Threat to jobs as academies opt out of council services

Hull Council employs about 400 people in schools services, providing a range of services from catering to maintenance and educational psychologists. But a report says jobs could be under threat as schools use private firms, rather than buy back the local authority’s services.

There are already seven academies in the city, with another 32, the vast majority primary schools, in the process of converting.

Some services are already trading at a loss and a report to the council’s Cabinet says: “If no change is implemented, the current trend of deficit trading, reduction in services uptake and the ongoing threat to jobs within the authority will continue to accelerate.”

A review is under way looking at how school services – currently running at a £2m deficit – can be run in future, with a number of options, including going into a joint venture with a private firm, or the service disengaging itself from the authority and setting up independently.

Coun Helene O’Mullane, who holds the children’s services portfolio, said: “We are taking the views of schools as to what they want and what they will still buy in to. We need to get everybody’s ideas. There are obviously some [areas] where we are not covering costs – some services are getting to the tipping point.

“If there were some services we decided in the end we weren’t going to provide we would hope to transfer staff to outside services [providers], because jobs are important as well as providing the service.

“What we want to avoid is fragmentation, each school getting services off a different provider.”

She said a lot of primary schools would stick with the council, but others would team up with a secondary school that was already buying in services from outside.

She added: “Obviously if a service is losing [money] there’s a threat to jobs. If we can deliver it another way or combine two services that might save jobs.”

Deputy leader Coun Daren Hale said if schools chose to opt out of the school meals service, the council would remove the £1m subsidy, which means meals cost £1 rather than £1.60. He said jobs were not immediately under threat “but within the next year they will certainly be, if we don’t get schools buying back our services”. He said they hoped to sign long-term deals “so staff have security of employment”.