Academy trust running the West London Free School “will have to make up to 10 per cent of staff redundant”, Conservative peer tells House of Lords

Debate on Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill also saw national wellbeing measurement again discussed.

 

A high-profile multi-academy trust will have to make up to 10 per cent of its staff redundant because of a shortfall in funding from the government, one of its controlling members has told the House of Lords.

The Knowledge Schools Trust, which now runs nine academies and sprang out of one of them, the West London Free School, is facing an increase in its funding of only 1.1 per cent in 2025-26, the free school’s founder Toby Young – now Lord Young of Acton – revealed.

His comments came after another Conservative peer, Lord Harris of Peckham, who controls the London-based academy chain named after him, warned that his trust faced an increase of just 1.3 per cent. The government is recommending a 2.8 per cent national pay rise for teachers for this coming year.

Lord Young said: “I want to tell my noble friend Lord Harris that, in the case of my trust, our funding has gone up by only 1.1 per cent, not 1.3 per cent, and the CEO of my trust tells me that the only way it will be able to remain solvent in 2025-26 is by making between eight per cent and 10 per cent of the staff redundant.”

Lord Young also referenced a survey reported on by Schools Week last week which had found that one third of primary schools and 40 per cent of secondaries would be “forced to make redundancies in 2025-26 due to funding shortfalls”. 

Lord Young’s comments came in debate around the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which reached the House of Lords yesterday, where it had its second reading. The bill continued the debate around issues such as its provisions on curtailing some academy freedoms and on home education, although often there appeared to be more heat than light.