The majority of maintained school leaders surveyed by the Department for Education do not want to convert their schools into academies owing to concerns over losing their autonomy, it has been revealed today.

New research published by the DfE shows that headteachers in only 13 per cent of maintained primary schools and 22 per cent of maintained secondary schools questioned by the department were considering converting to academy status.

The DfE found that the vast majority of “non-converters” (94 per cent of primary schools and 87 per cent of secondary schools) felt that there would be “some negatives associated with converting to academy status”.

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Concern about loss of autonomy and loss of their culture were the reasons most frequently given for choosing not to convert.

Autonomy concerns

Two-thirds (67 per cent) of primary schools and three-fifths (59 per cent) of secondary school leaders said concern about losing autonomy was a key reason for not becoming an academy so far.

Concern about loss of culture or “what is different or special about their school”, while common among both secondary (49 per cent) and primary schools, was more frequently a key reason for the latter (64 per cent).

The government wants all state schools to be part of multi-academy trusts but education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has said he does not want to set an arbitrary target for when this can be achieved. 

Speaking at the Schools and Academies Show today, the new schools system minister Baroness Barran acknowledged that there were concerns among maintained schools about “losing their autonomy” when joining a MAT.

‘Positive experience’

However, she added: “The vast majority of schools [that are recent converters] said that the overall impact of joining a MAT had been positive.”

The DfE research shows 82 per cent of primary schools and 74 per cent of secondary schools reported joining a MAT had been positive overall.

And most of these felt that the positive impact met or exceeded their expectations (92 per cent of primary schools and 86 per cent of secondaries).

Among recent converters, 4 per cent of primary schools and 6 per cent of secondary schools were negative about the overall impact of converting.

The DfE research published today is based on responses from 300 headteachers in local authority maintained schools, 300 schools that have voluntarily joined or set up a MAT with other schools in the last three years, and 100 long-term standalone academies.

The survey responses do not include schools which have been converted through an academy order.