An academy chain which runs more than a dozen Sussex schools is to give up control of them after coming under fire from MPs.
The University of Brighton Academies Trust (UBAT) says it has made the decision as it is the best way to improve outcomes for pupils.
It follows months of criticism from Hastings MPs Sally Ann Hart and Helena Dollimore before and after May’s election after the discovery as much as 20% of some school’s budgets were being diverted to other schools in the chain and to trust running costs.
Under current rules, the schools must be transferred to other academy chains and cannot return to council control.
The schools run by UBAT are:
- Blackthorns Community Primary Academy
- Churchwood Primary Academy
- Desmond Anderson Primary Academy
- Dudley Infant Academy
- Holmbush Primary Academy
- Lindfield Primary Academy
“The Minister for - Pound Hill Infant Academy
- Robsack Wood Primary Academy
- Silverdale Primary Academy
- The Baird Primary Academy
- The Burgess Hill Academy
- The Hastings Academy
- The St Leonards Academy
- West St Leonards Primary Academy
The trust said: “The trustees are committed to improving the outcomes for all young people at every stage of their education and view this significant step as the best way for this to be achieved.
“The trust will be working closely with the Department for Education over the months that come to seek the right trusts for academies to join, and to give stability and continuity to all our stakeholders through the time of change.”
The news was welcomed by current Hastings MP Ms Dollimore, who said: “Since being elected, I have been raising problems with the University of Brighton Academies Trust (UBAT) at the highest levels.
“Everyone in our community was horrified to hear the trust was taking a whopping 20% of the government grant meant for our local schools.
“The Minister for Schools confirmed to me in Parliament last month this cannot continue.
“There will now be a process to determine who runs our local schools.
“This is a victory for the young people of Hastings and Rye, and a vindication of what pupils, parents and teachers have been campaigning for.
“Our local schools have been left behind for too long. It is not good enough that more than half our young people leave without the basic qualifications in English and Maths.
“I am determined to work with local parents, school staff and young people to make sure every child here can get the best possible start in life.”
The news was also welcomed by the NEU union, which said in a statement: “Financial mismanagement, a lack of transparency and insufficient funding of frontline services have damaged UBAT schools and made our members’ jobs harder for many years.
“It was the decision, by the trust, to top slice over 20% of some school’s budgets and the impact that this had on educators’ working life that led to hundreds of our members taking strike action in 2024 summer term.
“Future employer’s taking over UBAT schools will have a great deal of damage to repair. They must have an open, fair and transparent funding model that give schools the resources they need.
“Moreover, they will need to provide cast iron assurances on our members’ pay, terms and conditions including retaining recent workload agreements reached at UBAT and to formally recognise the NEU for collective bargaining. Any failure to honour such terms would make a further industrial action ballot likely.
“The long-term solution for schools does not lie with any specific academy trust. The problems faced in UBAT reflect deeper problems with academisation.
“Academies lack local accountability, spend huge amounts of public money on their central teams and executive pay and treat education like a business. Our members are all too aware that there are many more ‘UBATs’ out there that haven’t yet been exposed.
“The NEU wants all schools to return to local authority control, and for the government to properly fund local councils to allow them to provide the kind of education services that our students deserve.”
