A plan to turn 19 schools in a Catholic Diocese into academies has been paused by the government after four education unions launched a legal challenge over the process.
They wrote to education secretary Nadhim Zahawi urging him to halt the academisation taking place at schools within the Diocese of Hallam, which has its central offices in Sheffield.
The NAHT school leaders’ unions, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the NEU teaching union and Unison raised concerns that academy orders had been issued to schools by the department “unlawfully” because the governing bodies of the schools had not agreed to the move.
The Department for Education has now said the process has been paused while it considers the legal challenge.
A spokesperson for the department said this was a standard procedure in response to the unions’ legal intervention.
In a letter last week, the unions urged Mr Zahawi to confirm that the academy orders that had been issued to the schools in question were void and of no effect.
The unions said the action was launched after a DfE Regional Schools Commissioner wrote to staff in voluntary aided schools in the Hallam Diocese and, in the union’s words, informed “them that they would be forced to join multi-academy trusts”.
The unions said that schools can only be forced to become academies if they are eligible for intervention.
They say that none of the schools in the Hallam Diocese that were due to be moved into a multi-academy trust fell into this category.
The unions said this meant the education secretary could only issue an academy order on the application of the governing body of each school.
However, in this case, the application has been made by church leaders at diocesan level and had not been approved by governors.
Last week Geoff Barton, general secretary of the ASCL, said: “We are deeply concerned by what appears to be an abuse of the process of schools becoming academies.
“It is perfectly clear that the decision must come from governing bodies and yet this appears to have been flagrantly ignored. Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi must intervene and put a stop to this sorry episode.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, had said the unions had no choice but to challenge actions through the courts when the legislation and processes that exist to ensure reasonable treatment are “ignored or abused”.
