Among the many spurious claims that have been made in favour of converting schools to academy status, is the idea that an academised system means that schools will be subject to less bureaucracy.
Indeed, in May 2010, the Department for Education (DfE) announced that there would be “system-wide reductions in bureaucracy”.
The clear implication all along has been that academies would be more efficient and that there would be less money spent on the bureaucracy of local government, while more would be funnelled directly into teaching and learning.
The reality of the academy programme has been very different. The dreamed-of goal of a leaner, less costly and less bureaucratic system has turned out to be an expensive illusion. Ironically, instead, it has driven the creation of a new top-heavy bureaucracy, characterised by a lack of joined up thinking and ad hoc responses to fundamental flaws.
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