The fundamental flaws in academisation plans

The education white paper includes plans to force all English schools to become part of a multi-academy trust (MAT) by 2022, and to remove local authorities’ responsibilities for school improvement.

The changes will transform the education landscape and put an end to many of the strong and valued relationships between individual school leaders and local authority staff that have developed over decades.

Why, for example, should a successful school judged by Ofsted to be achieving “outstanding” standards for its pupils – such as the one described by Shropshire director of children’s services Karen Bradshaw – be forced to rip up those relationships, join a MAT and start afresh? The government’s edict is justified by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan as the best way to improve standards and because it is impractical to maintain two different school systems. But the idea that you scrap what is working for the 82 per cent of maintained schools judged “good” or ‘outstanding” to help the 18 per cent rated “inadequate or requires improvement”, is illogical and fuels concerns it is ideologically-driven.