PARENTS - WHY YOU SHOULD OPPOSE TRUST STATUS FOR YOUR SCHOOL
What is wrong with Trust school status?
1. Foundation schools are State maintained schools where the employers of staff are the school governing bodies, not local authorities. Trust schools are Foundation schools to which trusts are attached. Trustees have the power to dominate their school governing bodies by nominating the majority of governors.
2. We think that schools are best able to meet the needs of their communities when they remain Community schools and local authorities are there to support them.
3. The vast majority of schools have community status, where the local authority is the employer, with each school being responsible for its budget. We believe that this balance has served the local authority family of schools well, with local authorities being able to provide back up and support to individual schools when they need it.
Are Trust schools more or less democratic than Community schools?
4. We think that parents, teachers and local communities should have a full say in the future of their schools. The Trust can appoint the majority of governors for each school within the Trust. Trust nominated school governors are not independently elected but are under the control of the Trust. Trusts undermine the democratic rights of parents to elect governors to governing bodies.
5. The Government claims that Trust nominated parent governors will continue to enable effective parental representation on governing bodies. Parents, however, will have no choice over who is nominated as a parent governor by the Trust. Trusts that appoint a majority of governors are required to create a legally constituted Parents Council for each school but Parents Councils have no powers and do not replace the powers lost by parents to elect independently their parent governors.
Do Trust schools encourage the best form of outside partnerships?
6. School governing bodies which set up charitable trusts are expected to secure a lasting commitment from the outside bodies which make up the trustees. Charity law requires detailed commitments which include commitments from trustees to nominate and remove governors.
7. Trust schools could encourage sponsors to seek control of governing bodies for their own interests through their nominated governors. There is every argument for schools to establish partnerships with outside bodies, whether companies, charities or universities. The most effective arrangements, however, are where outside bodies work in genuine partnership rather than seeking to dominate the schools with their own ideas or to use the schools as commercial opportunities.
8. The irony is that opportunities for developing genuine external/school partnerships are likely to be significantly reduced, since Trust schools will be constrained to relate solely to the partners that are incorporated into their trusts.
9. There is no reference in Government Trust school guidance to one of the best and most longstanding partnership available to schools: that of each school’s partnership with its parents through parent/teacher associations. PTAs have provided effective and consistent support to schools over time. We believe that the work of PTAs should be celebrated, not undermined, by the creation of separate Parents Councils.
What evidence is there that Trusts can improve education provision?
10. There is no evidence that Trust school status of itself improves standards.
11. Parents should press Governing bodies considering Trust status to produce evidence that Trusts will improve standards. They should be asked why it is not possible through more flexible partnership arrangements to establish links with outside organisations.
12. Local authorities have a vital role in securing effective co-ordinated admissions arrangements for schools; in planning to meet children’s special educational needs and in co-ordinating the ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda, which helps to make sure that all children and young people are safe and well provided for. Removing schools from local authority provision will weaken this planned approach.
Are there additional workload implications for school staff arising from Trusts?
13. It is important for parents to understand that, once established, staff of Trust schools will have to become involved in servicing the trusts. Many trustees will have no prior experience of the functioning of trusts or knowledge of their legal role and responsibilities. Head teachers and staff will be not only accountable to their governing bodies, but also expected to respond to a variety of demands from trusts. These demands will range from open-ended expectations and responses to enquiries, to the implementation of trust policies.
14. Where trusts appoint the majority of governors, school governing bodies are required legally to establish Parents Councils. Parents Councils can only provide advice to school governing bodies. They have a legal basis, including being required to have regard to the advice of the Government. This means that clerking, servicing and administering Parents Councils will entail administrative commitments as great as those that face governing bodies. The amount of time which schools want and need to devote to parent/teacher associations could be also undermined. In fact, Trust status will triple the administrative burdens on schools. Existing school commitments to servicing governing bodies will be added to, not only by additional commitments to trusts, but also by commitments to administer Parents Councils.
15. In short, the formal existence of trusts and their accompanying Parents Councils will take away from head teachers and staff invaluable time which should be devoted to learning and teaching and liaising with parents and replace that time with unnecessary bureaucratic burdens.
Can Trust status be removed?
16. The Government intends that trust arrangements are permanent. While it is not impossible to reverse those arrangements, the process is stacked against that taking place. Where parents, teachers and the wider community are dissatisfied with the trust, it will be for the governors who created the trust to take the decision to remove it.
17. Only when a school is deemed to be failing, either by OFSTED or by a local authority, can a local authority intervene and remove governors and their budget responsibilities. Once a school has improved, it still cannot return to community status but has to retain foundation status. Indeed, it is important to remember that under current legislation, schools cannot return to community status once they have voted for foundation status.
How will the admissions arrangements be affected by the acquisition of Trust school status?
18. Although Trust schools, as Foundation schools, are required to act in accordance with the Admissions Code of Practice, they will be able to set their own admissions policies. Recently published research, by the Institute for Public Policy Research, shows that schools setting their own policies leads to the social segregation of pupils.
19. The NUT believes that the fairest means of allocating school places is where local authorities set admissions policies, enabling authorities to plan for whole areas and take individual circumstances into account. Creating a plethora of individual schools’ admissions policies could jeopardise balanced pupil intakes.
Who funds Trust schools?
20. While Trust schools will continue to receive their funding from local authorities on the same basis as other Foundation schools, ownership of land and buildings will be transferred from the local authority to the trust. Effectively, assets that have been paid for by the public will transfer into the hands of trustees. These can include assets such as swimming pools and playing fields, which are often used by the local communities. Transfers of assets could lead to trustees charging for or restricting the use of previously shared facilities, creating the potential for community hostility to the school.
What should teachers and support staff do if a school governing body proposes a trust?
21. If governors propose a trust, they should initiate a public consultation which should include parents and staff. According to guidelines published by the Department for Education and Skills, the consultation should last six weeks. We believe that at least eight weeks should be agreed by the governing body.
22. School governing bodies are required by law to give consideration to the outcomes of the consultation and any concerns that arise from parents, staff and others. If a school governing body does not take the results of consultations seriously, anyone involved in the consultation can complain to the Schools Adjudicator, who has the power to overturn a proposal.
23. The NUT believes that it is vital that, where a Trust school is proposed, the school governing body must be held to account for its proposals by an open and democratic debate. There are a range of strategies which can be adopted by parents which will enable arguments against Trust status to be heard and won.
· If the governing body is determined to consult on its proposal, it should then be urged to:
- convene a meeting to which all parents are invited, with sufficient time given for the case against the proposals to be heard, as well as the case for Trust status;
- make available to all members of school communities affected by the proposal all printed views submitted prior to its decision, including the views of parents, teachers and their organisations;
- hold a ballot of all parents with material accompanying the ballot papers covering all views on the proposals.
· A press strategy should be agreed by opponents of the trust proposal, including seeking articles in the local Press and interviews in the media. The Press may be interested in articles which debate the proposals.
24. The arguments for Trust status are weak. At best, trusts will create new layers of bureaucracy that parents, head teachers and staff will have to deal with. At worst, they will fragment and undermine the capacity of all schools to work with each other and also open the door for private individuals and companies to skew the curriculum towards their interests.
25. No school governing body can be forced to adopt Trust school status. The voice of parents can stop them.
26. Detailed information on Trust schools published by the Government, can be found at http://www.ssatrust.org.uk/trustschools2/default.aspa.
