Future of academies in doubt as sponsor pulls out

Academy chain E-Act has agreed to hand over control of 10 of its 34 schools nationally to the Department for Education (DfE) amid concerns over its ability to maintain standards.

The schools have not been officially named but are understood to include both Leeds West and Leeds East Academies.

A DfE spokesman said it was now working with E-Act to find new sponsors to run the schools.

But last night a governor at Leeds West demanded to know why nobody at the school had been made aware of these discussions.

Coun Ted Hanley (Labour, Bramley and Stanningley) said: “We knew nothing about this. It has come as absolute bolt out of the blue.

“It is a disgraceful situation for the parents and staff to have been put in. I can say that the headteacher and chair of governors did not know about this until about 24 hours ago.

“I am sure I speak for all the governors when I say we will want to have a say in who our sponsor is. We had built a good team and thought we were going forward with E-Act. We do not want someone foisted onto us by Whitehall.”

Leeds West is rated by Ofsted as being a good school with outstanding leadership.

Its executive principal, Annette Hall, also took over Leeds East last year after it was given a critical Ofsted inspection which judged the school to be inadequate and placed it in the serious weaknesses category.

Neither school was available for comment last night.

Coun Judith Blake, Leeds City Council’s executive member for schools, and Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves were both demanding answers last night.

Coun Blake said: “We are so disappointed that nobody thought to tell the local authority, the school or the governing body about this.”

Ms Reeves said: “Leeds West Academy is an excellent school in my constituency and I’m 100 per cent behind the teachers, parents and pupils.

“I am extremely concerned about the Government’s decision to change the academy chain who run Leeds West Academy, without any consultation with parents, pupils or staff.

“The Government must urgently get a grip and provide everyone associated with Leeds West Academy with certainty about the future of this excellent school and support to ensure standards continue to rise and pupils get the best possible start in life.”

E-Act is one of the largest academy chains in the country. It took on Leeds West in 2009 when the academy replaced Intake High and it became the sponsor for Leeds East when it opened in 2011.

It also sponsors Parkwood Academy in Sheffield and Purston Academy in Featherstone.

The academy chain was thrown into the spotlight last year after it was given a financial notice to improve by the DfE following an audit report which found it had weak financial controls and a culture of credit card spending on prestige venues at management level.

Now the Government and E-Act have agreed to cut the number of academies it sponsors by almost a third.

A DfE spokeswoman said it was working with the chain to find “excellent sponsors who will ensure the re-brokered schools are able to thrive”.

She said: “We will take swift action to address under-performance in all schools – no matter who controls them. That is as true for academies and free schools as it is for council-run schools.

“We welcome E-Act’s decision to hand over a number of their academies to new sponsors. We hope this will mean E-Act can focus on raising standards in their remaining schools.”

A spokeswoman for E-Act said: “E-Act has been working with the DfE to identify where we are best placed to make a significant difference to our academies.

“Our pupils, parents and staff deserve strong support and leadership. Our focus is on where we can provide this and to allow others to deliver elsewhere.”