Cabinet Meeting

Meeting: 23 April 2019

SCRUTINY REVIEW PANEL: THE COUNCIL’S RELATIONSHIPS WITH ACADEMIES: DRAFT FINAL REPORT

Councillor Paul Porgess (Lead Councillor)

1. PURPOSE

As part of the Scrutiny Work Programme approved by the Council, the Children and Families Scrutiny Committee decided to conduct a scrutiny review in respect to the Council’s relationships with Academies. The Academy programme has been in existence since 2002 and given the increasing number of schools that had converted to Academies in recent years, particularly in the secondary sector, it was agreed that a review looking at how the Council engages with Academies would be useful. At the initial review scoping meeting, officers outlined a number of important business areas where officers regularly interacted with and provided services to Academy colleagues and consequently the Panel agreed that they wished to explore the following issues in greater detail during the course of the review:-

 Mental Wellbeing and Curriculum Provision  Special Educational Needs  School Commission, Admissions and Exclusions

Background

Academies are state-funded schools which are independent of local authorities. The introduction of academies (including free schools, university technical colleges (UTCs) and studio schools) has been one of the most significant changes to the English education system of the last several decades. Any school is able to apply for Academy designation. The DfE, however, has a statutory duty to direct schools which Ofsted judged to be inadequate to become academies with the support of a sponsor. A sponsor is an organisation which the DfE has approved to support an academy. Most sponsors are groups of schools which have formed multi-academy trusts (MATs). The Academies Act 2010 led to a significant expansion and evolvement of the academies programme. Initially enabling ‘outstanding’ primary, secondary and special schools, as judged by Ofsted, to become an Academy, expansion of the programme allowed schools judged ‘good with outstanding features’ to convert and any school irrespective of its Ofsted grade to convert if it partnered with an excellent school or a multi-academy trust (MAT) with a strong record of improvement. The Coalition government also continued with the forced academisation of low performing schools. In September 2014 eight Regional School Commissioners (RSCs) were appointed with responsibility to approve academy conversions in their region and to intervene in underperforming academies. is part of the region of Lancashire and West Yorkshire.

Following the Education and Adoption Act receiving Royal Assent, the DfE set out its vision that every school should be an academy or be in the process of academy conversion by 2020. The Department also stated that most schools would form or join a MAT, with an expectation that there would be many more MATs with oversight of between 10 and 15 schools. The announcement requiring all schools to become academies proved to be highly controversial and there was strong resistance in Parliament. This resistance led to a change of mind and in May 2016 the Education Secretary instead sought to introduce new legislative powers to trigger an area-wide conversion to academies if a local authority (LA) was deemed to be under-performing or if it was no longer financially viable for the LA to run its own schools (likely where a critical mass has already converted to academy status). In October 2016 plans for the Education for All Bill which would have introduced the legislation necessary to force area-wide conversion were dropped. National policy remains, stating the ambition that all schools will eventually become academies. As at 1st August 2018, DfE statistics indicate that there are 7,475 academies open. An additional 1,134 schools are in the pipeline to become academies. The former figure equates to 35 per cent of state- funded schools.

The Stockport Context

The Review Panel heard that since the inception of the Academies programme Stockport Council and corporate policy had been consistent in its approach to the academisation of Stockport schools. In terms of process the LA had presented to its schools, and continues to do so, the advantages and disadvantages of becoming an academy. The LA approach to schools which choose to become an academy accords with a school’s independence from the LA during the decision-making and conversion process itself and not just once the conversion has been completed. Any advocacy sought by a governing body from the LA for conversion is framed within this independent context and impartiality prevails.

The Panel were reminded that in April 2016, in response to the education white paper ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’ which sought to force all schools to become academies irrespective of their individual wishes, Council members resolved to write to the then Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, to allow ‘academy and non-academy schools to co-exist in a sustainable way, to ensure school places and education quality can be delivered for all our young people; which allows academy and non-academy schools to co-exist in a sustainable way; and to ensure school places and education quality can be delivered for all our young people.

The figures below indicate that academy conversion in Stockport is lower than in many other local authorities especially in the primary phase. Aside from those schools which have chosen to convert, a number of governing boards have undertaken detailed scoping exercises assessing the opportunities and risks of academy conversion and have chosen to remain as part of the LA. 13 per cent of its primary and secondary schools combined are academies. There are eight primary academies and five secondary academies. None of the LA’s specialist settings have become academies.

Table 1: Stockport’s academies

School Academy Sponsor/MAT Conversion date status Green Primary Sponsor led Education Learning Trust September 2017 Primary Sponsor led Laurus Trust September 2018 Primary Converter Education Learning Trust September 2014 Hursthead Junior Primary Converter Kirkstead Education Trust June 2014 Meadowbank Primary Converter Education Learning Trust April 2018 Mellor Primary Converter Single converter February 2012 St. Mary’s Sponsor led St. Ralph Sherwin Catholic Trust September 2018 St. Matthew’s Primary Sponsor led Chester Diocesan Trust January 2014 Cheadle Hulme High Converter Laurus Trust September 2012 Hazel Grove High Converter Single converter August 2012 Converter Abney Trust February 2016 Vale Sponsor led South Manchester Learning Trust September 2017 Sponsor led United Learning September 2007

School Improvement The Panel were keen to hear about how the LA worked in partnership with all its schools whatever their designation. Councillors were encouraged to hear of the ‘status blind’ approach adopted which was predicated on a ‘stronger together’ approach to school improvement and to securing the best possible outcomes for all Stockport learners and particularly for the more vulnerable pupils and those who are disadvantaged. For the most part this focus on the Stockport Family of schools works effectively. All the LA’s primary schools buy back the school improvement team’s service level agreement (SLA). The primary academies continue to value the support and challenge which the LA’s link advisers provide. The primary academies are involved in the programmes of facilitated learning such as the curriculum leadership programme. The primary academies have valued the support and guidance at the time of Ofsted inspection and endorsed the role of the link adviser who is able to share their deep intelligence of the school. In the secondary phase the Panel learnt that there was more of a mixed economy in relation to the academies’ engagement with Stockport’s school improvement team. From the outset, over 10 years ago, Stockport Academy received its school improvement support from United Learning rather than an LA link adviser although it has availed itself of subject and other network meetings at additional cost. United Learning is effectively Stockport Academy’s school improvement arm. Additionally, Cheadle Hulme High School had not bought into the school improvement SLA for several years and nor has for the last couple of years. Whilst this has meant that these schools no longer have access to an LA link adviser they have continued to access subject and other network meetings and Cheadle Hulme High School has led, through its specialist leader for education (SLE) in mathematics, for example, the mathematics subject leader network. Both Kingsway and Reddish Vale has continued to buy into the school improvement SLA. From September 2018 a revised school improvement SLA is being implemented in the secondary phase. The link adviser role has been removed to reflect the reduced capacity in the school improvement team. Schools, with LA support, will broker their own external school improvement adviser/consultant who will provide updates for the Head of School Effectiveness and Education Director. It is hoped that all schools will buy back into the revised offer in order to effectively develop a secondary school improvement strategy. Recommendation: 1) That the report be sent to the Regional Schools Commissioner for Lancashire and West Yorkshire highlighting the excellent work that the Local Authority undertakes in maintaining relationships with and supporting the Borough’s Academies.

2) That the Director for Education submit a report to a future meeting of the Children & Families Scrutiny Committee explaining the role of the Regional Schools Commissioner and how the Local Authority interacts with the Commissioner’s Office and to explore the potential of the Commissioner attending a future meeting of the Scrutiny Committee.

2. MENTAL WELLBEING AND CURRICULUM PROVISION

Primary

Since April 2018 the primary team has been working extensively on helping schools to re-shape their overall curriculum so that schools are developing their provision to support the needs of their community. This work is aligned to Ofsted’s current research on curriculum design and implementation which is informing the September 2019 Education Inspection Framework. The programme of support has enabled schools to think carefully about the Three I’s (Intention, Implementation and Impact) that underpin their curriculum. Councillors were encouraged to hear that five of the academies had participated in a four day bespoke development programme offered by the primary team.

The primary team also worked with consultants during 2017-18 to develop DEAL (Drama, Engagement, Active, Learning). This is designed to help teachers involve more children actively in their learning across the curriculum and was launched in the Spring Term last year. All the academies have access to this support via a web-based platform that is part of the support that they purchase. The team has also made the link between this and the curriculum design project described above explicit to its primary schools. This has benefitted one of the academies which is not directly involved in curriculum project, but has chosen instead to access the network which provides specific face-to-face support in respect of DEAL. The impact of DEAL will also be pursued this year by the link adviser and the Panel felt an update to a future meeting of the Full Scrutiny Committee would be appropriate.

Secondary

As part of the support and challenge relating to the secondary curriculum the LA’s School Improvement team has engaged in dialogue with all its secondary schools about the appropriateness and extent of entry for the EBacc suite of subjects in line with the revised DfE performance tables and headline accountability measures. There has been a subsequent challenge, where necessary, to schools including academies where the EBacc entry has been low and particularly where it has not effectively reflected the overall ability of the cohort as determined by prior attainment and likely GCSE outcomes. This LA challenge has been endorsed by recent Ofsted inspections of secondary academies which reported on low EBacc entry particularly as it affected the disadvantaged pupils including those who are eligible for the pupil premium. In response to this challenge the EBacc entry will increase for future GCSE cohorts and the relevant academies have adapted their curriculum provision accordingly to meet this heightened DfE expectation.

A key priority for the LA’s Education and Skills Partnership Board (ESPB) is working in partnership with Stockport’ schools to develop a secondary curriculum which is fit for purpose and which meets the needs of all learners. The curriculum’s relevance for and impact on supporting pupils through their adolescent phase, whilst at the same time meeting the requirements of the accountability measures is central to ESPB’s priority . The ESPB’s secondary school representative is an academy headteacher who is actively engaged in promoting this important curriculum agenda. The LA has forged a link with a Higher Education Institution through Dr Carl Emery, a research impact fellow at Manchester Institute of Education’s Disadvantage and Poverty Unit, whose research and expertise is informing the work of the ESPB. The academy headteacher has engaged Dr Emery in presenting his findings on disadvantage and poverty to the school staff as part of a pathfinder to rolling out this research based approach to ensuring inclusive curriculum provision. Mental Health & Well Being The Panel were mindful that a Scrutiny review had been undertaken in recent years relating to childhood mental health and were keen to hear how issues had progressed in schools. They noted that Stockport Council and NHS Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group believed that promoting the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children and young people in the borough is “everybody’s business”. Training has been offered to all schools throughout the authority. The Panel were pleased that the uptake from the academies had been high. During the 2017/18 academic year, a key priority for the Authority was to develop and roll out the wellbeing strategy for education settings across the borough. Again the Panel welcomed the fact that attendance from academies, both primary and secondary, was good and additional training had been delivered/requested in three of the secondary academies. They further noted that all schools would be invited back later this year to evaluate the impact of this work. Once more the Panel felt that an update at a future meeting of the full Scrutiny Committee would be helpful. The Panel considered the School Improvement Service Level Agreement which included opportunities to attend the PSHE network meetings and access to the PSHE & Wellbeing online network. Whilst all the LA’s primary schools access this, the number of secondary schools who are eligible this year had not yet been finalised. The uptake for both of these support routes was high last year. During 2017-18, specific training and/or one to one support was delivered in all but one of both primary and secondary academies. Earlier this year, Stockport was also successful in its bid to be one of twenty areas nationally taking part in a pilot project, funded by the DfE and facilitated by the Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families. Eight academies overall, from both primary and secondary, took part in this project. It is worth noting in this report that from 2020, Relationships Education will be compulsory in all primary schools and Relationships and Sex Education will be compulsory in all secondary schools. Health Education (including wellbeing) will be compulsory in all. Schools are now beginning to review their curriculum in relation to PSHE and Wellbeing, to ensure that it is relevant, age appropriate and fit for purpose. This was captured in part during the primary curriculum development programme outlined above. We will continue to offer support at a universal level to all schools, but at a more bespoke, specific level to those schools who buy into the School Improvement Service.

Recommendations: 1) That the Director for Education be requested to submit a report to a meeting of the Scrutiny Committee it 12 months’ time providing an update in respect to the pilot project run by the Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families.

2) The Committee highlighted the excellent work undertaken by the School Improvement Service and as a result request that the Cabinet Member for Education and the Director for Education be requested to give consideration to how the Local Authority can encourage more schools to buy back the service offered by the School Improvement Service.

3. SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS The Review Panel heard that there were a range of services that provide support directly to children and young people with SEND and/or provide support to settings and schools to develop their provision so that the needs of this population can be addressed. Services that are setting/ school-facing are generally funded from the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). Within the DSG some are provided as part of a universal offer within the Early Years section of the DSG, such as the Portage Service. Some are funded from the High Needs block and, therefore, should be provided for all pupils wherever they attend. Others sit within the DSG, such as Ethnic Diversity Service and the Behaviour Support Service, and the offer of these services should be traded with academies as these schools receive their funding directly from the ESFA. There are a number of Inclusion services which sit within education services and work predominantly in schools with children and young people with SEND.

The joint local area SEND inspection in Stockport was undertaken in September 2018. Whilst the inspection reported positively on ‘passionate, knowledgeable and dedicated front-line workers across education, health and social care’ it also noted that ‘across the local area, the effectiveness of identification and meeting of the needs of these children and young people is inconsistent and variable’. In relation to education, specifically, the report noted the slow rates of progress of SEND learners compared with their non-SEND peers at all phases of learning. These outcomes are compounded by declining attendance rates in both primary and secondary schools. Service Primary Primary Secondary Secondary maintained Academy maintained Academy

Behaviour De-delegated, Individual Schools Schools opted Support Service all primaries SLA set up opted for for traded opt in and pay with each traded option- 2 an amount per primary option- 5 purchased full pupil academy purchased package, all full package, purchase all purchased managed managed transfer transfer package package

Educational Core offer Core offer Core offer Core offer Psychology Service & traded offer & traded offer & traded & traded offer charged 10% offer 10% higher, higher Stockport Academy traded only as use private EP for statutory

Learning Support Core offer Core offer Traded offer Traded offer Service only charged +10% & traded offer & traded offer higher than charged 10% maintained higher

Inclusion co- Core offer Core Offer Core Offer Core offer ordinators (INCOs)

Stockport Sensory Core offer Core offer Core offer Core Offer Service

Councillors spent considerable time discussing the work of the Behaviour Support Service which is de-delegated service and charged at a per pupil rate. BSS provides support to schools around behaviour that challenges. In primary this includes a menu consisting of access to BSS teachers, behaviour mentors and Primary Jigsaw. The Forest Schools programme is also available but this element is fully traded. The same menu is offered to primary academies but individual, tailored SLAs have been developed with each primary academy. The Panel also discussed the role of the Educational Psychology Service who provide advice, assessments and direct work with children and young people with SEND. With all schools statutory work and regular ‘clinics’ are delivered through a core offer which is the same for all schools. About 30% of the offer is currently traded, with the costs to academies around 10% higher than those charged to maintained schools. The Learning Support Service currently provides a core offer to all primary schools which consists of specialist teaching for children and young people with this provision named on their EHC plans, one to one and small group teaching for other SEND pupils, training, advice and assessment. Additional teaching time is offered on a traded basis with the cost of this set at 10% higher for primary academies than primary maintained schools. The offer to secondary schools is fully traded, with the charge for secondary academies set at 10% higher than maintained secondary schools.

In addition to all the excellent work being undertaken, there are a number of services which sit within education services, Stockport Family and health which work predominantly in schools. These services potentially work with populations that often have a large proportion of children and young people with SEND.

Service Primary Primary Secondary Secondary maintained Academy maintained Academy

Careers and N/A N/A Traded but Traded but Advice Service provided as provided as core for LAC core for LAC and those and those with with an EHC an EHC plan plan

Education Access Core offer Core offer Core offer Core offer Service (EAS)

Elective Home Core offer Core offer Core offer Core offer Education

Ethnic Diversity De-delegated, Traded Traded Traded Service (EDS) all primaries and opt in and pay an amount per pupil

Traded per activity Stockport Traded Traded Traded Interpreting Unit (SIU)

The Autism Team Core offer Core offer Core offer Core offer

Stockport Family Recommendation:

That the Director for Education submit a report to a future meeting of the Children & Families Scrutiny Committee about academic outcomes for children and young people at SEN support and those with EHC plans.

4. SCHOOL COMMISSIONING, ADMISSIONS AND EXCLUSIONS

Admissions

Given the acute pressure on school places and the potential impact of the Spatial Framework in future years, the Panel devoted one of its meetings to consider school organisation and admissions which also touched on the important issue of school exclusion. The Panel heard that all academies and schools in Stockport make use of the Council’s admissions service – the Council’s team remains the service of choice despite the fact that academies are their own admissions authority and could administer their own oversubscription criteria. There is a huge advantage here to the community of Stockport as there is one point of contact at a time which is particularly stressful for parents as they attempt to secure their preferred school place for their child. The Panel welcomed the fact that officers provided equal support and had a robust professional relationship with all schools.

School Organisation

Schools Organisation work is focussed upon schools capacity and the statutory instruments needed around that area of work. Annual reports to DFE over current capacity and projections is a statutory responsibility and this work enables a strategic overview of local provision and issues. Over the past six years the work of schools organisation has been focussed upon increasing capacity in the primary sector in response to the local and national crisis in schools capacity. A series of enlargements and rebuilds to larger capacity has meant that Stockport has always been able to offer a place whenever one is needed, although that may not always be where parents would prefer. As a part of this workstream we worked with Laurus Trust over their bid for a primary Free School in Cheadle Hulme that opened September 2018.

With respect to secondary capacity the Panel was reminded that the Council did not support the proposed location of a secondary Free School proposed by Laurus Trust but the additional capacity will be needed in the longer term. In the response to DFE on this issue the Council had been clear that should Stockport be in receipt of an additional secondary school we should prefer a more central location. As anticipated the opening of Laurus Cheadle Hulme High has impacted the entry to both The Kingsway and secondary schools. Finally Laurus Trust proposed a further free school to offer an Alternative Provision (AP) for secondary pupils in need of an alternative curriculum model and the Council supported this development. Schools Organisation work will include further work to shore up primary capacity in the areas of the Heatons and - crucially - Marple. Strategically there will need to be combined planning for infrastructure to support the housebuilding programme that will shortly be proposed within the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework. A particular emerging issue is the request from three secondary schools (two are academies, the other a locally maintained school) to reduce their Pupil Admission Number (PAN) as a result of falling entry numbers. However the strategic perspective is that longer term as the larger primary cohorts move up into secondary then the Council will need all of the secondary capacity available in the borough. The Panel felt that this was an extremely important issue and suggested that regular updates be made to the full Scrutiny Committee.

The Panel considered the issue of Education capital deployment which was likely to be utilised to continue the repairs and modernisation programme, as well as the investments needed in Marple and the Heatons over primary capacity. A set of agreed principles over using Basic Need grant (place creation) on academy sites and proposals would be needed, and current thinking is that such investment needs to be where both the academy trust and the local authority’s strategic ambitions are both aligned and demonstrably offer value for the public purse. The Panel heard that many of the borough’s school buildings were designed for a 60 year lifespan and there was a limit to the levels of improvement that can be engineered into such building stock to try and bring it up to contemporary H&S standards and the flexible, well-insulated Teaching & Learning environments that are appropriate to the needs of 21st century education.

Exclusion and Exclusion Data

The table below shows the number of permanent exclusions issued and permanent exclusion rates for secondary schools in Stockport over the last five years. Academy schools are highlighted from the academic year in which they gained academy status.

2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18

PEX PEX PEX PEX PEX PEX PEX PEX PEX PEX rate rate rate rate rate 0.13% 0.15% 0.17% 0.20% Bramhall 2 0.16% 0 0% 2 0.18% 2 0.19% 5 0.48% Cheadle 2 0.15% 3 0.22% 3 0.22% 5 0.36% 1 0.07% Hulme Harrytown 3 0.38% 1 0.13% 2 0.25% 6 0.78% 4 0.54% Hazel Grove 0 0% 2 0.23% 2 0.21% 3 0.28% 2 0.17% Marple Hall 2 0.14% 2 0.14% 1 0.07% 1 0.07% 0 0.00% Priestnall 1 0.08% 0 0% 2 0.16% 1 0.08% 1 0.08% Reddish Vale 5 0.44% 7 0.68% 2 0.22% 7 0.81% 0 0.00% St Anne’s 1 0.16% 1 0.16% 4 0.63% 2 0.34% 4 0.64% St James’ 0 0% 0 0% 2 0.25% 2 0.25% 2 0.25% Stockport 7 1.22% 6 1.0% 11 1.77% 5 0.74% 11 1.45% Academy Stockport 2 0.18% 1 0.09% 1 0.09% 2 0.18% 1 0.09% School Stockport 5 10% 5 6.76% School closed Tech School The 1 0.07% 0 0% 3 0.21% 5 0.34% 3 0.20% Kingsway Werneth 1 0.09% 5 0.49% 2 0.2% 5 0.50% 5 0.49% Total 32 0.23% 33 0.24% 37 0.28% 46 0.34% 39 0.28% The number of fixed term exclusions issued from each school and the fixed period exclusion rates are shown in the table below:

2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18

FTE FTE FTE FTE FTE FTE FTE FTE FTE FTE rate rate rate rate rate England 6.62% 7.51% 8.46% 9.40% Bramhall 77 6.26% 43 3.64% 61 5.57% 101 9.75% 82 7.87% Cheadle 71 5.33% 70 4.70% 75 5.37% 101 7.26% 90 6.44% Hulme Harrytown 79 10.08% 85 11.10% 82 10.41% 99 12.91% 138 18.75% Hazel 75 8.28% 67 6.83% 75 7.59% 67 6.27% 137 11.49% Grove Marple Hall 153 10.85% 126 8.91% 219 13.35% 127 8.87% 91 6.17% Priestnall 67 5.49% 82 6.63% 135 10.78% 168 13.32% 189 14.81% Reddish 299 26.25% 256 25.17% 115 12.43% 106 12.23% 72 8.44% Vale St Anne’s 22 3.54% 16 2.54% 64 10.06% 28 4.70% 66 10.54% St James’ 62 7.71% 69 8.58% 66 8.27% 98 12.30% 62 7.82% Stockport Data not reported to the local authority* 56 7.37% Academy Stockport 125 11.26% 92 8.46% 97 8.79% 87 7.75% 97 8.35% School The 72 5.03% 57 4.03% 84 5.78% 132 8.99% 219 14.65% Kingsway Werneth 83 7.72% 149 14.48% 65 6.44% 71 7.11% 65 6.39% Total 1185 9.07% 1112 8.52% 1138 8.34% 1185 8.79% 1364 9.87%

Fair Access The Panel discussed in detail the fact that the School Admissions Code requires each local authority to have a Fair Access Protocol in place to ensure access to education is secured quickly for children who have no school place but for whom mainstream school is appropriate, and to ensure that all schools in the area admit their fair share of children with challenging behaviour, including children that have been excluded from other schools. This included admitting children above the published admission number to schools that are already full. Stockport’s Fair Access Protocol was recently reviewed by headteachers and the revised Protocol came into effect from September 2018. It included a list of categories to identify a child as being potentially ‘hard to place’ or ‘vulnerable’ and therefore requiring consideration under the Fair Access Protocol. School places are allocated under the Fair Access Protocol by either the Education Access Service or the Secondary Panel for Inclusion (SPI), depending on the complexity of the case. Data on the percentage of each school’s population admitted via the Protocol is used to make decisions re ‘fair share’ and this data is regularly shared with secondary headteachers. All secondary academies have agreed to and engage with the local authority’s Fair Access Protocol and they also buy into support for the managed transfer process, which is provided by the Behaviour Support Service. The table below shows the number and percentage of the school population leaving and joining each secondary school in the academic year 2017/18 through permanent exclusions, the Fair Access Protocol, and associated processes.

Total students leaving % of school Total students joining % of school the school via PEX, population the school via PEX, population Fair Access and SPI Fair Access and SPI processes (PEX, processes placements at (PEX, managed Highfields PRU, transfers, PRU managed transfers) integrations, other Fair Access) Bramhall 8 0.77% 11 1.06% Cheadle Hulme 6 0.43% 16 1.15% Harrytown 8 1.09% 8 1.09% Hazel Grove 7 0.59% 13 1.09% Marple Hall 12 0.81% 16 1.08% Priestnall 6 0.47% 14 1.10% Reddish Vale 5 0.59% 10 1.17% St Anne’s 8 1.28% 4 0.64% St James’ 3 0.25% 9 1.13% Stockport Academy 23 3.03% 11 1.45% 8 0.69% 12 1.03% The Kingsway 9 0.60% 17 1.14% Werneth 17 1.67% 10 0.98% Total 120 0.87% 151 1.09%

Recommendations:

That the Cabinet be informed that the Scrutiny Committee strongly supports the continued use of the set of agreed principle over using Basic Need grant (place creation) on Academy sites and proposals that such investment needs to be where both the Academy Trust and the Local Authority’s strategic ambitions are both aligned and demonstrably offer value for the public purse.

5. SUMMARY AND RECOMENDATIONS

The Children & Families Scrutiny Committee approved the recommendations detailed in the report and the Cabinet is now requested to give consideration to how it wishes to respond.

Anyone wishing to inspect the above associated documents and references or requiring any further information should contact Stephen Fox on Tel: 0161 474 3206 or email: [email protected]