local authorities | Schools Week

Educational psychologists to ballot for strikes over ‘real-terms pay cut’

‘Poor pay and conditions have resulted in an unprecedented recruitment and retention crisis, as workloads spiral’

‘People like me were absent when things were going wrong’

Tony McArdle is the man who holds the purse strings to stop councils going bankrupt – but only if they comply with strict cost-cutting of services for pupils with special needs. McArdle is both saviour and bogeyman for councils with staggering deficits in their budgets to provide education for pupils with special educational needs and […]

Jump in reserves leaves maintained schools sitting on £2.2 billion

Covid savings and project delays shored up reserves before the current cost-of-living squeeze

Devon council appoints academy chiefs to run education services

Experts say academisation is increasingly hollowing out council expertise in education

Government withholds SEND bailouts as councils told to fill £269m hole

Some DfE bailout payments were delayed as councils failed to hit agreed targets, while all councils are being told to plug deficits ‘now’

Six in 10 councils face DfE intervention to cut SEND deficits

All councils also face new guidance on making spending on pupils with special educational needs and disabilities ‘sustainable’

Council MAT trial next year – but caps on number and size

The DfE will ‘test the concept’ of local authority multi-academy trusts, inviting councils to join a small trial

White paper: What academy shakeup means for trusts, councils and schools

Trusts should have 10+ schools, councils will run academies and good schools may exit trusts in shakeup of ‘messy’ system

The schools resisting ministers’ all-academy land ambitions

Schools Week looks at the areas that have thwarted ministers’ decade-long academisation drive