Academy trust spends £235,000 on one-day “celebration” event for staff and governors

Cost revealed through FOI, as union tells Education Uncovered of plans to ballot members on strike action over lengthening of school day.

 

An academy chain spent nearly £250,000 on a one-off “celebration” conference for its staff – to the consternation of some of its teachers, who argue that the money would have been better spent in the classroom, Education Uncovered can reveal.

Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT) paid £235,823 for the event last month at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, at which more than 4,000 of its staff and governors attended for a day which the trust described as both a celebration of its 15 years as an organisation and embracing professional development, though teacher sources were scathing about the benefits.

The controversy comes as, Education Uncovered can also disclose, the National Education Union is to ballot members in 13 of OGAT’s secondary schools for strike action over the trust’s plans to extend the school day by half an hour from September.

Outwood Grange told me it was a "well-run and financially strong academy trust" and that "the vast majority" of feedback following the conference had been "very positive". 

The detail

Education Uncovered was contacted by two teacher sources with experience of working at OGAT following the one-day event, which took place on Monday, February 3^rd and which the trust described as its “Family Conference”. One, recently a teacher within the trust and in contact with former colleagues, had told me that the conference looked like “a really poor use of taxpayer money”.

OGAT runs 40 schools in total from the East Midlands to Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West and North East from its base in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. I asked it, under Freedom of Information, for a break-down of the cost of the conference, the number of staff members who participated and the total bill.

The trust has now come back, stating that the total cost was £235,823 and that 4,332 staff and governors had attended. This worked out at “great value for money,” said the trust, at £54.44 per head.  

I had asked, also, for a detailed breakdown including the cost of hiring the venue; speaking fees for speakers; audio-visual hire; security; cleaning and marketing and advertising.

The trust, however, said that, while all of the above categories were included in the above figure -   other than marketing and advertising “as there were no costs of this type incurred” - a number of the individual costs were commercially sensitive information belonging to different third parties,” so the detail would not be released.

However, the release of the total costs in themselves seem likely to intensify debate among staff, which had already provoked controversy among attendees as the scale of the event became clear on the day. Featuring motivational speeches including from the TV presenters Jake Humphrey and Floella Benjamin, it had already drawn comment when the cost was not known.

James Ellis, acting senior regional officer for the NEU, said: “Our members were not happy about it at all: they thought it was a huge waste of public money and that was when they thought the cost was £40,000. When they find out it was nearly £240,000, they are going to be outraged, especially when [OGAT] is telling our members that they must work more for no more pay. “

He said that OGAT’s line might be that this was a one-off outgoing, so could not be compared to ongoing costs such as staff salaries. But he added: “240k could pay for a teacher for five years, or a teaching assistant for 10 years; this money could definitely have been spent in a more productive way.”

The union had surveyed its members recently about OGAT’s proposals to lengthen the school day, and several had come back with comments about the conference, he said.

One said: “We’ve just been asked to sign up for coaches to get to this party at Leeds First Direct Arena. There are 79 coaches involved!! 79!!!!!”

Another said: “I am absolutely in shock at the amount of public money involved in this thing.”

Another complained of “Public money being spent on a party at an arena when we are being told we can’t buy pens.”

Another said: “The claims of ‘unable to subsidise’ things (extra time for support staff?) feel very fragile given the amount of money spent on the ‘celebration’ at Leeds.”

Another said: “Whilst it was great to be able to meet colleagues on Monday, the rumoured cost to hire Leeds Direct Arena alone is £35,000. This grates, as this alone could have been used to provide over 1,000 hours of tuition for students.”

One teacher – I will call them Teacher A - told me that the conference had had no useful CPD content to them, and that the “family values” it was meant to celebrate had not resonated. While some colleagues might have had a “great day,” at a time of huge funding pressures on schools and with the trust also in dispute with unions over school day changes which would significantly increase workloads, it had gone down badly with many colleagues.  

The former OGAT teacher who had got in touch about this last month had also told me: “I can’t help but think that’s a really poor use of taxpayer money, especially money that would be better spent on students…It makes me so angry that money is being spent to book the arena, feed the teachers, pay for the transport of all of the staff, event speakers etc when our schools are in such a sorry state.”

In responding to the FOI, Katy Bradford, OGAT’s deputy chief executive, sent the following comments: “I am delighted to share [some] details…This was a one-off event to celebrate 15 years of the Trust. This gave us the opportunity to thank and acknowledge every member of staff and governor who has contributed to those 15 years. The conference was a CPD event for all staff and governors, focused on our employee values and providing an opportunity to reflect on who these are relevant and important to all of us as a single staff body. In marking this significant milestone in the Trust’s history, we also used the conference as an opportunity to look at and commit to our future vision.

“I am sure that you will agree that the costs [provided in response to the FOI] represent great value for money when compared to the costs of day conferences in the education sector which are normally limited to only a few, higher paid leaders or executives, to which no one ‘bats an eye’. We felt it was important that every member of staff across the Trust had an opportunity to benefit from continuous professional development on this day and to hear about the future plans of the Trust over the next 15 years whilst all together.”

I went back to the trust to put the points of view of teachers quoted above to it, and also to ask what CPD was provided. Its full response appears at the end of this piece. 

Told of Ms Bradford’s response, Teacher A suggested it was strange to be speaking negatively about events for “higher paid leaders or executives” when, this source said, OGAT itself held an annual summer conference in York for directors and school leaders. I have not been able to check this with the trust.

The school day dispute

Separately, the NEU is to ballot members at 13 of the trust’s 27 secondary academies over OGAT’s plans to increase the length of the school day so that it would finish at 3pm, rather than 2.30pm. This would raise the weekly hours at its secondaries from 30 to 32.5, which the trust has argued brings it into line with non-statutory government guidelines. These had initially said that all schools should comply with the 32.5 hour week by September 2023, but with the-then Conservative government having pushed the deadline back to September 2024. It is not clear what the state of these guidelines are now, given that OGAT’s schools have clearly not been operating within them this academic year.  

The trust’s proposals have proven controversial with teachers, with the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) having threatened last month to ballot its members for industrial action unless the trust withdraws its plans.

The NEU yesterday told OGAT that it would be holding its own ballots, which will run until May 12^th, and strike action to follow in the summer term if members vote for it.

OGAT has argued that the proposed increase would not breach the national cap on teachers’ “directed time” hours, which is set at 1,265 hours for the non-academy sector. Academies do not have to follow this, though most trusts do so. However, the unions have been disputing the way the trust is calculating working hours, which the NASUWT stated last month would amount to an 8.3 per cent increase in working hours.

The NEU said OGAT was proposing to increase tutor time from 20 minutes to 45 minutes, which would take up most of the extra half hour. But teachers have been warning about extra preparation time associated with this.

A final teacher comment from the NEU’s recent survey linked the proposed changes and the Leeds conference. It said: “There is no way we can teach a 50-minute form time with no preparation, and it would be doing pupils a disservice to do so. I also think it’s disingenuous that we had the conference where we were basically sold the form time lessons by a famous person [understood to be Floella Benjamin], therefore influencing us to be more positive.”

After I contacted OGAT for a further response, it told me: “We are a large trust of more than 40 schools and 4,000 staff who are spread across a large area. It is crucial that we bring everyone together on occasion so that we are able to maximise the benefits that come with being a large organisation staffed by so many talented colleagues, and do not risk operating in silos. This whole team commitment ensures we are more than the sum of our parts and is what has underpinned our success since we were founded.

“The vast majority of feedback received following the conference has been very positive. The CPD event for all staff and governors focused on our employee values and their relevance and importance to all of us as a single staff body, and was also used as a chance to bring everyone together to commit to our future vision. As we had hoped, staff from all our schools were able to have rich conversations with their colleagues, including those they rarely have the opportunity to spend quality time with, share learnings and best practice, and then take back new ideas and approaches to their schools so that our students continue to get the very best education. All-staff events such as this also have a very positive impact on staff retention, and this event also provided an opportunity for us to thank and acknowledge every member of staff and governor who has contributed to the trust’s success as we mark our 15th anniversary.

“We are a well-run and financially strong academy trust, and any spend is only agreed after a thorough cost-benefit assessment. The total cost of the event was just under £55 per head, which compares very favourably with the expenses incurred for day conferences attended by only a few executives.”