Government puts school’s academisation on hold following local authority conflict of interest investigation

A school which is planning to join a multi-academy trust, where its head had been working four days a week on secondment during the consultation process, has had to put the process on hold following a local authority investigation into a potential conflict of interest.

Cyril Jackson primary school, in Tower Hamlets, East London, appears to have been asked by the Department for Education to re-run its academisation consultation after the local authority “raised concerns”, a council statement suggests.

The school has admitted that its academy order request was rejected by the government’s Regional Schools Commissioner, although this appears to amount to the move having been postponed, rather than cancelled.

The news comes after parents at the Ofsted-outstanding school prompted an investigation by the local authority into how the consultation process had been carried out, and whether there was a conflict of interest involving Cyril Jackson’s former headteacher, Gillian Kemp, who is now running the academy trust it is in line to join.

The case is one of several recently covered by this website where academisation moves are in limbo or – as in at least one case - have been cancelled.