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North Somerset has become the first council area in England where every mainstream state school is an academy.

With several other areas nearly fully academised, the shift has raised questions about what this means for local collaboration, as well as the capacity of local authorities, which still have statutory duties in areas like special educational needs and disabilities and admissions.

North Somerset has 81 schools overall, including 64 primary schools, 11 secondary schools, three special schools, two independent schools and one pupil referral unit (PRU).

The PRU is the only school under local authority control, and four of the academies are free schools.

The South West, which includes North Somerset, is already the most academised region in England, with 61 per cent of all schools in trusts. It was the first region to reach 50 per cent academisation in 2020-21.

Trusts cooperate on SEND

The Lighthouse Schools Partnership is the multi-academy trust with the most schools in North Somerset, operating 24 academies.

Dr Gary Lewis, chief executive of the MAT, said North Somerset “saw the tipping point” to an academised system much earlier than many other areas.

The council advised schools more than 10 years ago to “find a good trust to join”, he said, adding that the driver was “not political but operational”.

The small unitary authority lacked the scale to retain the central services that schools needed, Dr Lewis said.

He said there was “particularly close cooperation” with the council on SEND provision, as well as termly meetings between the council and trusts to share data and discuss common challenges.

It helps that Lighthouse has a “relatively small footprint”, Dr Lewis added, with schools across three local authorities and enough schools in each area to “be in the room”.

Other trusts operating in the local authority include Extend Learning Academies Network, which runs nine schools.

Cabot Learning Federation, the Bath and Wells Diocesan Academies Trust and Futura Learning Partnership each operate seven.

More councils near full academisation

North Somerset is not the only area where maintained schools have almost disappeared.

Kingston upon Hull, Rutland and Thurrock each have only one school left under local authority control.

In Kingston upon Hull and Rutland, the remaining LA-maintained mainstream schools are Church of England primaries.

In Thurrock, the only remaining maintained mainstream school is a Catholic secondary.

In total, there are 24 councils in England where more than 80 per cent of state schools are academies, ����Vlog analysis of DfE data shows.

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This shift raises questions about the future role of local authorities, which retain statutory duties in SEND, admissions, safeguarding and place planning, even where most schools are outside direct council control.

‘Thinning’ LA capacity

Adam Matthews, chief executive of Extend Learning Academies Network, said academisation had both “enabled and disabled” North Somerset.

The council had reduced advisory costs but lost funding and education specialists that previously supported strategy, decision-making and statutory duties, he said, which has been “detrimental”.

Mr Matthews said the council had once been proactive in promoting good practice across schools, but “this collaborative approach has now all but disappeared as schools have joined trusts”.

He added that there has been “limited opportunity or evidence” of stronger collaboration between trusts on school improvement, SEND, inclusion and support for vulnerable pupils.

Reduced council capacity - partly due to losing school revenue as well as lower central government funding - now made it “very difficult” for local authorities to carry out these duties, with response times and communication “not as efficient as once was”, Mr Matthews said, adding: “I would also say that the LA’s capacity to enforce compliance has also been weakened.”

Michael Barton, head of policy at the National Governance Association, warned that as more schools leave local authority control, “the system around those that remain inevitably becomes thinner”.

This makes it “all the more important” that governing boards consider their local context carefully when looking at their school’s future, he said, while recognising that the decision is ultimately theirs.

The role of councils will change in a fully trust-led system, but “should not disappear”, Mr Barton added.

“Their democratic mandate and deep understanding of place remain vital, and they have an important part to play in shaping a system that works for every community,” he said.

Heather Sandy, of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said that while many schools in local authorities across the country are now academies, councils’ statutory duties have not changed.

Previous governments had greatly reduced funding for education services, she said, removing grants or making them non-ringfenced, resulting in smaller school improvement teams and greater reliance on traded services.

Ms Sandy said that while councils’ “capacity and levers may have shrunk”, they still hold important duties around safeguarding, SEND, admissions and the education of excluded children, regardless of a school’s status.

She added that the new Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill includes measures ADCS has called for, including more consistency across state-funded schools and closing the accountability gap with MAT inspections.

Councils ‘can have protector role’

Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said the DfE’s commitment to all schools being part of a trust “opens up the potential for local government to perform the roles of protector, convenor and supporter”.

In a trust-led system, Ms Cruddas said, councils and mayors will have convening powers and could play a strategic role in encouraging capability and capacity to support local school systems.

But councillor Amanda Hopgood, of the Local Government Association, said schools should be able to choose whether to academise without “compulsion”, with other successful models of collaboration permitted.

North Somerset council has been contacted for comment.

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