David Wolfe QC of Matrix Chambers and Professor Anne West of the London School of Economics and Political Science have released a report that highlights the lack of transparency in the way academies are run. The report reveals that the rapid conversion of state schools to academies since 2010 has resulted in the majority of such schools having less freedom than before.
Academies were introduced by the Labour Government in the early 2000s, and then expanded by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition from 2010. Academies are owned and run by not-for-profit private trusts, controlled and funded directly by central government by contract, rather than governed by statutory education law as for maintained schools.
The report offers a range of solutions to help address issues of transparency and autonomy, the lack of local democratic oversight and the governance of academies, without necessarily re-imposing a system of maintained schools in state education.
To read the press release in full, please see here.