Schools, academisation, and safeguarding

Since before the election, and up until very recently, most schools threatened with “academisation” (a horrible word but now in too-common usage) have been in special measures or below floor targets or both. This reflects what was the DCSF and is now the DfE position, that endemic failure cannot be allowed to continue and that academy conversion is the way out of the morass.

And in some cases, there have been genuine sustainable and sustained improvements, though in others there have been rather too many quick fixes of various sorts, and both academies and sponsors have found that turning schools round is not quite the formulaic task that had been expected.

Still, we are where we are, and Lord Nash has put some rigour into the sponsor assessment process, though the whole principle of removing local democratic accountability seems to me fundamentally flawed. (Of course the Section 13 duties remain, and local authorities are being inspected on their performance in improving standards in all schools, including academies ... I shall not explore the ambiguities in that here.)

What has happened in the last few days is the opening up of a new front. East Sussex County Council has been told by the DfE that standards of safeguarding at Bishop Bell CE School are unacceptable, and that the DFE may intervene – which may mean academisation.

The serious case review showed that the school failed repeatedly – six times – and over a significant period, to act properly on concerns raised about Jeremy Forrest's actions, sometimes ignoring them, sometimes minimising them, and sometimes blaming the girl.

The school and its management clearly has serious questions to answer and management issues to put right, as does the local authority and local safeguarding children board. What, for example, did the local authority and the local safeguarding children board do to make sure that agreed policies were followed at school level? What training was undertaken at the school? What did the governing body know?

As a school governor and a college governor I have been trained three times in the last two years on these issues, and welcomed that, and we have had the issue on agendas for discussion with management.

This must be a wake-up call for all schools and academies, as well as for local authorities and safeguarding children boards in supporting them and holding them to account – “Safeguarding is everyone's business” must not just be an empty mantra - it is at the heart of what we do for all children and young people.

John Freeman CBE is a former director of children's services and is now a freelance consultant