School governance & academisation in England

There has been a fundamental shift in school governance In England, triggered by the rapid expansion of academies since 2010, which means nearly half the pupils in state funded schools no longer have a governing body. Following the 1986 Education Act (No 2) each designated school was required to have a governing body which, typically, comprised local authority nominees and officers together with elected parents and teachers. In law this was the accountable agency and final decision maker. Schools becoming academies were no longer required to have governing bodies, however, as they were formed into limited companies working in a direct relationship with central government. By 2010 there were only 203 academies in England whereas now there are over 8000, with 67 per cent of all secondary schools now having converted. Whilst the majority of primary schools remain in local authority control, a more meaningful analysis is that 47 per cent of pupils are now in academies (National Audit Office, 2018). The majority of academies are now in MATs which are multi-school organisations with one board of trustees. Governors now only have delegated tasks and responsibilities with accountability having now been transferred to the trust which runs the standalone academy or the MAT. This shift in accountability has gone largely unnoticed with many governors having not yet fully comprehended they no longer have decision making powers. The research reported in this paper is drawn from 41 interviews conducted with Chief Executive Officers of MATs in the last two years. A key part of each interview was to examine the way in which governors were contributing across the trust. The data contained polar viewpoints, but generally demonstrated schemes of delegation that allowed individual schools to continue to have governance at the institutional level, albeit without the previous legitimatised power and accountability. National Audit Office (2018): Converting schools to academies. London: National Audit Office