Ministers attacked over £18m ‘waste’ on academies scheme

The Government has been accused of “an extraordinary waste of taxpayers’ money” after it emerged more than £18.6m was paid to schools to help them turn into academies.

Union leaders attacked the spending during a time of public sector cuts while one MP said the figure was “astonishing”.

The Department for Education (DfE) said the costs reflect the success of the academies scheme.

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The academies programme was first established under Tony Blair’s Labour government to boost standards in poorer areas.

Last year, under the new coalition Government, Education Secretary Michael Gove opened up the scheme to allow all schools to apply for academy status.

Academies are semi-independent state schools, free from local authority control, that receive their funding directly and have more freedom over areas such as the curriculum and staff pay and conditions.

Schools applying to convert can submit an application for a “conversion support grant”, a one-off payment of up to £25,000 to help meet the costs.

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The money is used to help meet legal and administrative costs, such as changing signs.

A response to a written Parliamentary question by Lisa Nandy, Labour MP for Wigan, reveals that the total converter grant paid out so far is £18,642,779. In his response, Schools Minister Nick Gibb adds that “this is expected to increase as more converting schools are given grants to convert”.

As of October 1, 1,031 schools in England had converted to academy status, while a further 495 had applied to do so, the written answer shows.

It means that each of the 1,031 schools received the equivalent of just over £18,000 each.

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Ms Nandy said: “It’s an absolutely astonishing amount of money to spend on conversion.

“You have to ask the question whether this money would be better spent on all children and all schools rather than some schools and some children.”

She said that the DfE and others expect to see more schools converting to become academies in the future.

“The big question is where does the rest of the money come from?

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“We are constantly told that there is no money left, so where is that money going to come from?”

The general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) Christine Blower, said: “At a time when local authority and schools budgets are being cut, it seems an extraordinary waste of taxpayers’ money that such financial rewards are being handed out to schools that are simply converting to academies. As these schools already exist it is baffling why the Secretary of State feels they should be given thousands of pounds.”

The general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, Chris Keates, added: “Parents should be extremely worried that at a time of economic austerity nearly £19m is being taken out of children’s education to fund Michael Gove’s pet project.

“As Mr Gibb makes clear, the £25,000 grant does not even go half way in meeting the costs of many schools when they go through the academy process, which can leave them facing conversion costs upwards of £75,000.”

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A DfE spokesman said: “Schools becoming an academy incur costs for various things such as legal fees, carrying out consultations and buying new signs and stationery.

“As a contribution to these costs, the Department pays them a grant of £25,000. This was made clear on the day the policy was launched, and the costs so far reflect the runaway success of the programme.”

The Government is already under pressure over its use of the education budget and last week it emerged in Yorkshire alone the cost of repairing the region’s dilapidated schools would top £220m.

Bids totalling £225m have been submitted to the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) from 11 Yorkshire councils.

The applications cover plans to rebuild or expand more than 40 schools across the region. Nationally between 100 and 300 are expected to be given the go-ahead.