The government has said it will publish new academy compliance orders which it plans to issue to trusts breaking rules around new requirements on admissions, uniform and even parental complaints.
As part of its proposed schools bill, the government plans to introduce a new power to direct trusts not complying with legal duties or who are “proposing to act unreasonably”.
The measure will be used to enforce new requirements introduced as part of the bill – including ensuring academies co-operate with councils on admissions, follow the national curriculum and adhere to a proposed new cap on branded uniform.
Another example given is where a trust has “failed to deal with a parental complaint and has not followed its complaints process”.
At present, academies breaching their funding agreements can be issued with a termination warning notice.
But the government said where “non-compliance is minor, termination may not be a proportionate response”.
The new power would “provide a straightforward and proportionate remedy where there is a specific breach or incident of unreasonable behaviour”.
The government already has the legal power to issue such directions to council schools.
The Department for Education has now told Schools Week they “intend to publish compliance directions in line with our long-standing approach to transparency”.
The power to issue compliance directions will apply to all of trusts’ legal duties and powers.
A compliance direction may be issued in cases where there is an isolated breach or unreasonable action – particularly so when the the relevant trust is not otherwise eligible for intervention.
Government would first write to rule-breaking trusts to say it is “minded” to issue a direction. Where it is not satisfied with a trust’s response, a direction would be issued and later published.
This will be done “rather than escalating to termination to provide trusts the opportunity to rectify the situation without threat of termination where this would not be appropriate or proportionate”, government documents state.
But where a trust does not comply, a termination notice would then be considered.
Government said the new powers would “ensure that the secretary of state can secure compliance more quickly without the unnecessary disruption to parents and children faced when transferring an academy to a different trust”.
The number of termination warning notices issued to trusts since Covid has surged. However this is likely down to the introduction of ‘coasting powers’ – meaning schools with successive ‘requirements improvement’ grades could be rebrokered.
The coasting power has since been scrapped.
The previous government said academies were more transparent that council schools given requirements such as trusts having to publish annual accounts.
Former academies minister Lord Agnew introduced new requirements on council schools to level the field.
However government has since watered down its policy on publishing investigation reports into academy scandals – saying it will now only publish a summary of reports, rather than the full thing.
