The Academies Bill was presented in the House of Lords on 26 May 2010, the day after the Queen’s Speech outlined the Coalition Government’s priorities. On the same day Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, wrote to all schools and invited them to express an interest in converting to Academy status. Special arrangements were made to speed the Bill through Parliament before the start of the summer recess and the legislation was passed by 317 votes to 225 on 27 July and received Royal Assent on the same day. It came into force in the most part today, 29 July.

Under the Academies Act state-funded schools in England can convert to academy status and receive increased autonomy in areas such as the curriculum they offer and the salaries they pay their teachers. Academies will be funded in a way comparable to maintained schools but will also be given their share of central funding that was previously retained by the local authority. They will be free from local authority control and directly accountable to the Secretary of State for Education. Schools that are rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted can be fast-tracked through the process and the government expects a significant number of academies to open in September. The Act also provides for new ‘free’ schools to be established, that will have the same legal structure and will need to meet the same requirements as academies.

Significant concerns have been raised over the process in which the Academies Act was rushed through Parliament. Graham Stuart, the Conservative chair of the Commons Select Committee for Education, invited the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, to explain why the Bill was rushed through Parliament using legislation normally reserved for counter-terror laws and argued that only “an overwhelming argument” could justify cutting short debating time. Michael Gove said that there was “ample time” for scrutiny of the Academies Bill and that the new legislation would “inject a new level of dynamism” into the education system. The NUT issued a special edition of NUT News which calls the Academies Bill “an undemocratic outrage” and states: “The Government is by-passing constitutional and democratic processes to make the Academies Bill an Act by the summer. There is no justification for fast-tracking this Bill through parliament. The issues involved are not matters of national security or economic melt down. Rushed legislative processes make for bad law. The NUT continues to advise schools not to make the move to academy status.” Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said: “”The arrogance and impatience with which this Coalition Government has sought to bludgeon this Bill through the parliamentary process is a disgrace.” Education unions are considering legal challenges over the manner in which the Academies Act was rushed through Parliament.

Major concerns have also been raised over fears that academies will become completely unaccountable and that plans to increase autonomy for some schools will be divisive, leaving disadvantaged children to lose out. Ed Balls, Shadow Education Secretary, said the Act amounts to “a full-scale assault on comprehensive state education” and will lead to “social apartheid” in education. Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said that “this centralisation of power completely flies in the face of the Coalition Government’s stated intention to involve local communities in schools and other public services.” Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said that the passage of this Act underlines the fact that the government “are on an ideological mission to demolish state education.” Sir Peter Newsam, former director of the Institute of Education and former Chief Education Officer at the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) recently wrote to national papers claiming that the Bill gives the Education Secretary “unprecedented powers of patronage” and that “his declared aim is to persuade, with suitable inducements, hundreds of schools in England, now accountable to democratically elected local authorities, to become directly accountable to him.”

The Special Educational Consortium (SEC), of which CSIE is a member, is seen by politicians and civil servants as a key source for advice and expertise and is routinely consulted on all major special education issues. Following SEC pressure, a government amendment to the Academies Bill now ensures that all future academy funding agreements must Include details of their obligations with regard to children said to have special educational needs – the ‘SEN obligations’ – which mirror the duties that maintained schools have under Part IV of the Education Act 1996. This makes it clear that an academy is expected to behave as though it were a maintained school in responding to pupil diversity and is an important move towards disability equality. A SEC amendment was voted into the Act by the House of Lords and requires the Secretary of State, before deciding funding levels or making any payments under an academy agreement, to assess the impact on local authority funded services for children said to have special educational needs.