Schools for profit

Submitted by Matthew on 24 September, 2014 - 11:08 Author: Gemma Short

Academy schools are paying large sums of public money to private companies linked to their management, according to a report by the Education Select Committee.

Academies are state-funded but privately managed schools; many are “sponsored” by private education companies. Still more have individual board members who run or have interests in private companies.

It has always been clear that academisation meant privatisation, and private profit, but less clear how companies are making a profit. This report makes it clear. Aurora Academies Trust, for example, is paying £100,000 a year to use it’s parent company’s “patented global curriculum”.

The report identified conflicts of interest: a head teacher spending £50,000 on a training course run by their friend, another who was also trustee of the trust and could appoint the board that would undertake his performance management and decide his pay.

The report only interviewed a small selection of school board members and head teachers. This could be happening on a wide scale, unnoticed in many schools.

In January of this year one of the largest academy chains, Academies Enterprise Trust (AET), advertised a 10 year contract to outsource all its support staff in a £400 million deal. The same chain had come under fire for having paid £500,000 over three years to private businesses owned by its trustees and executives. This included payments claimed as “project management” and “HR consultancy”, often paid on top of salaries.

It is estimated that £80 billion has been spent since 2010 on legal, administrative, accountancy, recruitment and consultancy fees connected with academy conversions.

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