Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-06-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has developed proposals that enable academies to be re-brokered with a new sponsor or multi academy trust on the initiative of parents of children in those academies.

Edward Timpson

Our White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere set out the Government’s intention to engage Multi Academy Trusts (MATs), sponsors, academies, dioceses and the wider schools sector to ensure that the academies legal framework for the future can achieve the right balance of intervention, review and stability. This included a commitment to consider how parents at individual schools might be able to petition Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) for their school to move to a different MAT where the school or its MAT is underperforming or in other exceptional circumstances.

We will be testing and consulting on proposals for the future legal framework with a wide range of stakeholders, including parents, in due course. This engagement will assess the implications of different legal framework models and ensure that any options which are taken forward are fit for purpose.

RSCs already take action to move academies to new trusts where necessary and parents should continue to escalate any concerns they have about academies to RSCs where the academy trust has not responded sufficiently to their concerns.