transfer is underway.

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