The following resolution was successfully moved at Annual Conference 2008 by Derby NASUWT Branch delegates and is now NASUWT policy:

Academy Schools Resolution – Annual Conference 2008

Conference endorses the findings of the independent study by Catalyst, sponsored by the NASUWT, entitled Academy Schools: Case Unproven.

Conference asserts that the current academy schools programme, being actively promoted by the Government and some local authorities, does not comply with the six key tests to be applied in respect of private sector involvement as outlined in the NASUWT Report Private Sector and State Education.

Conference deplores the tactics of the Schools Commissioner in linking the approval of local authorities’ bids for Building Schools for the Future funding to the inclusion of academies in their plans.

Conference condemns those local authorities which seek to abnegate their responsibilities for schools in need of support by proposing them as academies and use school reorganisations as a Trojan horse for introducing academies and trusts.

Conference condemns the Government’s academy schools programme which:

  • serves to undermine nationally negotiated school teachers’ terms and conditions of service;
  • reduces local accountability;
  • puts public assets into private ownership;
  • allows private sponsors to dictate areas of the curriculum;
  • threatens effective union representation and
  • is detrimental to existing co-operation between neighbouring schools.

Conference therefore instructs the National Executive to implement a high-profile national campaign against the academy schools programme including:

  • affiliating the NASUWT to the Anti-Academies Alliance;
  • bringing pressure to bear on the Government to change its policy on academies;
  • working towards bringing existing academies under local authority control and
  • producing comprehensive material for all members to use in this campaign at a national, regional and local level.

Conference further instructs the National Executive to ballot members for industrial action where they are willing to take action:

  • to oppose the conversion of their school to an academy, foundation school or trust and/or
  • to prevent the worsening of trade union facilities provided to the NASUWT at school, Local Association, Federation or National Executive level.

 

Building Schools for the Future – Briefing Note for Midlands TUC
and Midlands Labour MP’s

Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is a Government initiative announced some years ago to renew school buildings through either refurbishment or new build programmes. At the moment, it only applies to the secondary sector. Many school buildings in our country are unsuitable Victorian or more recent CLASP construction buildings and this investment in school stock is to be welcomed. The Government originally announced that all secondary schools would be either rebuilt or refurbished by 2020.

In order to access this funding, local authorities have to bid for it from the DFES. Since the BSF initiative was announced, the Education and Inspections Bill has been enacted and the Office of the Schools Commissioner has been established. Tony Blair has also announced his intention to double the number of academies to 400. The purpose of the Office of the Schools Commissioner is to bring about “structural change in school organisation” within local authorities, ie to encourage local authorities to privatise education via trust schools and academies, where the local authority is not the employer (academies are in the private sector, whereas trusts are local authority maintained schools like foundation schools).

Structural change in the area of self-governing schools was first implemented by Margaret Thatcher and Kenneth Baker in the 1980’s and led to grant maintained schools “opting out” of local authority control in the 1990’s. These schools then became foundation schools in 1997, when Labour integrated them more into the local network of schools and Tony Blair made the statement that what mattered was “standards, not structures”. This has now been reversed in favour of privatisation.

Therefore, the Office of the Schools Commissioner is now telling local authorities that, in order to access the money for new school buildings, they must embrace privatisation against the wishes of headteachers, other school staff and, frequently, Labour elected members. The only enthusiasts for this programme of privatisation are the Tories. In other words, if local authorities do not convert some schools to academies or trusts, then children will have to continue to learn in substandard, unsafe buildings in all schools across the local authority.

This is doubly unfair on a local authority such as Derby, which inherited a large number of grant maintained schools during LGR in 1997, because Derbyshire Tories were “opting out” enthusiasts and a prominent local Tory politician chaired the Funding Agency for Schools, which funnelled funding disproportionately to grant maintained schools. Already, most secondary school pupils in Derby are educated in foundation or voluntary aided (ie non local authority) schools. Derby has done extremely well in developing an integrated education service with this chaotic inheritance. The DFES should therefore accept Derby’s inherited large number of foundation/VA schools as sufficient to release its Building Schools for the Future funding to the City.

 

Resolution on Academies Passed by Derby Trades Council

Derby Area Trade Union Council views with concern recent media reports that there could be up to four academies in Derby. In particular, Council notes with concern that:

  • Academies represent a form of privatisation which takes all employees in the schools affected into the private sector and, as such, pose a threat to the terms and conditions of employees.
  • Academies show no improvement for the most disadvantaged pupils in society, with 20% of pupils in academies failing to achieve five GCSE passes (A* - G), whereas nationally 10% of pupils fail to achieve this target.
  • Academies, though privately controlled, are financed almost entirely from taxation. The £2 million expected from sponsors (about £1.2m after tax relief) is much less than the additional cost of the buildings designed to meet the sponsor’s wishes. In the case of Derby schools, three out of the four schools which could possibly be privatised either have new PFI buildings (Merrill, Da Vinci) or are currently in the process of being rebuilt (Sinfin Community). In return for a £1.2million investment, any private sponsor will receive buildings worth far more paid for by national and local taxpayers over the next twenty years.
  • The procurement vehicle for Building Schools for the Future, of which the academies programme is a part, known as the Local Education Partnership (LEP), is designed to exclude the local authority, which has only 20% of the seats on the body. 80% are allocated to the private sector and evidence from Derbyshire (The Shirebrook Academy) indicates that the Office of the Schools Commissioner is also likely to exclude Derby City Council from any contract in favour of the private sector.
  • The LEP may award primary school maintenance contracts to the academy sponsor, or to its associated contractors, in order to make the academy contract more profitable. This represents an additional direct threat to the jobs of many Derby City Council employees.
  • The privatisation of a large number of Derby secondary schools reduces considerably local democratic accountability.

Council condemns the pressure put on local authorities to agree to academies as a condition of accessing Building Schools for the Future funding, described by the TUC as “pressure verging on duress.” Council particularly condemns any pressure put on Derby City Council, which already has a large number of self-governing schools and one academy.

However, despite this pressure, Council does not consider that Derby City Council should proceed with privatising its secondary schools as “the only game in town.” Council calls on the local authority to develop a strategy, jointly with Derby City Council trade unions, to lobby the Government to release Building Schools for the Future funding without a precondition of additional academies in Derby.

Council also undertakes to support local authority trade unions which campaign against privatisation or take industrial action to defend the terms and conditions of members transferred to the private sector.

 

Potential Conversion of Derby Schools to Academies

Firstly, I hope that you are having an enjoyable summer holiday and I do apologise for writing to you in the holidays, as I know that such correspondence about work is nearly always unwelcome. However, given the publicity towards the end of last term about up to four additional academies in Derby, and the speed with which the local authority intends to proceed in this matter, I do feel that such correspondence is extremely urgent.

It is important not to be alarmist about the current situation, but the worst case scenario is that we could find ourselves in a position where teachers in several Derby secondary schools find by this October half term that their immediate career choices amount to either being transferred over to the private sector in their current school, becoming redundant, or seeking alternative work.

The teaching unions have a seat on the Derby Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Board, which oversees the creation of academies in Derby. Currently I am taking this seat as NASUWT holds the Secretariat of the Teacher Side of the City Council at the moment. The recent press and media reports are not supported by any documentation which has been tabled for the BSF Board, but neither has the local authority been prepared to deny any of the claims that have emanated from the media. I have been told by the local authority that a full report will be made to the next BSF Board meeting on 4th September 2007. Meanwhile, Derby’s secondary heads are meeting with the local authority in August to discuss the future BSF programme.

The most recent information from the media, which the local authority has neither confirmed nor denied, is that:

  • Up to four schools (Merrill, Da Vinci, Bemrose or Sinfin are likely contenders) could be converted into academies – this is not an exclusive list
  • Derby College would play some role in this, although it may not be the private sponsor. If this is the case, the academies would specialise in vocational education
  • There may be another private sponsor, to which staff would transfer as the new employer.

It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the largest threat to teachers’ terms and conditions since many schools in the Derby area opted out of local authority control in the early 1990’s. Even though it may seem to be preferable for Derby College to be an employer of teachers rather than some owners of academies who have no educational background, the terms and conditions of lecturers nosedived after FE colleges such as Mackworth and Wilmorton became “incorporated” in the early 1990’s. The average pay of FE lecturers nationally is far less than that of teachers, working practices tend to be more exploitative (split shifts, more fixed term contracts, greater use of redundancies to manage staffing) and even though in schools which become academies staff are transferred over with existing conditions (known as TUPE transfer), these are immediately under threat (for example, in some academies, transferring out of national pay, terms and conditions of service is a pre-condition of promotion). The first battle we would face in any school which converted to an academy is to ensure that all NASUWT members kept their jobs – the only teachers who should be made redundant are those who accept voluntary terms.

Please rest assured that the battle against privatisation and academies is the most important one for Derby NASUWT Branch. NASUWT will be campaigning to persuade the local authority to join with us in lobbying the Government to release the Building Schools for the Future money which it has promised for Derby schools without any schools having to convert to academies. The irony is that very few people are enthusiastic about the academy option apart from the Government with its agenda of privatising the public sector. At the recent Building Schools for the Future Conference at Pride Park, the only enthusiasts were the private education consultants who stand to make a fortune from contracts associated with BSF and academies. Certainly none of the headteachers to whom I spoke showed any liking for academies. NASUWT is willing, of course, to ballot members out on industrial action, including strike action, to defend jobs and members’ terms and conditions.

As soon as I have any more information, and certainly after the Building Schools for the Future meeting on 4th September, I will contact the NASUWT school reps in the schools affected and we can begin campaigning. The first course of action would be for the NASUWT school branch to pass a strongly worded resolution condemning the privatisation of their school and we then need to achieve as broad based a campaign in the City as is possible.

 

 

Additional Sections

Building Schools for the Future – Briefing Note for Midlands TUC and Midlands Labour MP’s

Resolution on Academies
Passed by Derby Trades Council

Potential Conversion of Derby Schools to Academies

 

Anti-Academies Alliance
http://www.antiacademies.org.uk/

 

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