Village School academisation delayed again as more questions arise

The date for the academisation of The Village School in Brent, in preparation for the formation of a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) with Woodfield School, has been put back again. I understand that this is in order for the Education and Skills Funding Agency to be sure that alleged irregularities at Woodfield have been addressed.

The new closure date according to Edubase, the government school information service is now February 28th, 2019 although that could change.

Interestingly one of the concerns has been the lack of separation between proposed Trustees and the governing board. As far as I know Sandra Kabir, (a Labour councillor) is still Chair of Governors at the school but Edubase records her as having resigned from that position last July:

 

 

Cllr Muhammed Butt has still not responded to the National Education Union's request for a meeting about the academisation and MAT proposals despite their heart-felt plea reported on Wembley Matters HERE

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A new twist in The Village School-Woodfield saga?

Readers will know that The Village School Executive Headteacher hoped that academisation would go through by February this year but a new factor has entered the proposed Multi-Academy Trust with Woodfield School, which may delay things,

Woodfield had been under investigation over alleged financial irregularities LINK and I now understand that a separate independent equalities investigation is taking place over alleged lack of reporting and addressing of racist incidents and the treatment of BAME staff.

NEU call for a halt to The Village School academy conversion. Butt fails to respond to meeting request.

Press release from Brent National Education Union

An investigation by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) into financial irregularities related to the academy and Multi Academy Trust (MAT) conversion process between Woodfield academy school and The Village school in Brent has still not been published. This means, according to our source at the DfE, that the possible conversion date has been pushed back until February 2019 at the earliest.
 

This investigation was triggered by reports and whistleblowing from NEU members with regards to overpaid off-payroll consultants who were interfering with governance and HR matters at the Woodfield trust whilst receiving up to £240,000 for ‘services as defined by the school’. The financial due diligence process carried out by governors for any academy conversion, was led by one of these consultants working at the schools.

Since the MAT process was started, consultants have continued to be paid with funds intended for the education of SEND children in the borough. Restructure of the senior leadership teams has increased the funds at the top levels while vacancies remain unfilled and agency staffing increases in the classrooms.

NEU members at the school are seeking a further ballot for strike action, following their 13 days last year, to try to keep their school in the local authority. To this end, they wrote to the Leader of the Council Muhammed Butt on 20^th November requesting an urgent meeting. There has been no response. This follows Brent NEU sending him the resolution below* on 6^th November. There has been no response. Brent Central Labour Party passed a similar resolution at their meeting of 15^th November. There has been no response.

Councillor Jumbo Chan, who has been a vocal supporter of the campaign to stop the academisation said:

 I understand from Brent NEU as well as the NEU membership of teachers and support staff of The Village School that despite nearly a year since a majority of its governing body decided to form a multi-academy trust with Woodfield School, The Village School is in a state of legal limbo.

It was disappointing earlier in the year when the majority of the governing body of The Village School chose to go ahead with academisation despite overwhelming opposition from a coalition of parents, campaigners (including the Brent Labour Parties) and of course, the outstanding, passionate and dedicated teachers and support staff of The Village School. It is worrying now that issues into Woodfield School’s account are being investigated by the ESFA.

I urge the governing body of The Village School to listen to their staff, to rescind their application to become an academy as part of a MAT, and to stay with the Brent local community”

Hank Roberts, Brent NEU President said:

The terminally ill academies programme lurches from crisis to crisis and scandal to scandal with ever increasing frequency and severity. The tawdry plan to pilfer the jewel in the crown of Brent’s education service that is The Village school (costing Brent £29 million) by a rag bag of opportunist privateers has been further knocked back. Months after the school was supposed to be handed over and run privately by a group including the Brent Labour Whip Cllr Sandra Kabir the school remains with the Local Authority. We call on Cllr Muhammed Butt to write urgently to the Governors and the Secretary of State for Education as requested by the Brent NEU, Brent Central Labour Party and the staff at the school

 

*Resolution passed unanimously at Brent NEU General Meeting 6/11/18

Brent NEU note that The Village school is still an LA school and that Brent Labour Party policy is to urge LA schools to remain within the LA family of schools. We further note that the overwhelming majority of staff and the community have called for the school remain in the LA family of schools.

Brent NEU also note that the LP Conference in September 2018 agreed the following. That in government, the Labour Party will bring all schools back under local democratic control including academy and Multi Academy Trusts. Therefore, proposals to wind up MATs and turn over control and management of schools to local democratically controlled structures should be developed urgently.

Brent NEU therefore call on the leader of the council Muhammed Butt to urgently;

    Write to the Chair of Governors and the Governing Board at The Village urging them to withdraw their proposal to become an academy as part of a Multi Academy Trust and remain as an LA school.

    Write to the Secretary of State for Education to urge the Government not to proceed with the proposal due to the difficulties accompanying this proposal to join Woodfield in a MAT.

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The Village School to stay with the LA for now and the NEU wants that to be permanent

I understand that the Village School, a special school in Brent that was to join a Multi-Academy Trust, will remain within the Brent  local authority into January 2019.

The academy and MAT conversion process has been “deferred” pending an ESFA investigation into financial “irregularities”. 

The investigation was triggered by whistleblowing from NEU members regarding allegations that  off-payroll consultants  were interfering with governance and Human Resources matters at the Woodfield Trust whilst receiving up to £240,000 for “services as defined by the school”. They claim the financial due diligence process carried out by governors was led by one of these consultants.

Furthermore they allege that since the MAT process was started, consultants have continued to be paid with funds intended for the education of SEND children in the borough. Restructure of the senior leadership teams has increased the funds at the top levels while vacancies remain unfilled and agency staffing increases in the classrooms.

NEU members at the school are seeking a further ballot for strike action, following their 13 days last year, to try to keep their school in the local authority.

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FoI reveals why approval for the Woodfield-Village School Multi-Academy Trust was delayed

Brent NEU sent an FoI request to Martin Post, the Regional School's Commissioner, asking why a letter had been sent to the DfE  suggesting that the controversial MAT proposed for The Village and Woodfield special schools was not approved.  The NEU allege that the school had denied there was any such decision and  had replied to the FoI request in a misleading way.

Post's response indicated  that the Head Teachers' Board (HTB) that approves MAT requests had concerns over governance:

The proposed structure was not felt to be robust:

• Two proposed members are also Trustees, and these individuals are also the Chairs of the Governing Bodies at each school, which raises issues for accountability.
• Both the vice chairs of the local governing bodies are also trustees
• Three of the proposed trustees are also employees
• All of the trustees are either employees or on the current local governing bodies of the two schools
• Ex-Head of the school as a member
• Overall there needs to be some independent individuals on the Board

Has the trust completed a skills audit for the Board of Trustees? Would expect appointments to be made based on skills - would expect the trust to aim for a skills based Board post the transition phase

Both The Village School and Woodfield currently have interim heads of school - what happens when these individuals leave/.what is the future plan for Heads of school?

Governance and particularly the lack of  public and democratic accountability has long been a major issue raised by those of us opposed to academisation and the HTB's comments reinforce those reservations.

Surely these are are issues that should have concerned Brent Council. Why did they not seek information from the RSG or make their own representations over governance. Surely it can't be because the Labour Chief Whip, Cllr Sandra Kabir, is Chair of Governors of one of the schools,  a key champion of academisation and apparently unaware of these problems?

In the absence of an Education Committee on Brent Council it is surely time that the Scrutiny Committee looked into the issue of academisation and its impact in Brent in some detail.

The NEU's local newsletter, with more on this issue and the background. is posted below. Click on the bottom right square for full page version:

Village School strike tomorrow to secure conditions under the MAT

NEU members at The Village School, Kingsbury have voted unanimously to strike tomorrow. Despite various verbal agreements reached last week the teachers are seeking a written trustee agreement and scheme of degation for the Multi Academy Trust (MAT) to ensure the retetention of their pay and  conditions of employment including trade union policy and HR policy.

The NEU says that the strike is going ahead because as yet there is no guarantee on these matters or even a draft proposal in writing that matchs the verbal agreements made.

Cllr Jumbo Chan said:

I would like to offer my complete solidarity and support to the outstanding NEU teachers and support staff at The Village School, who have been forced to take action once again today to safeguard the long-term security of their jobs

DfE approves Village-Woodfield MAT NEU considers Judicial Review

The headteacher of The Village School, Kingsbury, told staff on Friday that the Department for Education had approved the formation of a Multi Academy Trust (MAT)  by the two schools. The MAT will come into being on September 1st 2018.

The decision follows months of campaigning and strike action by members of the National Education Union. In a press release the NEU saluted the staff at the Village School  for 'their magnificent anti-academy campaign to stop the privatisation of their flagship special school.'

The NEU announced that they are now looking at taking legal action through a Judicial Review and pledged to continue to fight academisation at every step. They said that part of the problem in Brent is that the Labour Council have 'an inadequate opposition to the loss of their schools from the Local Authority. This policy must change and we will continue our campaigning to do this.'

On a related issue the NEU has written to Damian Hinds MP, Secretary of State, to express concern following  information received via  FOI requests to The Village and Woodfield over the due diligence undertaken by Mr Greg Foley who was paid as a consultant when he was also the Chair of Trustees at Woodfield School.  The NEU allege that during this time he was paid through his company School Business Strategic Services (SBSS) an average of over £7,000 a month for a period of 28 months. That fact that the school could claim 20% VAT back makes no difference to the amount SBSS was paid according to the union.

The NEU calls for an investigation by a relevant financial watchdog and has written to the DfE and Brent Council in similar terms.

The current edition of Private Eye magazine describes the financial payments outlined above with invoices totalling some £240,00 over the period, and states that the school accounts do not list the payments under 'related party transactions' (where one party has control or influence over another) as required by law.  Headteacher Kay Charles told Private Eye that the contract with SBSS had begun before Mr Foley joined the trustees and 'he took no part in decision making over its management.' She said she would raise the fact that the contract has not been listed as a related party transaction in the 2016 and 2017 accounts with the school's auditor.

BREAKING NEWS: DfE 'turn down' The Village School MAT proposal

Over 110 staff were on strike for 11 strike days

From Brent National Education Union

We are informed that the Department for Education (DfE) has turned down the proposal for The Village school, a special school in Kingsbury, Brent, to form a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) with Woodfield Academy. They say the MAT is not big enough.

A source from within the DfE informed Hank Roberts, NEU Joint Executive member and local NEU NUT section president of the shocking news.

Hank Roberts said:

This shows monumental incompetence on the part of the Governors, in particular the Executive Head Kay Charles and the Chair of Governors, Sandra Kabir who drove this project forward despite overwhelming opposition of staff, parents and the community.

The whole deeply flawed MAT idea should now be dropped. Brent Council should also use this opportunity to publicly reiterate its call for The Village school to remain a Local Authority school.

Kay Charles had written to Roberts on 7^th March stating:

Your speculation around the size of a potential Multi Academy Trust is in error. There is only discussion about Woodfield School and The Village setting up a MAT together, no other schools are being considered.

Hank Roberts continued:

 So it is clear that it was only these two schools they were consulting on. It would be shameful, if any attempts are made to go secretly scrabbling around in an attempt to find other schools to join them enabling them to make a different proposal, without a full consultation on what would be a new proposal.

Further, the NEU are studying documents that may well prove that there have been financial irregularities at one of the schools.  

Cllr Jumbo Chan, a Brent Labour councillor said:

The unnecessary decision by the majority of The Village School governing body to become an academy as part of a multi-academy trust was an unpopular one which defied a broad coalition of teachers and support staff, parents and campaigners, so it is very welcomed news that this proposal [may now be/has been] rejected.

I was incredibly proud to have supported The Village School’s outstanding, inspirational and passionate teachers and support staff from the onset of their winter campaign. As we now move forward, it is of utmost importance that any popular view is more robustly reflected and enforced.

 

NOTE I have raised the possibility that all special (non-mainstream) provision in Brent could end up academised if The Village proposal went ahead LINK. Woodfield, Manor and The Village co-operated in setting up The Avenue special free school which will eventually expand to 100 pupils. The Avenue and Manor form the Brent Specialist Academy Trust.  Woodfield is already an academy. 

The statements above by Kay Charles and Hank Roberts are important in that the DfE's opposition on grounds of size could be overcome if all four schools combined in the Brent Specialist Academy Trust.

Dogs deployed at Village School as governors make decision to academise

It appears The Village School governing body decided by a majority to support academisation to form a Multi Academy Trust at last night's meeting which which was marked by the extraordinary decision to deploy dogs to keep staff and members of the public out of the meeting.

This is the statement from the NEU released late yesterday:
 

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Today, 28^th February NEU members of staff and supporters gathered in Arctic conditions outside The Village school in Brent to express their opposition to the proposed academy. Despite the weather the Governors meeting to decide on whether to convert or not went ahead.  Staff were prevented from going inside as the premises were in ‘lockdown’. This was the description given by one of the security guards, with dogs at the ready, who had been brought in by the headteacher, Kay Charles. 

Staff governors and Reps struggled to get past the dog handlers into the governors' meeting.

The NEU strikers’ response was to sing even louder and a new song was quickly added to their imaginative repertoire, “Who brought the dogs in? Kay, Kay, Kay, Kay, Kay, Who paid the bill? We, we, we, we did”. Brent Councillor Jumbo Chan addressed the protestors praising their stand and bringing the support of the Brent Council leader Muhmmed Butt, Barry Gardiner and Dawn Butler, both Brent Labour MPs and the local Labour Party.

The previous day, NEU staff, both teachers and support staff were on strike yet again to prevent their school becoming an academy. Joining them on the picket and supporting demonstration was Kevin Courtney, Joint NEU General Secretary. He brought solidary from the 450,000 members of NEU.

We heard yesterday that secondary academy Heads in Brent have sent a letter supporting the Executive Headteacher Kay Charles in her move to privatise this outstanding special school. Perhaps they are lining up to join the Multi Academy Trust and thereby possibly get a position in it where they earn more money?

A letter before action has been sent to Sandra Kabir, Chair of Governors, disgracefully defying the Labour line although still the Brent Labour Group Whip. Governors have voted by a majority for the Multi Academy Trust. Legal action will likely soon follow.  

When the management of a school calls in dog vans because staff are peacefully protesting against academisation, you know they have lost the argument. Democracy and consultation academy style.

Barry Gardiner MP's Public Meeting on academisation Thursday 5pm Civic Centre

Pressure mounts over academisation of The Village School

Brent North Labour Party has now joined Brent Central CLP LINK in opposing the academisation of The Village School in Kingsbury through the formation of a Multi-Academy Trust with Woodfield School LINK.

Brent North CLP welcomed what they called Brent Council's 'decision' to return out-sourced services in-house and said that this should also apply to academies, noting the return of Sandown Bay Academy in the Isle of Wight to local authority control. They called for Labour's National Education Service to include a policy to return all privatised academies to local authority control.

They appealed to all governors of the school, whose chair is Brent North Labour member and the Labour Group Whip,  Cllr Sandra Kabir, to pause the process and postpone the vote on academisation due on February 26th so that the school, local authority and unions could have talks to consider alternatives to academisation. In addition they asked that union representatives, who are also staff governors, be allowed to report back on what is going on at governor meetings.

Finally the motion called for the final vote on academisation to take place publicly with observers able to attend and speak.

The motion passed without opposition and, according to sources, the support of Barry Gardiner MP (Labour, Brent) who was present at the meeting.

NEU call on Brent Labour leadership to follow Corbyn's policy on privatisation of education ahead of Village school strike

From the National Education Union in Brent
 

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Staff at The Village School in Kingsbury, Brent have voted to take strike action against the proposal to turn the school into an academy, part of a Multi Academy Trust (MAT). Unless the proposal to become a MAT is withdrawn, NEU* staff will strike before Christmas.

John Roche, NEU ATL section Brent Secretary said:

The school passed its last Ofsted in with an ‘Outstanding’ judgement in all categories in October 2016 so clearly there is no educational reason to seek to become an academy. Furthermore, Brent Local Authority has put millions of pounds into this special school and now a state asset, our asset, is proposed to be privatised. Staff ask why is a Labour Authority not up in arms at this attempt to foist a Tory policy on one of their schools?

Lesley Gouldbourne, NEU NUT section Brent Secretary said:

The Government’s academy programme has proved a corrupt shambles that has done nothing to improve education and lacks accountability, in particular with finances. The Wakefield City Academy Trust (WCAT) has collapsed leaving 21 schools in chaos affecting 8500 children. Joining a MAT means all the school’s assets and any surpluses are handed over. A small group of unaccountable, unelected trustees control the finances. I am also finding it hard to understand why a Labour Council is not opposing the privatisation of this jewel in Brent's crown, especially at a time when it is taking other services back in-house. Cllr Butt has not replied to my email about this.

A report on BBC news in Leeds and West Yorkshire stated, “During a Wakefield Council meeting it was claimed that the Trust (WCAT) moved millions of pounds of school reserves into its centralised accounts prior to collapse. Leader Peter Box said he would be talking to the police about his concerns”. 

Hank Roberts, NEU ATL section London Executive said:

The NEU believes that the Labour Council leadership is not following the democratically established overwhelming majority of Brent Labour Party members that oppose the loss of more Council LA controlled schools to be handed over to be privately run by Trusts. This is clear from the resolutions passed unanimously at Brent LP meetings and the London Region of the LP. Jeremy Corbyn’s opposition to the privatisation of state education has been made clear. Instead, it appears that they are doing the bidding of senior paid Council employees with an agenda.

Brent Central CLP urge support for anti-academisation strike at The Village School

Brent Central Constituency Labour Party has sent the following message to members. Also see the report on page 10 of the current Kilburn Times LINK

The Village School, currently a Local Authority school, provides an excellent education for pupils in Brent with complex special educational needs, receiving 'outstanding' in all areas in its last Ofsted inpsection last year. It has a high staff-to-child ratio with highly experienced staff who are committed to ensuring that every child reaches their full potential.

That philosophy is under threat, as the school management has decided the school should become an academy as part of a Multi Academy Trust (MAT). An academy is run as a private business using taxpayers money. This Tory Government wants to privatise all of education. The staff and parents at the school oppose this move, but the management are pressing ahead with their plans and asking the Department for Education to approve this privatisation in the New Year.

Now the staff need your support to make the management put the needs of the children first. Around 100 staff will be taking strike action next Thursday 14th December, and there will be a protest outside the school gates in the morning to show the level of support in the community for keeping the school in the local authority.

Come along on Thursday 14th December to join the protestors any time from 07:30 to 09:30 at the Stag Lane pedestrian entrance (Kingsbury, London NW9 0JY). Brent Central Labour Party’s Executive Committee supports this strike action and we hope to see many of you there too!

The Village School MAT proposal was discussed at the Teachers Joint Consultative Committee on November 29th and although Minutes are not published for this committee I expect that strong opposition to academisation was voiced by teacher representatives.