Council-maintained schools in England continue to outperform academies in Ofsted ratings, according to research, prompting renewed calls for councils to be able to open their own schools.
Research conducted on behalf of the Local Government Association (LGA) found 93% of council-maintained schools were ranked “outstanding” or “good” by Ofsted as of 31 January 2023, compared with 87% of academies that have been graded since they were converted.
In 2022, council-maintained schools also outranked academies, with 92% rated “outstanding” or “good” by Ofsted in January and 85% of academies graded the same since they converted.
The study also found only 57% of academies that were already an academy in August 2018 managed to improve standards from “inadequate” or “requires improvement” to “good” or “outstanding”, compared with 73% of council-maintained schools.
The findings bring the longstanding dispute over what school leaders have called “forced academisation” into the spotlight, as the government announced ambitions for all schools to join multi-academy trusts (Mats) by 2030 as part of the main policy for school improvement in the schools bill.
About 73% of academy schools voluntarily chose to become academies. However, schools which have received an “inadequate” rating from Ofsted are also legally required to become academies, and schools that have received two or more consecutive ratings below “good”, known as “requires improvement”, could also be converted into academies.
