Private sector should be able to take over failing schools, says think tank

In his first report (86-page / 1.3MB PDF) for Policy Exchange James O'Shaughnessy, the Prime Minister's former head of policy, recommends a new three-stage "failure regime" as a means of dealing with the "seam of chronic weakness" in English schools.

Private sector organisations can currently run schools in England; however they are unable to do so for profit. The report states that preventing school improvement businesses from operating at a profit for "purely ideological reasons" is "absurd, as well as counter-productive".

In his report, O'Shaughnessy suggests that schools which operate as 'Academies' should be able to form 'chains' of three or more schools, bound together "legally, financially and operationally". These chains could be allowed to experiment with "new forms of governance" such as small, remunerated boards of trustees or governing bodies that mirror the boards of private companies, he said.

Academies are self-governing schools that operate with funding from central Government rather than from local authorities. In his report, O'Shaughnessy presents evidence that while the Academy system "works" when it comes to raising standards, groups of schools can be "even more effective" at improving results than single Academies.

In a blog on the Policy Exchange website, O'Shaughnessy said that failing schools that had been turned into academies under new sponsors were "performing better" than those that had not been. However, the policy as a whole was designed to "turn round a few hundred schools" rather than help the "thousands of schools" he said now "need to improve". Chains of academies, on the other hand, "work by spreading the benefits of a successful approach to schooling", he said.

"The emerging evidence suggests that, on average, their standards are even higher than single academies because they provide exactly the kind of opportunities for collaboration, within a competitive marketplace, that schools need to flourish," O'Shaughnessy said. "Chains show that a proper market in state schooling is at last starting to develop."

Under the new Ofsted inspection regime, which came into force in September, the previous 'satisfactory' grade was replaced with a new 'requires improvement' grade. Schools which fail to improve after receiving notice to do so will be reclassified as having 'serious weaknesses'.

The change could result in a "fivefold increase" in the number of schools being told that they need to improve, said O'Shaughnessy.

Under his proposals, a school would be obliged to become an academy, under a new sponsor, the first time it requires improvements. A second notice would result in a school becoming obliged to join a successful academy chain, while a third would result in the running of the school being handed over to a proven educational management organisation (EMO) to be run on a payment by results basis. EMOs are private or not-for-profit providers that run schools under contract to a commissioner, such as a governing body or local authority.

O'Shaughnessy suggests that this new regime be overseen by the Office of the Schools Commissioner (OSC), supported by a new network of local school commissioners appointed by the OSC.

The report also recommends measures to encourage the growth of "new wave" of academy chains. As well as allowing chains to mirror private sector forms of governance, O'Shaughnessy suggests that the Government support chains that wish to expand by creating a new School Chain Growth Fund to be modelled on the existing Regional Growth Fund. The National College for School Leadership should also be restructured to support the development of chains, he said.

The report was published as the lobbying group which represents London's 33 local authorities called on the Government to "recognise the essential role of councils" in education. The group, London Councils, said that any new free schools and academies in the area "must be accountable to local communities and local authorities", with councils given the same powers to intervene "before schools begin to fail local children" as they have over existing schools. In addition, academies and free schools must be compelled to provide parents will the same information about how they are performing that council-run schools are legally obliged to make public, the group said.