Mary Bousted’s recent tirade against multi-academy trusts (MATs) and academies is laughably flawed.

In one easy leap, she springs from the collapse of Carillion and the evils of PFI, through to claims that the whole system of oversight and accountability of academies is damned.

It is perhaps worth pointing out to the joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union that there is a big difference between physical structures and structural reform, and the problems besetting the PFI market, and that they are completely and utterly unlinked to the structural changes that saw the introduction of academies and subsequently MATs.

To jump from the ills of PFI to calling into question the entire structure of education funding and oversight is opportunistic at best, and insulting to Tes readers at worst.

A focus on added value

Leaders of serious MATs will never be apologists for the likes of WCAT, Lilac Sky or Perry Beeches. These rotten apples have done untold damage and those of us who care deeply about what we do and the children we are responsible for, collectively bear these scars. 

Everything we do should be focused on providing added value - providing ways in which we can genuinely say we are offering exceptional opportunities to learn.  If we can’t do that, then we do not deserve to continue.

Colleagues in other MATs will have their own examples aplenty, but every week I have the privilege of seeing first-hand the very positive benefits of being in a MAT.

Just last week at Woodside Academy in Walthamstow, I had the pleasure of formally opening a new enrichment centre. Not funded by PFI. Not even funded by the government. This £500,000 refurbishment was self-funded by the school.

Prior to becoming an academy, the school had huge supply costs - not only did this mean that children were not having the stability of a long-term classroom teacher, but the financial cost to the school was exorbitant.

Shane Tewes, our inspirational executive head, took the bold decision to completely restructure the school day and staffing model. The savings he has made mean this school now benefit from a purpose-built centre, which houses state-of-the-art cooking facilities and a new ICT lab. He has a happier, more stable staff, his school is double “outstanding”, and Woodside is in the top 10 per cent of schools for progress.

These are the stories we do not hear enough about. Everyday heroes like Shane are able to flourish and soar as a direct result of academy freedoms.

Accountability questions

Ms Bousted also likes to point serially - and confusingly - to both a paucity of accountability and an overlap of oversight from the various regulatory bodies. I know I am not alone in saying this, but having worked as a head of both maintained and academy schools, there is simply no question on this front - the accountability regime is fierce, and rightly so.

Overlap? Maybe, but surely that is preferable to the underlap that characterised our beleaguered maintained system, which allowed crooks and cowboys to run amok. This, a system that Ms Bousted believes “generally worked”.

This smacks of a classic witch hunt. Yes, there are scalps in the world of academies, but if we turned the spotlight back onto local authorities, we’d likely find much worse.

Finally, I must take serious issue with the casual reference to the “privatisation” of our schools. I appreciate that the hard-left is having something of a renaissance, but does anyone seriously believe this nonsense? Academies are charities, first and foremost.

The news around Carillion’s collapse does, of course, provide pause for thought. It raises questions of how we address the capital challenges of our estate. It raises questions about how we fund facilities management contracts and whether we do these in-house or outsource them. But it really does not - in any sane mind - raise questions about structural reform and accountability in schools. 

Sir Steve Lancashire is the founder and CEO of REAch2 Academy Trust

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