Justine Greening urged to take action on reports of academies off-loading pupils onto neighbouring schools

According to the Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh, one primary school in her constituency has had to take on 20 new pupils because they were excluded, or at risk of exclusion, from a nearby academy.

Her comments come amid ongoing concerns about revelations surrounding the collapse of the Wakefield City Academies Trust (WCAT). This includes question marks over millions of pounds of funding that was reportedly removed from school accounts by the trust without their consent.

Addressing Education Secretary Justine Greening in the Commons, Ms Haigh today raised the example of a local-authority maintained primary school in her constituency “[that] has received over 20 pupils in-year from a local academy because of permanent exclusion or pushing out at risk of permanent exclusion”.

She asked Ms Greening what more her department can do “to disincentivise academies from excluding pupils and pushing them on to maintained primaries”.

In her response, Ms Greening pointed to a new Department for Education review of school exclusions that she claimed will “make sure the whole process around how a child is permanently excluded is properly delivered”. She went on to stress that changes being introduced under the new school funding formula will provide more support for schools to “deal with the issue of students coming into schools in-year”.

Ministers were also pressed for further details on their handling of the WCAT scandal. Shipley MP Philip Davies, who has previously raised concerns about High Crags school in his constituency, asked what was being done to ensure that millions of pounds “snaffled” by the trust before it collapsed will be returned to the school.

Education Minister Nick Gibb repeated assurances that no academy trust “will be able to retain any reserves it had at the point of dissolution”. He added that the Government is working with all the affected schools to determine appropriate support “and proper funding”.