The Interim Strategic Leader, School Improvement Learning and Skills Officer introduced the report and highlighted the following key points;

·         Thurrock schools had been forward thinking and proactive when converting to Academies, with 70% converted, and twenty-seven of those academies are in Multi Academy Trusts.

·         No schools were currently in the process of converting into academies.

·         The Children’s Business and Improvement Team in Children’s Services provided a service to schools to support them through the conversion into an academy efficiently and professionally.

·         Multi Academy Trusts had responsibility for the performance of all the academies within the group, and that the board of directors oversees the operation of the individual schools.

The Interim Strategic Leader, School Improvement Learning and Skills  explained to the Committee that a Multi Academy Trust was formed when a number of schools who wish to convert or had already converted to a academy status, come together as one legal entity, either in a cluster or as part of a bigger existing organisation. The Multi Academy Trust is a single legal entirety with two layers of governance; an overarching academy trust governed by foundation members and a board of directors or governors.

The Committee was informed that there were ten Multi-Academy Trusts as well as 8 academies that were either part of an ‘empty Multi Academy Trust’ or are stand alone. The Interim Strategic Leader, School Improvement Learning and Skills Officer explained that an ‘empty Multi Academy Trust’ had yet to recruit academies to join, either because the Multi Academy Trust founder school decides it is not yet ready to support another school or have not yet approached. 

The Committee discussed recruitment and retention in Thurrock schools and academies and the following points were made;

·         The Interim Strategic Leader, School Improvement Learning and Skills explained that a Strategy on recruitment and retention was currently being prepared for publication.

·         Councillor Gupta questioned the steps that had been taken in the past six years; the Director of Children’s Services explained that a large recruitment drive had taken place to minimise the number of contracted staff, which attracted many more Teachers and Head Teachers to Thurrock schools.

·         The Director of Children’s services explained that the Multi-Academy Trusts had enabled Schools to offer support when senior members of staff were absent.

Councillor Gamester questioned if there were any disadvantages in Multi Academy Trust Relationships. The Interim Strategic Leader, School Improvement Learning and Skills Officer informed the Committee that it was very important that the lead schools in the Multi Academy Trust continued to improve whilst helping to improve partnering academies. Councillor Kerin enquired if the title of academy could be taken away if a school was no longer performing; Officers confirmed that academies legally could not revert back to a mainstream school.

. Councillor Kerin queried if there was any legislation that bounded Multi Academy Trusts to work with local authorities, Members were informed that there was no legislation although the Director of Children Services assured the Committee that they would continue to work and build on relationships. Dr Asong assured the Committee that Multi Academy Trust Relationships had been more proactive since the legislation was repealed.

Councillor Gupta enquired what financial incentive academies received from the Government. The Director of Children’s Services highlighted that  early  academies had received  quite significant financial incentives   but underlined that this was no longer the case as academies received no additional incentive other than having the funding which would otherwise be used by the local authority to run certain support functions delegated to them directly.

Dr Asong the Head Teacher of Gable Hall was invited to the Committee to share her personal views and experiences of Multi Academy Trust Relationships; the Committee was made aware of the following points;

•           That Multi Academy Trusts can set a strong, shared strategic vision across all the schools in the partnership.

•           Multi Academy Trust were accountable for the outcomes for all pupils in the partnership which was an excellent mechanism for ensuring that support and challenge was directed to where it was needed most.

•           The Multi Academy Trusts had flexibility about how much or how little power it delegates to individual schools. This enabled tailoring to the individual circumstances of the partnership.

•           Multi Academy Trusts were the employer of all staff. This made it easier to flexibly deploy staff, draw on a wider pool of opportunities for CPD, and develop a trust-wide approach to staff development and succession planning.

•               Multi Academy Trusts have enabled gifted KS2 students to experience classroom resources at Gable Hall School, which rapidly improved assessment results.

•           The central funding agreement has made it easier to pull resources and achieve economies of scale in contracting.

Councillor Gupta commended the work undertaken and expressed his confidence in academies. Dr Asong informed the Committee that Gable Hall was looking to gradually expand their Multi Academy Trust in the future.

Resolved:

1.         Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered the current organisation of schools and the contribution of the multi academy trusts to raising standards across the borough.