Borough of Poole s2

AGENDA ITEM 7

BOROUGH OF POOLE

CHILDREN’S SERVICES CAPITAL PROGRAMME BOARD 21 JUNE 2012

CARTER COMMUNITY SCHOOL - PROPOSED ACADEMY DEVELOPMENT

REPORT OF THE STRATEGIC DIRECTOR – CHILDREN’S SERVICES

1. PURPOSE

1.1 To update the Programme Board and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the development of the proposed Carter Academy.

2. DECISIONS REQUIRED

2.1 That the Programme Board notes the progress on the conversion of Carter Community School to academy status.

3. BACKGROUND

3.1 Carter Community School has attainment below the threshold set by the Department for Education of 35% 5A*-C including English and mathematics at GCSE. On a league table of this single measure in 2011 it was the 10th worst mainstream secondary school in England. For this reason it has attracted the interest of the Office of the School Commissioner (OSC) which has responsibility to identify failing schools and support their conversion to a sponsored academy.

3.2 The OSC has been in discussion with the Portfolio Holder, Director and Chief Adviser (the Head of Children and Young People’s Services – Strategy, Quality and Improvement) since May 2011. On each of the visits their consultants have pressed for an academy solution for Carter Community School.

3.3 A project team was established by the Chief Adviser in June 2011 to co- ordinate the activity needed to support the Academy development. The team has legal, financial, school organisation, school improvement and school admissions officers in its membership. HR expertise will also be drawn upon. As the school will become a converter academy, there will still be a need to co-ordinate activity across the Council to enable this

1 process to proceed once the Governing Body has selected a preferred sponsor.

4. PROGRESS REPORT

4.1 The Governing Body of Carter Community School has agreed to explore academy status with existing successful sponsors proposed by the OSC. The proposed sponsors are United Learning Trust (ULT), Oasis Community Learning, Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) and ARK Schools.

4.2 The OSC has advised that the choice of sponsor is the Governing Body’s decision. The Headteacher’s role is to provide support and relevant information to the Governing Body as part of the process.

4.3 It is proposed that the proposed opening date for the academy would be 1st January 2013.

4.4 The Governing Body of Carter Community School has established a working group to oversee the sponsor selection process and the academy development.

4.5 A group of governors and the Headteacher have made visits to one of the academies that the sponsor has worked in partnership with.

4.6 The selection of the sponsor will take place on 20th June 2012. The selection panel will be the Strategic Director (Children’s Services), the Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services, the Chief Adviser, the Headteacher, 6 governors, including the Chair and Vice-Chair, and a staff committee/union representative. The Strategic Director will chair the meeting.

4.7 The outcome of the sponsor selection will be reported to the Programme Board and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at the meeting on 21st June.

4.8 Once the sponsor has been selected, the Minister of State confirms in approximately 4 weeks that he is minded to establish an academy in Poole for Carter Community School. From this moment, the sponsor beings to work closely with the Governing Body of the school and the Local Authority to make the arrangements for the transfer of land and buildings under lease and of the staff under TUPE regulations to the Academy Trust. The Local Authority Project Group under the Chief Adviser will undertake the LA role in these processes. When the Secretary of State is satisfied that the necessary arrangements to

2 establish an Academy are in place, then a Funding Agreement is signed between the Sponsor and the Department for Education, naming the school.

5. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

5.1 Carter Community School will convert to Academy status under the provisions of the Academies Act 2010 which means that it will become what is called a ‘converter’ academy.

5.2 There are fundamental differences between an academy conversion under s482 of the Education Act 1996 (eg St Aldhelm’s) and the Academies Act 2010. Under the 1996 procedures there is a requirement for the LEA to be consulted and for formal school closure notices. Under the 2010 Act the process is entirely driven by school governors’ decisions on the advice of the Secretary of State and no decision of the LEA or any formal consultation with the LEA is required. The Governing Body is required to carry out a public consultation on the change either before or after they have made the decision to convert. The school will not close but simply convert from maintained to academy status under a charitable trust on the effective date. There will be no formal sponsors but the selected sponsors will become trustees of the Academy Trust which will be set up by the school.

5.3 As an Academy the school will become the legal employer. The staffing establishment will transfer from the employment of the Borough to the employment of the Academy. Their contractual conditions of service transfer under the Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment Regulations 1981 (TUPE) and 2006. Consultation with staff should take place on this change in employer and all terms transfer unless the new employer seeks to make changes (known as measures) and these proposed changes are included within the consultation process. Obligations which transfer are “all the transferor’s rights, powers, duties and liabilities in connection with such contract”. All employees transfer to the employment of the new employer (transferee), dismissal of employees at the time of, or prior to the transfer are deemed unfair if the reason for the dismissal is directly attributable or connected to the transfer itself unless that reason is in itself for economical, technical or organisational reasons relating to the workforce.

5.4 Before the conversion date, the School and Council will complete an Asset Transfer Agreement in a standard form which will transfer from the Council to the Academy all the school’s assets which will include the staff (under TUPE), furniture and equipment and any contracts for works, supplies or services which have been entered into by the Council for the benefit of the

3 school. The costs incurred in completing this agreement will be met by the Council for its own part but the School will employ its own legal advisers. The land and any real property will be dealt with under a long term lease which will also be in a standard form. The lease will be on the basis of a peppercorn rent with the school taking on all repairing and insurance liabilities.

6. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Costs of Conversion 2012-13

6.1 The council has set aside £32,000 from reserves for Academy development in 2012-13 to fund the related additional costs of legal, HR, premises and project management work. A range of other costs will be met from core council budgets.

School Budget Funding 2012-13

6.2 Following conversion to academy status, the Council will no longer receive funding through the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for the revenue costs of the school.

6.3 The 2013-13 DSG allocation will be reduced pro rata from January 2013 based on the individual school budget already determined for the financial year, under the local formula, plus a share of specific central School Budget services, such as the assessment of eligibility for Free School Meals and behaviour support services. The individual school budget funding is fully delegated to the school and, therefore, there is no net cost to the council. There will be a small reduction in funding for central schools services after conversion, but related costs will either need to reduce for that part of the year or income raised from selling these services to the academy.

Central Education Funding 2012-13

6.4 In addition to school services funded through the DSG, the Council receives funding through formula grant (RSG) for other central education functions. A range of these functions transfer to academies, such as education welfare and school improvement. In 2013-13, this funding will not change following conversion in–year. The DfE have already reduced the Council’s funding through formula grant according to a national top- slice using estimated rates of school conversions.

Central Education Funding in Future Years

4 6.5 To take better account of the local rate of conversion of schools to academy status from 2013-14, the Government will consult in the summer on new funding arrangements. These arrangements will share the funding of the related statutory duties between the Council and academies. The expectation, noted in the Government’s School Funding Reform Consultation is for this element of funding to be removed from the RSG, and provided instead through a separate Education Grant calculated according to the number of pupils remaining in maintained schools and similarly for the academies. There may in future be in-year reductions to this grant as schools convert. There is some potential to sell an element of these services to schools (such as enhanced HR support) but generally this will be limited. Therefore, as schools convert Council funding will reduce each year.

Capital Funding

6.6 A budget requirement of £350,000 has been identified in the Children’s Services Capital Strategy 2011-2015 for minor modifications to the school buildings needed to accommodate an additional year group in September 2013. Consultant architects were appointed in March 2012 and are now working with the school to develop the design and take the project forward to the procurement and delivery stages over the year ahead.

6.7 Schools Forum agreed additional capital funding from the DSG of £50,000 for fitting out costs at the December 2011 meeting. Payment has been made to the school directly.

6.8 A budget of £60,000 was also included in the Children’s Services capital programme 2011-12 for boiler replacement. This project is nearing completion.

6.9 Capital maintenance allocations to the LA in future years will be abated to take account of maintained schools that have converted to Academy status.

6.10 When the increase currently being experienced now with the number of places needed in Year R arrives in Secondary schools from September 2015, there will be considerable pressure on Secondary school places during the period 2015 to 2021 with current forecasts showing insufficient places in September 2018. This means that Carter Community School is likely to fill to capacity over this period and may even need to expand. The costs of this are not included in the Capital Strategy 2011-2015 and will need to be built into future capital planning.

7. RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS

5 7.1 There are significant risks facing any school that changes its arrangements for governance. The period of uncertainty caused by this can affect staff, parents and pupils and can mean greater levels of staff turnover and pupil turbulence as a result.

8. EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS

8.1 Academies are subject to the general equality duty and are required to monitor outcomes for equalities groups.

8.2 The general equality duty requires public authorities and those exercising public functions to have ‘due regard’ to three particular aims when exercising their functions:

 Eliminating unlawful discrimination or any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010;  Advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not; and  Fostering good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not.

8.3 This general equality duty encompasses all of the protected characteristics, save for marriage and civil partnership. There is also an exception for schools and academies in respect of age.

8.4 The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations came into force in September 2011 and are designed to assist public authorities in meeting the general equality duty. The specific duties require public authorities and those that exercise public functions (including schools and academies) to publish information showing their compliance with the general equality duty and to set and publish equality objectives.

8.5 Schools and academies are required to publish this compliance information and their equality objectives by 6 April 2012. Each governing body or academy proprietor should decide for itself what information it publishes. This will vary greatly depending on the size of the school and the range of functions it performs. The compliance information must then be published at least every year, with the equality objectives being published at least every four years.

8.6 Governing bodies and academies employing 150 or more employees are required to publish information relating to persons who share a protected characteristic who are its employees, or other persons affected by its policies and practices. Governing bodies with less than 150 employees are not required to publish information relating to its employees, but must

6 still publish information about other persons affected by its policies and practices.

8.7 The Regulations require all schools and academies to prepare and publish one or more objectives it thinks it should achieve in order to comply with the general equality duty.

8.8 Each school can decide on how many objectives to set and what they should be. The Equality and Human Rights Commission recommends that schools and academies engage with staff and service users in defining appropriate objectives. The objectives should be ‘specific, relevant and measurable’ and the number of objectives should be proportionate to the size of the school and the extent to which its functions affect equality.

9. CONCLUSION

9.1 The Governing Body of Carter Community School have been working with the Office of the Schools Commissioner and officers from the LA over the past year on the process of converting to academy status and the sponsor selection process. It is proposed that the opening date for the academy would be 1st January 2013.

9.2 The selection of the sponsor will take place on 20th June 2012 and the outcome will be reported to the Programme Board and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at the meeting on 21st June.

ANNE NEWTON STRATEGIC DIRECTOR (CHILDREN’S SERVICES)