NAO hails academy performance, but warns of risks of rapid expansion

Many academies are performing impressively with greater rates of improvement in academic attainment than their predecessor schools, a report by the National Audit Office has revealed.

However, the spending watchdog’s head, Amyas Morse, warned that “it cannot be assumed that academies’ performance to date is an accurate predictor of how the model will perform when generalised more widely”.

He added: “Existing academies have been primarily about school improvement in deprived areas, while new academies will often be operating in very different educational and social settings.”

The NAO warned that the expansion of the programme “increases the scale of risk to value for money – particularly in the areas of financial sustainability, governance and management capacity”. The Department for Education’s capacity to administer and monitor the academies programme has already been stretched, it said.

The government recently announced that 142 schools are set to open as academies in 2010/11, including 32 this month. Another 74 academies are due to be established from previously underperforming schools.

The report’s findings include that:

• Overall, academies have increased the rate of improvement in GCSE results when compared with trends in their predecessor schools
• Although still below the national average, the proportion of pupils achieving five or more A*-C GCSEs is improving at a faster rate than in maintained schools with similar intakes
• A small number of academies have made little progress, particularly when English and mathematics are taken into account
• The proportion of academy pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds has reduced, although it remains over twice the national average
• The performance of academy pupils from more challenging circumstances – those registered as eligible for free school meals, have English as an additional language or have special educational needs – has improved over time. However, the attainment gap between these pupils and others has grown wider in academies than in maintained schools with similar intakes.

The NAO also identified challenges around timely staff restructuring and appointment of senior teams. “If not dealt with effectively, these challenges can impact significantly on teaching and learning, financial health and longer-term sustainability,” it warned.

Some academies have also found it difficult to achieve financial balance without additional funding, the watchdog added.