Academies

Swedish for-profit free school experiment fails to make grade

Provider of state-funded private schools that inspired Michael Gove withdraws from UK market and its only school in England

Provider of state-funded private schools that inspired Michael Gove withdraws from UK market and its only school in England

Exclusive

The Swedish firm that ran England’s first and only “for-profit” free school has abandoned the UK market altogether after sinking almost £1 million into the failed project.

IES Breckland opened in Suffolk in 2012 as a result of a free school bid by a group of parents. They chose Internationella Engelska Skolan to run the school on their behalf.

The firm is the largest of those that run state-funded, independently managed schools in Sweden – a model said to have formed the blueprint for England’s free school reforms.

But the company admitted its foray into the English market was over. IES Breckland was quietly moved to new sponsor the Unity Schools Partnership this summer.

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general-secretary of the National Education Union, said: “The education system has been starved of funds so there isn’t any profit to make.

“It always amazed me that capitalists thought they could come in and make a profit from a sector that was so underfunded and quite highly regulated.”

The company established IES International English Schools UK Limited to trade in this country and act as the education provider for the 550-pupil school.

The private company, which unlike a school or trust was allowed to turn a profit, received management fees from the SABRES Educational Trust, the school’s sponsor, of up to £124,000 a year.

But the for-profit firm has been wound up now. Although the school was handed over with healthy finances, IES UK had racked up a deficit of £435,000 by summer 2020.

Free school returned half of management fees

Accounts show SABRES paid over £920,000 in management fees to IES UK between 2012 and 2021. But half of this figure was returned to the trust over the years “to enhance the education on offer”.

SABRES’s latest accounts, for the year to August 2021, show IES also paid it £130,000 in compensation for “early contract termination”. IES said this related to “legal and re-branding fees”.

The for-profit firm made repeated losses between 2012 and 2019, only posting a profit in 2014 and 2015 after bailouts of £307,369 and £76,725 from its parent company in Sweden. In 2020, the last year for which accounts are available, it made a profit of £23,642.

A spokesperson for IES Sweden said: “As a result of a strategic review the UK was no longer seen as a strategic market for IES. Therefore, as per the terms of our contract, IES worked alongside SABRES Educational Trust to find a new education provider.”

Unity was chosen after a “rigorous process”, and IES said it was “pleased that we were able to leave the school, Ofsted-rated ‘good’ and on a strong financial footing, ready for the next stage in its development”.

Including the bailouts, IES’s budget deficit of £435,000 and the compensation payment, it means the parent company has sunk almost £1 million that it will never recover into the project.

Venture ‘not about profit’ says Swedish company

But IES’s spokesperson said its venture in the UK “was about providing the opportunity for a local community in Suffolk to access quality education whilst engaging in cultural exchanges with the International network of schools in Sweden”.

teacher vacancies website free school
Tim Coulson

“As it was IES’s first project on the UK market, the strategic priority was to get to know the market and not to make a profit.”

Breckland School was rated ‘inadequate’ in its first inspection in 2014, with inspectors warning “too many students fail to make sufficient progress”.

The school recovered to ‘requires improvement’ in 2015 and then climbed to ‘good’ in 2017.

The school has also grown in size, from 308 pupils in 2014 to 481 in 2017 and 549 last year.

Tim Coulson, chief executive of the Unity Schools Partnership and a former regional schools commissioner, said the school joined the trust in July.

“It is a flourishing school with which we are delighted to be associated,” he said.

Latest education roles from

Executive Director of Finance – Moulton College

Executive Director of Finance – Moulton College

FEA

Director of Governance – HRUC

Director of Governance – HRUC

FEA

Principal and CEO

Principal and CEO

Hills Road Sixth Form College

Senior Quality Officer

Senior Quality Officer

University of Lancashire

Sponsored posts

Sponsored post

IncludEd Conference: Get Inclusion Ready

As we all clamber to make sense of the new Ofsted framework, it can be hard to know where...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

Helping every learner use AI responsibly

AI didn’t wait to be invited into the classroom. It burst in mid-lesson. Across UK schools, pupils are already...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

Retire Early, Live Fully: What Teachers Need to Consider First

Specialist Financial Adviser, William Adams, from Wesleyan Financial Services discusses what teachers should be considering when it comes to...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

AI Safety: From DfE Guidance to Classroom Confidence

Darren Coxon, edtech consultant and AI education specialist, working with The National College, explores the DfE’s expectations for AI...

SWAdvertorial

More from this theme

Academies

Free schools update ‘later this year’, and 3 other things we learned from ministers

The education secretary and her team answered MPs' questions in Parliament today

Jack Dyson
Academies

More standalone schools on the brink as deficits grow

Seventy-five trusts – one with a deficit of almost £6 million – raised concerns about their ability to continue...

Jack Dyson
Academies

Specialist MAT given notice to improve after seeking bailout

12-school trust said it had to ask for 'emergency' government cash after 'significant delays' to SEND and free school...

Jack Dyson
Academies

Officials kept mum about academy probe as merger decided

Revelation reopens debate around the transparency of important academy decisions

Jack Dyson

Your thoughts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *