Catholic Church tells schools it would be "unwise" to pursue academy status

The Catholic Church has warned its schools that it would be “unwise” to pursue academy status, largely on the grounds that it would involve transferring land and property to new academy trusts, the BBC has reported.

The land and buildings of Catholic voluntary schools are typically owned by church dioceses or religious orders which are unlikely to agree to the transfer, according to the chief executive of the Catholic Education Service.

Catholic schools receive 90% of their funding from the state and 10% from church funds.

Calling on schools to exercise "great caution", Oona Stannard said: “The funding opportunities may initially seem attractive to schools but remember there is, as yet, little precise detail on this and the payment of our 10% to capital costs at present buys our sector a degree of valuable independence along the lines of ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’.

“We would be very unwise to trade this for an uncertain future and a higher level of risk.”

The Church of England has said it would not object to its schools applying for academy status.

A spokesman told the BBC: “We would encourage them to consider carefully questions such as whether academy status will directly benefit students and their families, and whether becoming an academy might undermine equitable distribution of resources to other schools.

He added that many Church of England dioceses are likely to grant conditional approval to schools targeting academy status, so long as there are guarantees that the school will continue to develop a Christian ethos.

The government is meanwhile expected to provide more details today (18 June) of its free schools initiative.