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.

Lord Harris had said: “I am pleased that the Government said they would put more money into education, but the new NI [National Insurance] Act is costing us, as an academy group, £1.5 million.  We have to find the funding for £1.5m more; they are not giving us the same amount of funding. Of the 2.8 per cent pay rise for teachers , they are funding only 1.3 per cent.

“It will be difficult to find this money – not only for our schools but for every school in the country.”

Education Uncovered understands Harris may be considering teaching cuts. Critics are likely to look at its sector-outlier spending on central management – in 2023-24 it had 12 people paid at least £200,000 in pay and pensions, and a further 20 people on £150-£200,000 – and wonder if savings might be found here.

Meanwhile, the former Green Party leader Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle drew attention to the case of an academy in Southend-on-Sea – Southchurch High School – which “has just brought in so-called silent transitions, where being caught saying a word to a friend or exclaiming in anger during the changeover between lessons will result in a one-hour detention.”

She added: “One parent of a neurodivergent child shared how impossible it would be for his son to cope with the rule…parents are horrified – 500 people have signed a petition, and the local Labour council cabinet member has expressed concern – but schools are not under local democratic control.”

The petition, which includes what seem to be many comments from pupils at the school, has now passed 1,000 signatures.

Generally, debate about the bill’s provisions on academies yesterday appeared to go along party lines, with many Conservative speakers criticising moves including the requirement on academies to follow the national curriculum as threatening a successful policy, but those critiques seemingly limited to those from this party.

Labour peers including Lord Blunkett, who first announced the academies policy, and Baroness (Estelle) Morris, who succeeded him as education secretary, did not put themselves at odds with the government by joining in criticism. Lady Morris said: “I welcome the national curriculum…It is a national curriculum: the clue is in the title.”

The Earl of Effingham, speaking for the Conservatives, suggested the academies policy “has seen English schoolchildren become the best in the western world at both reading and maths”. This seemed too sweeping, first because academisation is only one of a host of policies enacted in recent decades, and academies have not tended greatly to outperform other schools; and second because, while the statement appears to be true in terms of maths, within the latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS) results, in the most recent instance of the rival OECD “PISA” tests, the UK lagged behind several western nations in both reading and maths.

Finally, calls for a national well-being measurement programme in English schools, as reported on in recent weeks by Education Uncovered and put forward again during this debate by the Liberal Democrats, featured repeatedly among speeches during this debate.

As well as the Lib Dems, the move was welcomed by the cross-bench peer Lord Layard and Lord (Gus) O’Donnell, the Bishop of Derby and the Conservative former minister for sport Lord Moynihan.

The government, however, appeared not to be willing to back the move. Baroness (Jacqui) Smith of Malvern, an education minister, said: “I hear those noble Lords who talked about well-being measurement. The Government support schools measuring well-being – many already do. We are looking at how to support schools to measure components of thriving, such as well-being, most effectively to support attendance, attainment and other national priorities with our opportunity mission.”

That seemed, then, to be advocating a voluntary approach by schools rather than a compulsory nationwide system.

Yet with several speakers, though generally not Conservatives, mentioning English young people’s wellbeing as of concern – Lord Blunkett said “In the PISA surveys on life satisfaction, we are second from bottom,” while Lord O’Donnell said “PISA shows that our well-being results for children are abysmal; we are bottom of Europe” – sceptics may wonder if the government and opposition is giving this issue the attention it deserves.