Academy Status

[mdking]

Hi all,

 

Our school is in the process of becoming a Academy.

 

All of our SLT members are saying this will not effect staff / support staff.

 

 

If I'm honest i am not to clued up on how the changing to "Academy status" works.

 

Has any other school in the south east done this? If so have you had any problems with regards to the IT department? E.g cutting of staff etc..

 

 

Many thanks

Matt

[TechMonkey]

I would find it highly unlikely not to effect staff in some way. My understanding is that staff get TUPED to the school, meaning you are no longer employed by the council but directly by the school. Now I don't know for definite but this could well effect pensions and any other schemes given through the Council, things like the sessions of counselling and physio offered. May seem small but it is the little bits that people forget and they do add up.

 

Also look at the threads on here, most I have seen seem to be along the lines of management bulks up to take on the responsibility of duties previously taken on by the Council, then the figures come in and support staff start getting laid off.

 

Best bet is to get on to your union or get your Union rep to get someone in to talk to the staff, all the staff not just the union ones (it makes a great recruitment opportunity)

[elsiegee40]

Matt, I'm a governor at a Kent Scchool that has just converted. (I'm employed in IT at a different, independent school which is why I make the distinction)

 

Converting to Academy status will affect your employment to some degree, but how much depends on your school.

 

We were a Foundation school, so the employees were already employed by the school, not the LA. They still had to be TUPEd over to the new Academy Trust.

 

Union consultation was part of the process as was consultation with non-union staff. The non-union staff at my school chose to choose representatives from their number to act as lead negotiators on their behalf. They could however have attended in person.

 

My governor school announced that it intended to make no changes to the pay and conditions of any member of staff on conversion and stuck to this. From what you have posted, it sounds like your school intends to do the same.

 

As an outstanding academy we had to sign up to supporting other lower achieving schools as part of the conversion process and these were named in the documents. The support we are doing has meant that all staff (teaching, admin, support, IT...) staff have become involved in our support schools and I would see this an opportunity for you, not as something to be afraid of.

 

Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss this further.

[mdking]

Thank you both for the information you have given me.

 

[dwhyte85]

Our school have been told that pension schemes will not be affected, the school will become a company and TUPE over staff and the governors become directors.

 

We're South East and they're in the process of doing this, extra funding & less issues with money being tied up is why they're going for it.

[alan-d]

Some useful info here

Guidance on transfer of school staff to academies

and on the attached pdf.

TUPE1.pdf