Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidelines her Department has issued on the time to be taken by a Regional Schools Commissioner to name a sponsor for a school that has been issued with an Academy Order.

Edward Timpson

Since the Education and Adoption Act came into force in April 2016, the Secretary of State has been under a duty to make an Academy Order in respect of any maintained school that has been judged by Ofsted to be inadequate. Regional Schools Commissioners, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, ensure that the maintained school becomes a sponsored academy as swiftly as possible, after considering the circumstances in the school, and then identifying the most suitable sponsor.

No Academy Orders have been revoked to date.

143 Academy Orders have been made since the new duty came into force. It is too soon to give an annual average of how long it has taken to match a school to a sponsor under these new arrangements.