Who are academies accountable to?

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PurpleDuck
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Who are academies accountable to?

Post by PurpleDuck »

Does anyone know who academies are accountable to, apart from the governors? I know that if a school is run by the local council, one could raise potential issues with LEA, but what happens if a school is an academy? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
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Eccentric
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Re: Who are academies accountable to?

Post by Eccentric »

They are not accountable. There is no where to complain if the governors aren't interested then I suppose you are left with OFSTED or writing to your M.P.
Turtlegirl
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Re: Who are academies accountable to?

Post by Turtlegirl »

Academies have sponsors, who take responsibility. So you can hold them to account to some extent. Do you have a particular issue in mind PurpleDuck?
Sally-Anne
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Re: Who are academies accountable to?

Post by Sally-Anne »

Eccentric wrote:They are not accountable. There is no where to complain if the governors aren't interested then I suppose you are left with OFSTED or writing to your M.P.
Academies are accountable to the EFA: https://www.gov.uk/government/collectio ... compliance" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
PurpleDuck
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Re: Who are academies accountable to?

Post by PurpleDuck »

Thank you all for your suggestions. I will have a look at the gov.uk website.
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ToadMum
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Re: Who are academies accountable to?

Post by ToadMum »

Turtlegirl wrote:Academies have sponsors, who take responsibility. So you can hold them to account to some extent. Do you have a particular issue in mind PurpleDuck?
I think you are thinking of the kind of academies that were originally forced to be academies due to persistent poor performance? The schools which are termed 'academy converter' or something similar (typically grammar schools which changed status about five years ago) were offered the opportunity to become more autonomous as a 'reward' for good performance. None of those round here have sponsors. I doubt that our local grammars would have considered it much of an honour to be 'allowed' to be taken over by the likes of a creationist carpet salesman, for instance.
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Turtlegirl
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Re: Who are academies accountable to?

Post by Turtlegirl »

Good point ToadMum. I wonder if there may be changes as MATs are implemented.

All schools have a statutory complaints procedure. Here's one from King Edward VI Handsworth http://www.kingedwardvi.bham.sch.uk/wp- ... cedure.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - dealt with by governors and then the EFA. I had wondered if the King Edward Foundation, that acts as a sort of MAT already, would take some role, but it seems to be only for advice and support, not adjudication.
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