A teaching union has called for all academies to be brought back under local authority control, citing “obscene” salaries for academy trust leaders as a persistent issue in the education sector. This sentiment was echoed at the National Education Union (NEU)’s annual conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
The conference saw the passing of a motion urging the union’s executive to devise a national industrial strategy aimed at reversing privatisation in education. The motion advocated for all schools and colleges to be re-nationalised and placed back under local authority control.
Attendees expressed their disapproval when the six-figure salaries of academy trust leaders were announced. Sir Dan Moynihan, CEO of the Harris Federation, came under particular scrutiny from several speakers during the debate.
David Room, a delegate from Birmingham who proposed the motion, drew attention to the substantial pay rises awarded to academy trust executives.
He said: “None of them teach. What on earth do they do to deserve that money?”
Academies, state schools independent of local authorities, currently have the autonomy to determine their own staff pay and conditions.
However, under the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, all teachers, regardless of whether they work in a local authority school or an academy, will fall under the same core pay and conditions framework.
Mr Room weighed in on the Bill, recently hit by resistance from academy chiefs, describing it as a “step in the right direction” but urged the Government to advance “further, much faster” in its educational reforms.
At the conference, delegate Ben Gresham of Lambeth, South London, raised suspicions that leaders of academy trusts, who have been hesitant about the Government’s push for academisation, are more concerned about safeguarding their “inflated salaries” than education.
The motion called on the NEU executive to write to MPs and ask them to introduce an amendment to the Bill to”create a legal route for academies to return”to their local authority.
There was a notable show of support among delegates for the NEU members of George Dixon Primary School in Birmingham, who have staged strikes for beyond 40 days against the school’s conversion to an academy.
But delegate Bruno Duckworth-Russell, from Southampton, who spoke against the motion, suggested that members in some areas of the country are not better off for working in a local authority school.
Mr Duckworth-Russell added: “Simply arguing that they all need to go and everything needs to go back to the local authority leaves us between a rock and a hard place and this is not black and white.”
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said: “Even on its own terms the great academies experiment has been a failure. The original aims of the programme included boosting autonomy and driving efficiency, but the opposite has resulted.
“Academies within MATs (multi-academy trusts) are now under more stifling control than ever, and an expensive academy bureaucracy has developed, with bosses at the top receiving eye-watering sums.”
He added: “At the same time, the safety net has been cut away, making it even harder to meet the needs of all pupils, particularly those with Send (special educational needs and disabilities).
“The result is a less equal and less inclusive education system.
“The government has a historic opportunity to restore principles of fairness, inclusion and co-operation to our schools. This must involve ending the one-way street of academisation so that schools can return to the local authority.
“Forced academisation has been a failure, driving stress and fear, alienating communities and disrupting genuine efforts to improve.
“The excesses of the academy sector are one area where efficiencies could be found, but the government must at the same time invest in our schools and rebuild genuine local oversight and support.”
