Education of academy pupils harmed by trust failures, MPs warn

The education of tens of thousands of children has been damaged by academy failures and the misuse of public funds, a parliamentary watchdog has concluded.

In a report published on Wednesday, the public accounts committee (PAC) said governance of academy trusts must be strengthened, and that the Department for Education’s (DfE) oversight must be more rigorous.

MPs have also questioned the ability of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to control academies’ executive pay awards following a series of high-profile scandals.

The report said the DfE should ensure that academy trusts were sufficiently transparent and accountable to parents and communities.

Its conclusions follow increasing concern over the academies programme, which began in 2000 under Labour but has been widened by the Conservatives.

Meg Hillier, the chair of the committee, said the education of many pupils had been badly affected.

“We have seen the troubling consequences of poor governance and oversight of academy trusts,” she said.

“Parents and the wider community are entitled to proper access to transparent information about their local academy schools.”

The 7,500 academies in England educate nearly 4 million pupils. The report said some academy trusts had misused public money but not faced proper sanctions because of DfE failings.

In particular, MPs have called for new sanctions to deter and punish malpractice after hearing that the former head of the controversial Durand Academy in south London was paid an £850,000 severance package.

MPs examined the troubles at Bright Tribe, which ran 10 schools in the north and east of England that are now being found new sponsors.

They concluded that parents at the trust did not know to whom they could turn when they wished to raise concerns about academy schools or trusts and called for a review of DfE complaints procedures.

The committee also reported that almost a quarter of schools had still not come forward with the information the DfE needed on asbestos in school buildings.

Last March, the DfE launched its asbestos management assurance process to collect information on how the issue in schools was being managed.

Despite the initial deadline for responses being extended several times to take it from 31 May 2018 to 27 July last year, only 77% of schools responded and the deadline was extended again to 15 February this year.

The committee recommended that in March the DfE should “name and shame” the schools that failed to meet the deadline.

MPs said the DfE should write to the committee by March to set out what sanctions it had imposed to date and explain how it planned to strengthen the sanctions regime to deter, punish and prevent malpractice in relation to academy trusts.

It also recommended that within two months of finishing the work, the ESFA should publish the results of its inquiries into concerns about the financial management and governance of academy trusts.

Accounts released in November showed that 125 trusts paid a salary of £150,000 a year in 2016-17.

The department refused to accept the “negative characterisation of academies” in the committee’s report.

“The majority of academies are delivering a great education and – as recognised by the PAC – we are taking robust action in the small minority of cases where they are not meeting the high standards expected,” a DfE spokesperson said.