No post-election spike in the number of schools opting to take on academy status

The number of schools choosing to become academies has continued on its downward trend during 2019-20, Education Uncovered can reveal.

The number of governing bodies opting to leave the auspices of their local authorities was 27 per cent down in the first six months of this academic year compared to the same period last year, Department for Education data shows.

Every month of 2019-20 has seen a downturn in voluntary academy order applications compared to 2018-19, except for September – usually the quietest month of the year on this front – where the two years both saw only three applications put in across England.

The data is significant as last year itself saw the smallest number of applications for academy status since the year when I found it possible to chart the figures in this way from DfE data, which was in 2014-15.

As figures I reported on back in September suggest, academy applications last year – at 378 - were barely a third of what they had been in 2016-17 – 1,136 – when many schools may have been inclined to make the move with the government having, in early 2016, promised to force all schools into academy status, though it eventually u-turned on that.