Clive Webster practices what he preaches when it comes to demonstrating his commitment to a mixed economy education system.
The chief executive of the Kent Catholic Schools Partnership, a multi-academy trust (MAT) made up of a group of 20 schools across the county, has three children of his own - all of whom go to different types of secondary school.
"One daughter goes to a grammar school, another to the local state comprehensive and my son goes to an independent school. All are thriving in their respective schools," says the former director of children's services in Southampton from 2005 to 2013.
While it was his own Catholic faith and "the challenge to do something new" that led him to take on his current role, Webster admits to being "agnostic" when deciding what school was best for his children.
"I'm comfortable with the choices we made for our children," he says. "We know parents will make decisions that are best for their child. They won't necessarily pick the same one for each of their children - it is about finding the right match."
However, the government's own commitment to this mixed economy has been questioned following the announcement by Chancellor George Osborne at last November's Spending Review that local authorities would be removed from running state schools by 2020, with all schools being turned into academies.
While not wanting to be drawn on the rights and wrongs of government policy, Webster is passionate about the potential for academisation to improve choice for parents.
"The way I see it is that the government, and ones before it, are saying diversity has always been a characteristic of education in this country, and when you have that in an area, it can create competition between schools," he says. "The idea that we can have a one-size-fits-all model of schooling or teaching is naive in the extreme.
"If we look back over the post-war years at what an education system dominated by local authorities has achieved, it's just not been good enough, for whatever reasons."
Narrowing the attainment gap is a key target of the government's education reforms, and Webster says that academisation can deliver practical freedoms and cultural change that can help schools improve outcomes for disadvantaged children and young people.
However, high-profile cases of performance and management problems at some academy schools and trust groups has only served to fuel the inherent distrust of the academy system from within local government. "Being an academy doesn't automatically make you a better school - it is no panacea," admits Webster. "But what it can do is focus the mind on what matters in education. It re-energizes school communities.
Tackling the blame culture
"Where there once may have been a malaise or a culture of blaming failure on something or someone else, schools that become academies or part of a MAT produce a situation where there is no hiding place - they can no longer blame failure on the council or government. The resource is yours to focus on high-quality teaching and learning. It doesn't take away all the challenges you face, but gives you the choice over how you use resources to tackle them."
An educational psychologist and qualified teacher, Webster says the other key difference academisation brings is to challenge school leaders to "take ownership of the fundamental psychological fact that every child can achieve". This can be particularly powerful when schools address how they best meet the needs of vulnerable pupils, such as care leavers, young carers and those with special educational needs.
"It's easy to say we're interested in the future of every child, but it is far more difficult to turn that into reality based on a forensic awareness and appreciation of who those children are," he says. "I see in my schools walls of children's photos who are identified positively for different reasons. What that brings is an added focus - I can say to head teachers 'how are those 10 young carers doing?'"
Webster, who attributes his passion for education to his time as a pupil at Catholic schools in a deprived part of north west London in the 1970s, contends that this forensic approach has too often been lacking in how local authorities monitor and assess the education of vulnerable groups. "There are certain authorities that have a track record they can be truly proud of in how they have embraced education responsibilities and owned that," he says. But while these should be "celebrated", they are still the minority, he adds.
In much the same way that the fledgling children's services trusts have created organisations with the sole focus on improving children's social care, he says acadamisation can help schools hone their main priorities.
"Education outcomes for children are the sole reason for academies and MATs being set up," he says. "They are not diluted by considerations about political issues that may be important to councils, or the extent to which education funding can help offset other pressures in the remit."
Taken together, the government's policies on children's services trusts and academies suggest the days are numbered for children's services departments that combine education and social care functions. Webster agrees, and suggests the sector must take its share of the blame for this.
"As education and social care professionals, we have failed since 2004 to really turn that legislation (the Children Act 2004) into brilliant outcomes for young people. While there has been success, it has not been transformative," he says.
He adds that as pressure rises from growing demand and less funding in child protection and vulnerable adults services, councils will become organisations that focus on the most marginalised groups in the community, with the result being that mainstream services like education "are, rightly, the domain of the primary providers of that service".
But Webster says that with the added autonomy comes the need for academies to be more inclusive. While his group of schools have a "Catholic dimension", they are "intrinsically inclusive", he says, because many pupils attend are of different or no faith.
"That has always been the case," he says. "Once parents make that choice to send their child to us, we are duty bound, whatever their faith."
The Local Government Association has long complained that academies abuse their autonomy, which is a problem when councils want to work with schools where there are performance issues. Webster admits some schools have become academies to "build a barrier and operate as an island, which is an incredibly irresponsible thing to do".
But he says it cuts both ways: "Equally, we've had authorities that have operated as if they can wash their hands of schools that choose to become academies and have seen it as an opportunity to absolve themselves of responsibilities and when the occasional academy has fallen on its face revel in the fact.
"I hear elected members saying they can't engage with academies because they have no powers. There's nothing in the regulations around the different status of schools to allow that to happen - the democratic mandate is not diminished by schools becoming academies."
Instead, he says problems between academies, trusts and councils tend to reflect badly on the management skills of those involved.
"If boundaries of accountability become barriers, that is an indictment of those leaders themselves and not of the system," he says.
Embracing academies
Webster has prioritised forging close relationships with education leaders in Kent, and it was instructive during his time at Southampton City Council, where he "embraced" schools converting to academies.
"The agenda is a simple one: are we doing everything we can to ensure children are safe and achieving the best possible outcomes," he says. "It's incumbent on me to make sure the boundaries around our responsibilities don't become barriers."
He attributes his success in Southampton - school attainment went from bottom to the top third of the local authority table - to engendering a sense of collective responsibility among school leaders for all children in the city. This meant getting primary and secondary schools to work closer together to smooth the transition between the two. But it was not easy to achieve in the "self preservation" culture that exists in schools.
By contrast, collaboration among the 20 schools in the Kent MAT is more straightforward, he says. The trust has been able to shave £100,000 off the collective insurance bill, while overseeing an £800,000 investment in facilities "without a head teacher needing to lift a finger".
Webster expects this collaborative model to apply to other services as more schools convert to academies and trusts expand - his is to grow to 24 by July. "I can see a time when MATs will be in a position to employ professionals, whether they be educational psychologists, social workers or youth workers, in a way that re-energises them on making a positive impact on children and families," he says.
"The work of those professionals has sometimes been diluted by having to consider other political and organisational issues and being worried about their jobs. If over the next decade some of that can be mitigated and you have groups of professionals that can do what they became qualified for, we'll be at the beginning of a far more virtuous cycle."
CLIVE WEBSTER CV
- 2013: Chief executive, Kent Catholic Schools Partnership
- 2005: Director of children's services, Southampton City Council
- 2000: Assistant director for children and young people, Surrey council
- 1991: Educational psychologist roles at Essex, Wandsworth and Hillingdon councils
- 1986: Teacher and SEN co-ordinator, Hampshire council
- 1986: Qualifies as a teacher
- 1985: Graduates with a philosophy and psychology degree
