Academies and maintained schools: oversight and intervention: Chair's statement

"I am appalled that 1.6 million children aged 4 to 16—almost a quarter of all school children (23% of 7 million)—still attend schools that are rated 'inadequate' or 'requires improvement'. Most do improve before their next inspection, but it is deeply concerning that a hard core of 57% of schools that were rated 'requires improvement' had not achieved a higher rating within two years.
 
It's hard to see how formal interventions make any difference—67 of 129 underperforming maintained schools (52%) didn’t improve after formal intervention, and 2,181 of 3,696 (59%) improved without any formal intervention.

Despite the system spending over £382m on overseeing schools, the Department does not know enough about what’s going on in them. It has created a significant blind-spot for itself when it comes to overseeing school governance, important aspects of schools’ finances, and the ability of schools to keep children safe. It does not know how effectively local authorities oversee 17,300 maintained schools, despite having concerns about over 80% of 146 local authorities’ plans for school improvement in 2011. When it comes to academies, the Department does not know why some sponsors achieve improvements in schools and some do not.

It’s a sorry state of affairs when the Department has to rely on whistleblowers to spot declines in school performance between four-yearly inspections.

A hands off approach is all very well, but, with the future of young people in its hands, the Department needs to get a better grip. I look forward to hearing from the Department when they appear before the Committee for Public Accounts on 17 November."

Further information

• National Audit Office