Revealed: PR agency’s £180-an-hour charge for pro-academy spin

The academisation of two primary schools in Brighton and Hove shines a light on costs of public relations, and a trust's influence over the process, as revealed through a Freedom of Information response.

 

A public relations firm’s £180-an-hour charge to persuade a sceptical public to back the takeover of two local authority primary schools by a prominent multi-academy trust has been revealed through a freedom of information response.

The East London-based Eko Trust worked with the well-known communications company PLMR to devise a plan to “support a smooth transfer” of the two primaries in Brighton and Hove, with the schools eventually having to claim the money back from the government.

The total cost to the taxpayer for just one phase of this work was put at £10,000 plus VAT, though further work may have added to that bill, the release suggests.

The communications plan has been revealed in documents released to the Unison union, and seen by Education Uncovered. They also show that the Eko Trust itself provided the text of a resolution which was put to members of the two schools’ federated governing body which would have started the process towards academisation, months in advance of the consultation actually beginning.

And the schools’ executive headteacher is revealed as having argued that governors’ decision to start the process of academisation should not be shared with the community in advance of the communication campaign, because “the political situation regarding academisation in Brighton is challenging”.

Unison’s Brighton and Hove branch said the disclosures showed Eko had paid at least £12,000 “which would otherwise have been spent in classrooms, on PR advice on how to take those schools off the community as quickly and as quietly as possible”.  

The Eko Trust said: “All work carried out as part of this project was transparent and open, and we are clear that our decision to engage professional support represented excellent value for money. Both schools transferred [to the trust] on September 1^st, 2024 and both we and they are very pleased with how the partnership is working.”

PLMR has yet to respond to a request for comment.