It was a “mistake” for the government to “assume that academies are a silver bullet that would solve everything,” said the leader of a large multi-academy trust.
Ark Schools chief executive Lucy Heller told the Festival of Education that the expansion of the academy programme was “too far, too fast”.
Speaking at the same event, former Department for Education chief policy adviser Sam Freedman said the incoming Labour government would have to make decisions about academies and the school system, despite not having focused on this in the run-up to the general election.
Under the previous government, a target was set for all state schools to be (or be on track to be) in a multi-academy trust by 2030, although planned legislation to support this failed.
Answering a question from Proof Asked whether Labour’s “agnostic” stance on school structures and academisation would remain firm, Mr Freedman said the party would “have to address a number of issues around the academy system”.
Sir Kevan Collins, the former education recovery commissioner who is set to become an expert adviser to the Labour government, told school leaders last week that he is “quite agnostic” about school structures.
Govian’s regime “looked like the Wild West”
Reflecting on government policy over the past 14 years at the festival event, Ms Heller said: “I think there are things that one would do differently and I think part of the mistake was assuming that academies are some sort of silver bullet that would solve everything.”
And Ms Heller criticised DfE ministers for “thinking they can dictate the minutiae of school life”.
Speaking about the arrival of the “Govian regime” in 2010, when Michael Gove became education secretary and academisation gained momentum, Ms Heller said it “felt like the Wild West”.
He argued that while this was an “opening up” of academisation, it went “too far, too fast” and that the academy system has now “paid the price for over-expansion rather than having gone a little slower”.
Ms Heller added that if Mr Gove had continued to focus on the “most problematic schools” there would have been a “stronger argument” for academisation.
After Mr Gove was appointed Education Secretary, he passed legislation allowing for the rapid expansion of the academy programme.
However, Ms. Heller suggested that “in many cases the main improvement[from academization]was in principals’ salaries, rather than in results.”
And, reflecting on the priorities of the incoming administration, Mr Freedman said the “big question” will be “how far they want to go” in changing the academic system.
Labour has been clear that it prioritises school standards over structure. But Bridget Phillipson, who is expected to be appointed as the next education secretary, has previously said there is a need for greater transparency and accountability at the regional “layer” of the school system.
The party has also promised to introduce new regional improvement teams which Labour says will “improve support between schools and spread best practice”.
Mr Freedman cautioned that trying to separate school structures from standards does not work.
Referring to the new government, he added: “While they are not going to say in any way ‘This school should be an academy’ or ‘All schools should go back to their local authority’ – and they shouldn’t because that’s not the right approach – they are going to have to address a number of issues about the academy system.”
Freedman also said the new Labour government would have to think about whether to make “tweaks” to the school system or say: “Here’s a vision of what this system will ultimately look like.”
He said this could be a “different way of organizing trusts,” and mentioned that it could include a more decentralized model “that allows mayors to have greater oversight.”
And reflecting on the past 14 years of Conservative-led government, Mr Freedman said the “biggest problem” had been “the loss of any sense of relationship between schools and the wider children’s system”.
He said that while the intention was for “the rest of the system” to “handle all the problems,” this “has not happened.”
Leaders have warned that schools have become a “fourth emergency service” in recent years amid a collapse in mental health and social care services.
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