New figures highlight DfE failing to intervene quickly in academies, despite saying it wants this for non-academies

The Department for Education. Stats suggest it is not intervening quickly in some academies, despite saying this is essential for LA schools.

The government has been accused of “rank hypocrisy” over the way it treats schools which fail Ofsted inspections, after Education Uncovered discovered that some academies have gone years after being rated as failing by the inspectorate, with no change of control following.

My analysis of the latest figures from the inspectorate shows that, as of the end of September, some 16 academies had gone more than two years after being rated as “inadequate” by Ofsted, under the same academy trust as is now running the institution.

Remarkably, three schools run by the same academy trust all went more than two years as Ofsted-inadequate, a status in which two of them remain, without any of them moving from the chain as a result.

The findings will complement a report published last week by Schools Week, which found that just 181 of the 476 academies to have been rated inadequate by Ofsted over the past five years have been transferred to other trusts.