New academies: what will they mean for school staff pay?

The Academies Act 2010 provides for maintained schools in England to convert to academy status as early as September 2010, and paves the way for new "free schools" to be established. What will this mean for the pay and conditions of teachers and support staff?

Following the general election in May 2010, the coalition Government set out its plans for the reform of the schools system in its document The coalition: our programme for government (PDF format, 475K) (on the Cabinet Office website). This stated that the Government wanted to "tackle educational inequality... and to give greater powers to parents and pupils to choose a good school". It went on to say: "We also believe that the state should help parents, community groups and others come together to improve the education system by starting new schools."

The Queen's Speech on 25 May confirmed that "legislation will be introduced to enable more schools to achieve academy status, give teachers greater freedom over the curriculum and allow new providers to run state schools" in the form of the Academies Bill and the Education and Children's Bill. The Academies Bill was introduced in the House of Lords in May and fast-tracked to become law on 27 July 2010 despite criticism from MPs, unions and others that it had been rushed through without sufficient scrutiny. The Act, although it covers England and Wales, only provides for academies to be established in England.

The coalition Government offered schools rated as outstanding by Ofsted the opportunity to be fast-tracked through the process, with the first tranche converting to academies in the first week of September 2010. In spite of an initial rush by schools to register interest in the scheme, only 142 have accepted the Government's offer to become an academy. The Act will also pave the way for groups such as charities, academy sponsors, universities, community and faith groups, teachers, parents and businesses to establish new "free schools" in areas where there is local demand. These will have the same legal requirements as academies. The first free schools are expected to open in September 2011.

Concerns about academies

Many teaching and support staff trade unions oppose the academies scheme, particularly its expansion from covering failing schools, as was the case under the Labour Government's scheme, to giving priority to outstanding schools. Andrew Morris, head of pay and pensions at the NUT, told XpertHR: "The new programme allows already successful schools to leave the local family of schools and funding. This affects the ability of authorities to support other schools." Bruni de la Motte, Unison national officer for education and children's services, agrees, saying: "Because the new academies are outstanding schools, they will attract parents, pupils and staff. This will mean a higher concentration of difficult pupils in the schools left behind, and the concern is that services won't be sustainable in these schools."

The unions are particularly concerned that the Act included few requirements for schools to carry out consultation prior to converting, and there is the possibility that legal challenges may be mounted if schools have failed to consult adequately.

Staff transferred to academies

When Gove announced the scheme, he set out the freedoms that academies would enjoy. As well as being taken out of the control of local authorities and managing the money that the authority would have spent on their behalf, he said that they would have the ability to set their own pay and conditions for staff.

However, this will not come into effect immediately because the staff employed by a converting school will have their terms and conditions preserved under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE). For teachers, terms and conditions are set out in the STPCD, which incorporates pay increases recommended by the School Teachers' Review Body, and the Burgundy Book, which sets out provisions on sick pay, maternity pay and notice periods. Support staff are usually paid according to the Green Book. Collective agreements are also preserved.

The Government's guidance on academies explains that because the first new academies will be successful schools: "Immediate changes to the staff structure and operation are not anticipated. However, once open, the academy trust may consult with staff and their union representatives on changes to these terms and conditions."

However, as academies will have broadly the same funding as maintained schools, they will have to set their pay levels in the context of public spending constraints.

Staff in the new "free schools" will not be covered by TUPE, as these will be established as additional schools which will not involve staff being transferred.

Although staff in schools transferring to academy status will retain their terms and conditions, new staff can be employed on an academy's own terms and conditions, which may be very different from those of their colleagues transferred under TUPE. The unions fear this will result in a two-tier workforce, and lead to inequality and unfairness, as Martin Freedman of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers explained.

Although teachers initially have protection when they are transferred to academies under TUPE, they may be asked to sign a new contract if they apply for a promotion. Morris explains that the main areas of concern in this situation are sick pay, maternity pay, workload and working time: "Pay under these contracts may not be very different from that under the STPCD, but other conditions of service may be inferior. For example, contractual working hours may be extended and staff may be asked to work over weekends and during the holidays."

His concern is that, as the number of academies expands, teachers will be moved onto new contracts if they take up a post with a new academy employer. "While continuity of service must be retained for the purposes of redundancy pay, new appointees to academies may not have their previous service counted towards, for example, maternity pay. Academy contracts may also include probation periods or longer notice periods."

He says: "As more teachers are taken out of national bargaining arrangements it will result in fragmentation of the state system and put the pay system in state schools under pressure."

De la Motte agrees that this is also a concern for support staff in academies. She says: "Support staff are not as highly unionised as teachers, and the fear is that employers will want to change terms and conditions; in fact, we feel academies are being encouraged to do so."

Teachers working in academies fall within the scope of the Teachers' Pension Scheme, so staff transferring to academies will be entitled to continue with their membership. Likewise, support staff fall within the Local Government Pension Scheme, and academies will be required to offer membership of the scheme. Both of these are final-salary schemes.

However, the unions are concerned about the future of both of these schemes, which are included in the review of public sector pensions.

National agreements with academy sponsors

There were around 200 academies in existence prior to the Academies Act 2010. These were a mixture of failing schools that have been taken over, and new that have been established. There are several organisations that run groups of academies, while some sponsors run a single school.

The education unions negotiate nationally with five of the national academy sponsors:

• ARK Schools;
• E-ACT (external website);
• Harris Federation (external website);
• Oasis Community Learning; and
• United Learning Trust.

Andrew Morris of the NUT says that all of these use a pay system for teachers that is the same as, or similar to, that in the STPCD: "The job market for teachers is well developed. Even in the independent sector, pay practice in most cases is by reference to the STPCD system." The main area where pay varies is for academy principals. Morris explains: "When academies have taken over failing schools, they often replace the school leadership. Because new appointments are not covered by the STPCD, academies often pay higher salaries to get the best headteachers."

De la Motte confirms that all but one of the five main academy providers has accepted the Green Book for newly employed support staff as well as those transferred from existing schools. Outside these main providers, Unison does not hold information centrally about terms and conditions in academies, as these are negotiated locally and the union will need to carry out a survey to establish what is happening in individual academies.

She says: "Once more staff are employed by individual schools it will be a challenge for unions, who will have to deal with a multiplicity of employers. We are concerned that time off for trade union duties will become an issue unless this is carried over via TUPE, as it is one of the central staff costs funded from the school's budget so it might be difficult to obtain from the new academy."

The accompanying case studies look in more detail at how some of the large academy sponsors - ARK Schools, Oasis Community Learning and United Learning Trust - manage pay for their staff.