This petition was submitted during the 2015–2017 Conservative government

Petition Hold a public inquiry and a referendum over turning all schools into academies

The government has announced that every school in England will become an academy. This was not in their manifesto and is therefore a completely undemocratic move.

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There is growing evidence that academies underperform & serious questions about their financial oversight. Buildings & land are being handed over to unaccountable orgs. Once they are transferred there is no legal mechanism to get them back. Before all schools become academies we demand the government holds a full public inquiry - that takes into account educational research and the views of teachers, parents and students - followed by a referendum in order to show that they have a mandate.

This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months

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The Petitions Committee decided not to debate this petition

The Committee decided not to schedule a debate on this petition because the House of Commons debated the Education White Paper, which includes the Government's policy on academies, on Wednesday 13 April. The subject for the debate was chosen by the Official Opposition (Labour).

This petition was “tagged” as relevant to the debate. This means that it was listed on the order paper (the agenda of the House of Commons) as being relevant to the debate.

You can watch the debate here: http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/c1a5c42c-9f3d-4458-83b5-d10063c3a731?in=16:15:10

You can read the transcript here: https://hansard.digiminster.com/commons/2016-04-13/debates/16041341000001/SchoolsWhitePaper

Government responded

This response was given on 6 July 2016

We have listened to feedback, and revised our plans; we will not be introducing blanket legislation but will continue to reaffirm our determination to see all schools become academies.

Read the response in full

Since the launch of this petition, the Government has listened to feedback from teachers, school leaders and parents, as well as MPs. It is clear from those conversations that the impact academies have in transforming young people’s life chances is widely accepted and that more schools are keen to embrace academy status. As a result of these conversations the Government has decided, while reaffirming our continued determination to see all schools become academies in the next six years, that it is not necessary to bring legislation to bring about blanket conversion of all schools to achieve this goal.

The Government will continue to require underperforming schools to convert to academy status, and to support good schools to convert and take the lead in supporting other schools as part of multi-academy trusts (MATs), In addition the Government will bring forward legislation to convert schools in the worst performing local authority areas, and where local authorities do not have the capacity to continue maintaining their schools

As part of the Government’s commitment to deliver real social justice, our reforms have made a remarkable difference to education in this country, with record numbers of children now being taught in good or outstanding schools. However, there is still more to do.

Thousands of schools have already chosen to become academies and we will continue to encourage high-performing maintained schools to put forward applications. We believe that good leaders are best placed to raise standards and improve outcomes for children – by running schools and groups of schools, recruiting and retaining high quality teachers, sharing their expertise to support other schools, and working together in MATs, while being held to account for rigorous, well-measured outcomes.

Schools that have chosen to convert to academy status are obtaining better GCSE results and are more likely to be rated good or outstanding by Ofsted. 2015 results show primary, sponsored academies open for two years have improved their results, on average, by 10 percentage points since opening - double the rate of improvement in LA maintained schools over the last two years.

As Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) set out in the latest Ofsted annual report, academisation can lead to rapid improvements. In his letter of 10th March to the Secretary of State, HMCI confirmed his belief that it is right to give more autonomy to the front line and that there are some excellent MATs that have made remarkable progress in some of the toughest areas of the country.

We expect the majority of schools to join trusts or small local clusters, pupils. MATs are a stronger form of school body than those available to maintained schools, with a single point of accountability. There are many benefits for schools in joining a MAT, including that they can spend less on administration and so invest more in teachers; there are better options for staff development, recruitment and retention; and they can be more responsive to the individual needs of pupils.

Academy trusts are free from local and central government intervention so long as performance across education, finance and governance is above certain thresholds. Schools won’t be allowed to linger on, under-performing for many years. Where evidence is found that the school is coasting or failing, government will intervene promptly; however, trusts performing well will be left to run their schools as they see fit.

The vast majority of schools which have become academies are now thriving. In the minority of academies that underperform, swift action has been taken to secure improvements. In total, we have issued 159 formal notices to underperforming academies and free schools and have moved to change the sponsor in 144 cases of particular concern (as at 4 July).

The Education and Adoption Act ensures we have powers to hold all academies to account where they do not meet the high standards we expect and create a more consistent framework for tackling underperformance.

Academy trusts have statutory responsibilities under company and charity law and also explicit accountabilities to Parliament. They must prepare financial statements each year which are audited by an independent external auditor. This means they receive greater scrutiny than most other types of schools. These statements are published, allowing the wider public the chance to hold academy trusts to account.

No school acquires the freehold of its land as a result of becoming an academy. Most academies will continue to occupy their land on a lease which gives the individual school no powers to sell the land or change its use. Some schools already own their own land before they become academies, and they will continue to hold it. However no-one can sell or change the use of publicly funded education land or buildings without the Secretary of State’s permission.

Department for Education

MPs question Rt. Hon Nicky Morgan MP on the Government's Education proposals including academies

You may be interested to know that on Wednesday 27 April at 2.30pm, the House of Commons Education Committee will question Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP, Secretary of State for Education, on the policies announced in the Department for Education’s White Paper: Educational Excellence Everywhere. This includes Government plans for all schools to become academies.

Talking about the session, the Chair of the Education Committee, Neil Carmichael MP, said “As a Committee, we are determined to take a close eye to the Government’s latest proposals for education policies and this session provides an early opportunity for us to press the Secretary of State on her plans for all schools become academies by 2022. We will also want to pick up on a number of other significant challenges to the success of our education system today, including issues relating to teacher supply, school leadership, and school funding."

You can watch the session on live and on demand afterwards on Parliament TV: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/8a66c874-4332-491b-a297-f56d71f4951a

You can find out more about the session on the Education Committee’s website: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/news-parliament-2015/secretary-of-state-evidence-15-16/

The Education Committee is a cross-party committee of MPs responsible for scrutinising the policy, administration and expenditure of the Government Department for Education. You can find out more about the role of the Committee on its website: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/role/

You can follow the Education Committee on Twitter: @CommonsEd

You can watch a short video about how Select Committees work here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_2RDuDs44c&feature=youtu.be

You can find out more about how to get involved with the work of Select Committees here: http://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/committees/

Update on Government plans for academies

On Monday 10 May the Government made a statement to the House of Commons about academies and was questioned by MPs about it.

The Secretary of State for Education (Nicky Morgan MP) said:
"We still want every school to become an academy by 2022. We always intended this to be a six-year process in which good schools should be able to take their own decisions about their future as academies. However, we understand the concerns that have been raised about a hard deadline and legislating for blanket powers to issue academy orders. That is why I announced on Friday that we have decided it is not necessary to take blanket powers to convert good schools in strong local authorities to academies at this time."

You can read the full statement and transcript of the questioning by MPs on the Hansard website: https://hansard.digiminster.com/commons/2016-05-09/debates/1605097000001/%E2%80%9CEducationalExcellenceEverywhere%E2%80%9DAcademies

You can watch the full statement and questioning by MPs on Parliament TV: http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/ddc7beeb-6dc7-4df7-ae42-692e767fb4b4?in=16:18:13

This email has been sent by the House of Commons Petitions Committee. You can find out more about the work of the Petitions Committee on its website here: www.parliament.uk/petitions-committee

You can follow the Petitions Committee on Twitter: @HoCpetitions

There are other ways you can get involved in the work of the UK Parliament.

Find out how to contact your MP or a Lord, contribute to Parliamentary Committees, and search for free Parliament events taking place in your local area here: http://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/

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