A profusion of 10,000 multi-academy trusts running schools in England could result from the government’s plans to turn every state school into an academy, the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, has conceded to MPs.
Appearing before parliament’s education committee, Morgan gave few clues on which parts of the government’s education white paper would become legislation, but appeared to be firm that all schools would become academies by 2022.
Pressed on where the additional multi-academy trusts (Mats) able to run the 16,000 schools remaining in the maintained sector would come from, Morgan said there would be “different solutions for different areas,” and that new groups would come forward.
Asked by the Labour MP Ian Mearns whether she could “envisage a case where there might be 5,000 or even 10,000 multi-academy trusts across the country”, Morgan replied: “I think that it’s difficult to be clear on numbers.
“At the moment we’ve got 973, and they range in size. The vast majority have got less than 10 schools in them. I think we need to see how it develops, but I’m not going to say that small clusters of schools can’t work together and be extremely successful.”
Morgan echoed comments made by David Cameron during prime minister’s question time earlier on Wednesday, saying she was “absolutely committed” to the white paper’s policies. There has been speculation that few Conservative backbench MPs support the proposals.
Asked whether she remained committed to the white paper’s deadline of 2022 for academy conversion, Morgan said: “Yes. That is absolutely the government’s position.”
Lucy Powell, the shadow education secretary, said that despite the comments by Cameron and Morgan, schools should be wary of being forced into academy status.
“What schools should look out for is whether or not the government asks parliament for new powers to compel good and outstanding schools to become academies, against their wishes, in the forthcoming Queen’s speech,” Powell said.
“If this is not explicit then schools should take the message loud and clear that the government is back-pedalling, and they should not be panicked into jumping before they are pushed.”
In front of MPs, Morgan blamed “fear of the unknown” for the reluctance of the remaining 80% of maintained primary schools that have not opted to convert to academy status.
“I think there are obviously strong relationships with local authorities and people are used to having that support,” she said. “There is also a fear, particularly if you are a small school, potentially of having a business manager or what they consider to be the turbulence of conversion. That is undoubtedly something that puts people off.”
Morgan dodged questions about whether local authorities could set up their own multi-academy trusts, as has been suggested. “This is a white paper and as you can imagine there are lots of local authorities and councillors who have strong views,” she said.
The Labour MP Stephen Timms wrung a definitive statement from Morgan on whether the Department for Education would allow poorly performing academy trusts to take over management of new schools.
“If an academy trust doesn’t have a strong track record in school improvement, we wouldn’t let it take on any more,” Morgan said.
The MPs also asked Morgan about the “chaotic” key stage assessments that primary schools have undergone this year.
“I wouldn’t agree that it has been handled badly, except of course for the error in publishing the key stage one test that was published online, and for which I apologised for in the house unreservedly on Monday,” Morgan said.
“It was a human error, which is extremely regrettable given how hard everybody had worked to prepare for the tests.”
Morgan conceded that for primary school teachers “this year has been particularly challenging”.
She argued that the “dual system” of funding both maintained and academy schools was an administrative burden. “The opportunity to make sure we have more taxpayers’ money going directly to schools and classroom is not something that I can choose to ignore,” she said.
