Academisation proceeding only at a trickle, in some regions of England

The academisation of schools appears to be going at a snail’s pace in some regions of England, new analysis of current Department for Education regional director decision-making shows.

Of the nine DfE regions, six have seen only single-digit numbers of schools applying to academise, among decisions being considered at a new round of regional board meetings, which have been taking place in the second half of this month.

Three other regions have seen a total of 52 applications between them, among the decisions being considered by the boards this month – the first to take place in this format since the Labour government was elected. However, the overall pace of academisation remains relatively slow: it would take 20 years to reach a fully academised system, based on the trend of the last two years, this piece shows below.

The detail

For this analysis, Education Uncovered looked at recently-published agenda papers for the DfE’s regional advisory boards, which make recommendations in private to ministers on the academisation of schools. These latest meetings have been taking place over the past two weeks.

The nine agenda papers show a total of 87 converter academy applications by schools – ones where the governing body has chosen to convert – up for consideration in total by the nine boards – out of 10,295 remaining local authority maintained schools in England.

The six areas of England with single-digit numbers of applications were the North East (2), South West (4), London (6), Yorkshire and the Humber (6), the West Midlands (8), and East Midlands (9).

The three regions with higher numbers of applications registered in these agenda papers were led by the North West, with 22 applications being considered. These included a group of seven Church of England primary schools, seemingly seeking to academise en masse to join the Chester Diocesan Learning Trust.

The East of England saw 17 converter academy applications up for consideration, while in the South East, the figure was 13.

The context

The background to all of this is that the new numbers seem to confirm a sense that the broad state of play regarding school structures in England, in which just under half of state-funded schools remain local authority-maintained, seems unlikely to change any time soon.

This is despite multi-academy trusts, the arrangement which was favoured by the last government and about which this one seems positioned somewhere between agnostic and supportive, often appearing to dominate public discussion.

Percentage of each region of England which are academies, taking into account approval of new conversions

Region	Academies, %
South West	67.9
East Midlands	59.2
Yorks and Humber	59.0
East of England	58.6
West Midlands	58.5
North East	57.7
South East	45.4
London	42.2
North West	36.0

Sources: DfE’s Get Information about Schools database (for existing academies); DfE regional advisory board papers, for proposed academy conversions. Figures are for all state-funded schools.

Assuming all of the above academisation proposals are approved by the boards, the proportion of mainstream state-funded schools in each region, after these approvals, would vary from 68 per cent in the South West to 36 per cent in the North West.

In the North West, then, the higher number of applications coming through in the latest round would represent a slight catching-up, in terms of overall academy numbers, with other regions, given that it started with the lowest proportion of schools to have left their local authorities.

However, schools in London, which has the second-lowest proportion of academies overall, still seem reluctant to convert in any great numbers, with the equal-third lowest applications in this round overall.

Academisation over the last two years

The latter is consistent with a longer-term pattern for the capital, with growth in academisation over the past two years in London comfortably the lowest of any of the regions. As of this month, the proportion of academies in the capital had nudged up by only 2.4 percentage points, from 40 to 42 per cent, since October 2022.

This was of course well below the regional average of growth over that period, which stood at 4.9 per cent, with the highest-growing regions being the South West (7.0 percentage points); North West (6.8); and the North East (6.4).

Further analysis of academisation trends nationally shows that the pace is way behind that needed to meet that of the last time a government sought to put a target on a fully-academised system: the Conservatives’ later-abandoned pledge to have all schools within MATs by 2030.

In October 2022, there were 11,313 mainstream local authority schools in England. As of this month, the number had fallen to 10,295. That is a drop of 1,018 schools, over a two-year period. Assuming almost all of these have been academy conversions, it would take another 20.2 years to get to a fully-academy system, given the rate of the past two years. This would take us to the start of 2045.

As of this month, local authority primary schools continue to be more numerous than primary academies, with the former comprising 55 per cent of state-funded schools. Among secondary schools, of course, the situation is very different, with 83 per cent of schools being academies.

Some 1,044 academies are run as single-academy trusts, the latest DfE dataset shows. This means that, considering the situation across all types of school, including primaries and secondaries, schools  in multi-academy trusts are still not in the majority. They comprise 47 per cent of the total.

Sponsored academy situation

The new regional advisory board papers also list sponsored academy conversions. But these show only six set for approval in total, across the nine regions.

Separately, the DfE published new monthly data showing, for the first time, this Labour government approving the initiation of a handful of sponsored or forced academy projects. Four of them were initiated during September, the new statistics show.

This confirms that Labour is going ahead with forced academisation, in at least some cases of schools having received an “inadequate” sub-judgement from Ofsted, even though the party was reported two years ago as having been against forced academisation.

That said, as reported on this website last month, it appears the forced academy policy is being scaled down by the new government.

Free schools

The government’s announcement this week that it is to review the free schools policy, with all schools which were approved by the Conservatives but which have yet to open subject to checking that they are still needed, seems significant, also, to the overall state of play with regard to academy numbers.

Further analysis of school numbers shows that the number of free schools grew by more than 10 per cent over the past two years, rising by 80 schools, from 720 in October 2022 to 800 as of this month. This, in turn, helped swell the total number of academies – free schools are a type of academy – from 10,122 to 11,175 over the period.

The free schools policy seems under pressure on two fronts: overall static-at-best predictions of pupil number growth in the coming years, and it being a Conservative initiative.

With sponsored academy projects and free schools possibly slowing down, this suggests voluntary academy conversions will be the only major area of growth for the non-local authority sector in the coming years.

Education Uncovered reported earlier this week on the case of a planned free secondary school in north Cornwall, which another school was questioning with the local authority having predicted a decline in secondary pupil numbers across the county as a whole from next year.

Local authority analysis

Finally, I thought it would be useful to have an updated look at the academisation situation in individual local authorities.

As in the past, this shows a polarised situation, with 20 of England’s 154 local authority areas having at least 80 per cent of their schools academised, while, in 26 of these areas, the figure is 30 per cent or less.

Among non-tiny local authorities, those with the highest rates of academisation are Thurrock, Hull and North Somerset, on 98, 98 and 96 per cent of their state-funded schools having academised.

At the other end of the table sit Camden, Brighton and Hove and Hampshire, on 10, 14 and 16 per cent respectively.

This may explain why, on social media, I sometimes come across reactions suggesting a belief that approaching all schools are academies, while others are of a different view. As this analysis shows, the extent to which the structure has become locally ubiquitous or the preferred option varies greatly by area, as of course it also does by phase.

A full list of academisation rates by local authority areas is below.

Local authority	Academies	LA maintained	Academies,%
Isles Of Scilly	1		100.0
Thurrock	55	1	98.2
Kingston upon Hull, City of	94	2	97.9
North Somerset	74	3	96.1
Bromley	95	4	96.0
Rutland	20	1	95.2
Bath and North East Somerset	74	7	91.4
Stoke-on-Trent	84	10	89.4
Middlesbrough	48	6	88.9
North East Lincolnshire	56	7	88.9
Darlington	38	5	88.4
Redcar and Cleveland	52	7	88.1
Bournemouth, Ch'ch, Poole	84	12	87.5
Plymouth	81	12	87.1
Torbay	36	6	85.7
Swindon	73	14	83.9
Blackpool	36	7	83.7
Southend-on-Sea	43	9	82.7
Bexley	68	15	81.9
Cornwall	227	53	81.1
Rotherham	100	24	80.6
Hartlepool	31	8	79.5
Stockton-on-Tees	62	16	79.5
Doncaster	100	27	78.7
Medway	81	22	78.6
Leicestershire	211	73	74.3
North Northamptonshire	106	37	74.1
Staffordshire	297	108	73.3
Portsmouth	44	17	72.1
Bradford	151	59	71.9
Dorset	110	44	71.4
Suffolk	230	92	71.4
Peterborough	57	23	71.3
Nottingham	74	30	71.2
Slough	36	15	70.6
Croydon	85	36	70.2
Newcastle upon Tyne	66	31	68.0
Barnsley	61	30	67.0
Derby	70	35	66.7
York	41	21	66.1
Devon	239	124	65.8
Sheffield	113	59	65.7
Wakefield	91	48	65.5
Solihull	52	28	65.0
West Northamptonshire	120	65	64.9
Bristol, City of	97	53	64.7
Cheshire East	98	55	64.1
Norfolk	264	150	63.8
Sunderland	73	42	63.5
Essex	345	207	62.5
Wolverhampton	67	42	61.5
Wokingham	43	27	61.4
Surrey	238	151	61.2
Sutton	38	25	60.3
Oxfordshire	181	122	59.7
Worcestershire	143	97	59.6
Somerset	156	109	58.9
Bury	48	34	58.5
Dudley	58	43	57.4
Wiltshire	133	100	57.1
Birmingham	241	186	56.4
Nottinghamshire	190	147	56.4
Newham	58	46	55.8
Cambridgeshire	147	120	55.1
Warwickshire	137	113	54.8
Bedford	41	34	54.7
Coventry	62	52	54.4
Central Bedfordshire	70	59	54.3
Lincolnshire	191	165	53.7
Leicester	59	51	53.6
Tameside	52	45	53.6
Calderdale	51	46	52.6
Havering	43	39	52.4
Kent	300	273	52.4
Grand Total	11175	10295	52.0
South Gloucestershire	58	56	50.9
Warrington	43	42	50.6
Hillingdon	48	48	50.0
Shropshire	75	76	49.7
County Durham	126	128	49.6
Southampton	36	37	49.3
Manchester	88	91	49.2
Hammersmith and Fulham	27	28	49.1
Windsor and Maidenhead	31	34	47.7
Harrow	27	30	47.4
Milton Keynes	52	58	47.3
Oldham	51	57	47.2
North Yorkshire	163	186	46.7
Bracknell Forest	17	20	45.9
Gloucestershire	136	160	45.9
Kirklees	81	96	45.8
Enfield	42	50	45.7
East Sussex	84	102	45.2
Reading	27	33	45.0
Waltham Forest	35	43	44.9
Sandwell	53	68	43.8
Northumberland	70	91	43.5
Kingston upon Thames	22	30	42.3
North Lincolnshire	33	45	42.3
Leeds	116	160	42.0
Herefordshire, County of	41	57	41.8
Southwark	40	56	41.7
Buckinghamshire	93	134	41.0
Derbyshire	169	246	40.7
Wirral	46	68	40.4
Luton	27	40	40.3
Greenwich	35	52	40.2
Brent	35	53	39.8
Walsall	46	71	39.3
Gateshead	31	48	39.2
Telford and Wrekin	28	44	38.9
Cheshire West and Chester	59	94	38.6
South Tyneside	22	36	37.9
Sefton	37	61	37.8
Hounslow	27	46	37.0
Bolton	46	79	36.8
Trafford	32	55	36.8
West Sussex	100	176	36.2
Hertfordshire	182	330	35.5
Wandsworth	28	51	35.4
Westminster	19	35	35.2
Barnet	45	85	34.6
Halton	22	42	34.4
Salford	34	66	34.0
Barking and Dagenham	20	40	33.3
Richmond upon Thames	20	40	33.3
Knowsley	19	39	32.8
Blackburn with Darwen	24	52	31.6
East Riding of Yorkshire	45	101	30.8
Westmorland and Furness	44	101	30.3
Hackney	22	52	29.7
Rochdale	25	61	29.1
Tower Hamlets	26	65	28.6
Kensington and Chelsea	11	28	28.2
Lambeth	24	63	27.6
Cumberland	47	124	27.5
North Tyneside	20	53	27.4
St. Helens	18	48	27.3
Liverpool	43	115	27.2
Wigan	32	89	26.4
Stockport	29	81	26.4
Redbridge	20	56	26.3
Haringey	21	61	25.6
Lewisham	20	61	24.7
Islington	15	49	23.4
Isle of Wight	9	36	20.0
Ealing	17	71	19.3
Lancashire	111	488	18.5
Merton	9	44	17.0
West Berkshire	13	67	16.3
Hampshire	81	428	15.9
Brighton and Hove	9	54	14.3
Camden	5	47	9.6
City of London	0	1	0.0

Source: DfE “Get Information about Schools” database, 24/10/24