132 Conversion to Sponsored Academies - Financial Liabilities
Cabinet Member: Education
Forward Plan Ref: 2012/138
Contact: Simon Pickard, Finance Business Partner, CEF Tel: (01865) 797512
Report by Director for Children’s Services (CA15).
The information contained in Annex 1 is exempt in that it falls within the following prescribed category:
3 – information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)
It is considered that in this case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, in that such disclosure would distort the proper process of free negotiations between the authority with another party for the purposes described and would prejudice the position of the authority in those negotiations and other negotiations of a similar nature in future.
The majority of Oxfordshire academies are likely to be formed as converter academies by decision of the governing body under Academies Act 2010. These academies generally convert with no redundancies and take all existing assets and liabilities of the school with them as they convert.
Some schools are however directed to become academies due to having been identified as making insufficient progress towards floor targets or underperforming in other ways. The legal arrangements for these conversion (Sponsored Academies) are different to those under Academies Act 2010, and in essence involve closure of the predecessor school and the opening of a new academy in its place. These arrangements applied to the North Oxfordshire Academy, Oxford Academy and Oxford Spires Academy.
This report seeks guidance on the stance that officers should adopt in negotiating binding agreements about past liabilities and future restructuring costs in relation to sponsored academies. A draft set of recommended terms to replace the Department for Education (DfE) standard terms is included in the report.
Two agreements in respect of sponsored academies are currently being sought by DfE and need to be finalised by early December to enable the target transfer date to be achieved.
Minutes:
The information contained in the report is exempt in that it falls within the following prescribed category:
3 – information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)
It is considered that in this case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, in that such disclosure would distort the proper process of free negotiations between the authority with another party for the purposes described and would prejudice the position of the authority in those negotiations and other negotiations of a similar nature in future.
Cabinet agreed the stance that officers should adopt in negotiating binding agreements about past liabilities and future restructuring costs in relation to sponsored academies.