The Bishop of Lancaster has stated that it is his wish that all Catholic schools in the Diocese of Lancaster move to become academies as part of Multi Academy Trusts by 2026. He believes that by doing so, this will protect, preserve and promote Catholic education across the Diocese. All Catholic schools will make this move over the next five years. For more details on the Bishop’s plan and his letter explaining this, please see the BEBCMAT website.
Academies are state schools, funded directly from central government, no longer under the control of the Local Authority. Academy status gives schools more freedom to be innovative and creative with the curriculum, timetabling, staffing and governance.
The school will still be a Catholic school under the authority of the Bishop of Lancaster and its religious designation will not change.
All academies continue to be inspected by Ofsted and comply with the same rules as other schools on special educational needs, exclusions and admissions.
An academy is part of a charitable trust run by a board of trustees. Academies are rightly expected to work with and support other schools, including lower-performing schools. Should you wish to know more about the Government’s policy, the Department for Education has its own academies bookmark on https://www.gov.uk/guidance/convert-to-an-academy-information-for-schools
A Multi Academy Trust is a charitable company and is responsible for overseeing the running of a number of schools. It has three layers of governance: the members (the Bishop of Lancaster, the Episcopal Vicar for Education and the Diocesan Board of Trustees); the Trustees; the local governing bodies.
A MAT is formed when two or more academies legally come together in partnership. Each school keeps its own name and it is possible for other academies to join the Trust in the future. The partnership ensures that the schools can share skills and best practice and make optimum use of resources ensuring best value for money for each school.
We believe that there is greater scrutiny of academies now than for voluntary aided schools and Governors are confident that this will have a positive impact on standards and enable the school to continue to fully engage with its community.
However, we are aware of some difference in opinion as to the effectiveness of Multi Academy Trusts. We would encourage you to consider the arguments for and against and check the accuracy of assertions that are being made before submitting your feedback.
The religious nature of the school remains the same, but the model of governance and funding change. A Catholic MAT is a group of Catholic schools coming together as a Trust, Only Catholic schools will be members of the Blessed Edward Bamber Catholic Multi Academy Trust. Academies have a funding agreement with the Education Funding Agency (ESFA) and receive funding directly from them instead of the Local Authority (LA). standards are monitored by the governance and leadership of the Trust instead of the LA. Standards are reported to the Regional Schools’ Commissioner (RSC) on behalf of the Department for Education. Academies have more freedoms and do not have to follow the national curriculum but they do have to take part in national assessments such as (SATs and GCSEs) and Ofsted will still monitor them.
No. It is important that each school continues to have its own unique identity in the Trust.
No. These will still be determined by the governing body of the school and the Head Teacher.
There is no requirement for the school to have the word academy in its title, although it can if it wishes.
No. Staff’s terms and conditions are protected by law. Nobody will be told to move to another school. Occasionally, there may be job opportunities in other schools and staff could apply for those, as they could if they weren’t in a Trust.
Schools joining the Trust will be given greater opportunities for collaboration and the sharing of good practice. The expectation is that this will have a positive impact on teaching and learning, although immediately there is no expectation that the move will have any significant impact on students and families. Each school will still be led and managed by the headteacher and governors. The Trust structure will provide greater opportunities for curricular and extra-curricular activities and possibly transition. Also, some jobs will be done by the central team of the Trust, leaving the Headteacher to focus on teaching, learning and pupils’ spiritual development.
There are many advantages of being part of an academy trust, from working together to preserve and improve Catholic education in the area, to educational, financial and spiritual benefits. Essentially, a group of schools working together in a single body can do lots of things that are harder for stand-alone schools to do. Teachers work and learn together to improve the way they teach and schools can share practices that make a difference to the quality of teaching. Teachers and leaders can work together on the things that matter – like curriculum and assessment. In addition, schools can challenge and support each other to continually improve.
The Multi Academy Trust model allows us to preserve, protect and develop our schools and secure Catholic education in the long term. It will better support the long-term goal of developing our future leaders of education in the Diocese. Improvements in school standards can be secured by developing and resourcing a strategic vision for leadership development, through pooling expertise and knowledge on standards and buying in specialist support as well as facilitate school to school support. Greater control over the curriculum allows flexibility in terms of the balance and mix of subjects. A curriculum tailored to the needs of a Catholic school could be more fully developed. Stronger collaboration between schools in the Trust is beneficial, but this is not expected to be at the expense of retaining and supporting the development of strong local collaborations which will provide a long term future for the schools as Catholic academies.
The benefits of joining a Catholic Multi Academy Trust are many and varied. As the Bishop of Lancaster states, Catholic MATs are a secure way to protect, preserve and improve Catholic education across the Diocese.
Being a member of BEBCMAT means all of the schools in the Trust working together to provide a first-class Catholic education, valuing staff and pupils, investing in their future, working in true collaboration and partnership with others.
Working in partnership, all of the schools in the Trust work closely together to create a sustainable model of high-quality education for all pupils. We believe that sharing ideas that work, learning from each other and allowing leaders and staff to focus on the core purpose of education enables us to move forward as a family of schools. As a Trust, with shared central services, schools can also benefit from economies of scale when purchasing and commissioning external contracts. The work of the central team at the Trust will free up leaders to focus on school improvement and enhancing the academic, spiritual and lives of pupils. The Trust can provide great opportunities for staff recruitment and retention and professional development
This is the Bishop’s plan for the future of education in the Diocese of Lancaster. Partnership working is strong in the Diocese, but not every school collaborates well with others. We know that being in a Trust will enable schools to grow even stronger as we learn from the strengths of other schools. We will create improvement projects together and further strengthen our Catholic family.
No. Each school will become an academy in its own right and will be part of the Trust. The scheme of delegation protects the uniqueness of each school. The local governing body’s role is to ensure that the Catholic ethos is strong and the unique identity of the school is maintained. There are no significant changes which will affect pupils on a day-to-day basis. Uniforms, school day, free school meals, school name and holidays will not change.
The move will not have a negative impact on families. The school will still be led and managed by the Headteacher and a local governing body.
Many other Dioceses are also developing structures to further preserve, protect and develop Catholic education, for example, in Nottingham, Leeds and Newcastle Dioceses, all of the Catholic schools are academies in MATs.
Pope Benedict reminds us, “Each of us is the result of a though of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary’. In a Catholic school and academy, our responsibilities to all children extend beyond curriculum standards so that children flourish. Academies must follow the SEND Code of Practice and work closely with the Local Authority, just like other schools.
The same expectations for schools about safeguarding would be in place in the Trust.
Firstly, all of the schools will be recognised equally in the Trust, The cost of the process to become an academy is met by a grant of £25,000 per school. Subject to approval by governors, the timeline for the school to convert is 1st September 2022. The current governing body will become the Local Governing Body (LGB) under the Trustees and Members of the Trust.
All schools that convert to academies must ensure that parents are consulted. Parents are important in the work of a Catholic school and schools looking to become part of a MAT must seek to work in partnership with the families who entrust their children to their care. BEBCMAT will become the Admissions Authority although each school will have their admission policy which they will follow. There will be no change in policy or pupil admission numbers. Our catchment area and our partner schools will remain unchanged too. Admissions will still be administered by the Local Authority. The MAT board is responsible for arranging for an admissions appeal if there are families who wish to appeal for a place in a Trust school.
There will be a Chief Executive Officer and a Chief Financial Officer. Each school will have its Headteacher as it does now. These roles will not be diminished. The Trust and the Local Governing Body will be involved in the appointment of Headteachers if and when vacancies arise. Each school is an equal partner in the Trust so that there is no school more important than another. Each school will retain and manage its own budget but will contribute for key roles and projects within the Trust. This is not an additional financial strain on the school but it will come from the money formerly top-sliced by the Local Authority.
There will be three layers of governance. The Members will be the Bishop of Lancaster, the Episcopal Vicar for Education and Formation and the Diocesan Board of Trustees. Then there is a Trust board made up of at least five Trustees/Directors, who are not paid and the majority of them are practising Catholics. Each school will have its own Headteacher and Local Governing Body. The powers and responsibilities of each of these groups will be outlined in the scheme of delegation. The LGB will carry out many of the functions they presently do. For instance, the LGB will ensure that the standards in the school are as good as they can be and that the school is delivering the improvements needed. This will be supported and monitored by the CEO and the Board of Trustees.
The Trust will establish a core central team. The core team will offer support for schools around standards, finance, school improvement and the operational running of schools. They will continue to work with the Catholic Education Service to offer strong support in developing each school’s Catholic life. The Trust will be required to purchase services that are of the best value and the best quality. Local Authorities retain their statutory responsibilities for areas such as safeguarding and SEND. The Trust can make savings by economies of scale. This money can then be used for the education of children.
The ownership of sites used as Catholic schools is held by the Diocese. This arrangement will not change when the schools become academies. The Church’s ownership of the land is acknowledged in the Church Supplemental Agreement which is signed by the Diocese and the Secretary of State for Education. The schools and in turn the Trust will continue to be responsible for the day to day management and maintenance of the sites and the Trust will have access to a standard capital allocation to enable significant works to be carried out when needed. In some cases, the playing fields used by the school will be owned by the local authority. They will be expected to grant a 125 year lease of the playing fields to the Trust.
The Trust Board will be responsible for presenting the consolidated accounts for the Trust as a whole. The Trust will provide opportunities for centralising contracts and service delivery that we hope will yield considerable savings for school budgets. The Local Governing Body will be responsible for managing the delegated school budget, with oversight from the central team. The Trust is responsible for the central service fund and for strategic planning across the whole Trust. The LGB is responsible for staffing structures. As now, they will need to ensure that the structure is sustainable within the delegated budget. The central Trust team will support in this area if needed.
All assets and existing reserves or deficits will be retained by the school on conversion, having been contractually transferred by the governing body to the Trust pursuant to the terms of a Commercial Transfer Agreement. The Local Authority is obliged by statutory regulation to transfer any school surpluses to the academy within 4 months of conversion, though typically it happens more quickly than that.
Teachers and support staff employed by the Local Governing Body at the point of the transfer will transfer to BEBCMAT on their existing Terms and Conditions, There is no expectation that staff would work in different schools. However, future posts might be designed to do this.
Please refer to the ‘Join Us’ page https://bebcmat.co.uk/join-us/
on the BEBCMAT website for more information on the Trust and the conversion process.
TUPE stands for the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations. The main purpose of the TUPE Regulations is to preserve continuity of employment and to safeguard the employment rights of all employees whose employment transfers to an academy trust as a result of a relevant transfer i.e. transfer to BEBCMAT.
TUPE places a statutory requirement on the school as the outgoing employer (the ‘transferor’) and BEBCMAT (the ‘transferee’) as the incoming employer to consult with you and your representatives. This will include all staff employed in the school and the trade union representatives for the staff.
Employers are required to inform and consult with you through appropriate trade unions representatives and will also consult directly with you if you are affected. TUPE does not prescribe a defined time period for consultation.
The information supplied to trade unions will include:
- the fact that the transfer is going to take place, approximately when and why
- any social, legal or economic implications for you if you are affected for example the fact that you will become employees of BEBCMAT (transferee)
- whether or not there are any measures that the outgoing employer (transferor) and BEBCMAT expect to take in respect of your employment, see below
The meaning of the term ‘measures’ is not defined but is considered to mean any action, step or arrangement that will have implications for you if you are transferring to BEBCMAT or any other employee affected by the transfer. For example, this might include a change in location, a change to working patterns, a change in pay date, or a plan to change job titles, amongst other things.
In accordance with TUPE, pre-existing terms and conditions of employment and working arrangements cannot be changed for reasons related to the transfer.
No. You do not have to re-apply for your post. If you are in employment on the day before the conversion you will transfer to BEBCMAT. Your contract of employment and your terms and conditions transfer with you.
The purpose of TUPE is to preserve your service of employment and safeguard your employment rights. In effect your contract of employment transfers intact to BEBCMAT so there is no need to issue a new contract. However, your contract of employment is made up from multiple terms contained within a variety of documents including national agreements, local agreements, individual arrangements etc. All employees should have received at some point a Written Statement of Employment Particulars which contains some of the main particulars of their employment. It is not itself a contract of employment but is evidence of the contract of employment.
No. TUPE states the time of informing must be reasonable. The formal part of the process usually takes two to three weeks unless there are “measures” identified (see above), which may then result in a longer formal consultation process.
Yes, the TUPE legislation as well as the legislation surrounding Academies means that you will continue to be employed on the same terms and conditions as you were before transfer.
The new employer would need to enter full consultation with you and trade unions. If any changes were agreed in the future, notice would need to be given of changes.
Any rates and enhancements that are terms and conditions of employment will therefore transfer.
Current contractual terms and conditions, including maternity/paternity entitlements will transfer. However, some policies may need to change slightly to reflect BEBCMAT and any new governance arrangements, for example it may be necessary to remove any reference to the involvement of the previous employer. BEBCMAT may want to adopt a common set of policies moving forward, however, where this is the case an analysis of all existing policies would be undertaken to ensure that overall the terms of any Trust policies are more favourable and would also be subject to full consultation.
Yes, any accrued service will be transferred to the new employer. Legislation is in place that allows employment service with different local authority associated employers to be accrued as continuous service for the purpose of redundancy payments and for some staff (support staff), annual leave, sick pay and maternity pay. This legislation is called the Redundancy Modification Order (RMO).
The Local Government Employers Organisation has confirmed that any Academy Trust established under the Academies Act 2010 (this will apply to the BEBCMAT) will be a recognised local authority associated employer covered by the RMO.
Where working patterns are the subject of formal individual or collective agreements then these will transfer under TUPE. Similarly, where working arrangements are defined in the contract of employment then again these will transfer under TUPE.
BEBCMAT is a member of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) and the Teachers Pension Scheme (TPS) and your pension is protected as part of the TUPE transfer. Therefore, your pension will be unaffected by the transfer.
BEBCMAT offers LGPS to any new support staff appointed post transfer and any new teachers appointed post transfer will be in the TPS.
If you are already a member of an occupational pension scheme such as the TPS or the LGPS you will see no difference to your scheme membership. Where appropriate your pension records will be automatically transferred into the name of your new employer (BEBCMAT), there will be no change to the pension benefits you accrue, and you need take no further action. You will receive confirmation of the change in employer in due course.
If you have already provided an opt out form and are currently not paying pension contributions you will be automatically enrolled into the TPS or LGPS in accordance with Auto Enrolment Regulations as your new employer is required by law to enrol you into an appropriate occupational pension scheme from the date of transfer. As a member of the Scheme you will be required to contribute a percentage of your salary to that scheme. Your employer will also contribute to the Scheme on your behalf, with the employer contribution to the Scheme being determined at each triennial valuation of the Pension Fund by the Fund’s appointed actuary.
If you do not wish to be a member of the Scheme (or decide at some later date that you do not wish to be a member), you can obtain an opting out form from the relevant pension scheme administrator via the website, but please note, your employer is not permitted to provide you with an opt out form.
If you make a valid opt out within three months of being enrolled you will be treated for all purposes as not having become an active member of the pension scheme on this occasion and we will refund to you any contributions paid by you through the payroll system.
Trade union recognition transfers with a TUPE transfer. Therefore, if a trade union recognition agreement (TURA) is in force at the date of the transfer, then BEBCMAT must recognise the union. There is no requirement for the new employer to continue to recognise the union. It may elect to terminate the recognition agreement following the transfer, in which case the union would have to seek recognition anew. Please be assured that BEBCMAT will continue to recognise Trade Unions currently recognised in our school as part of the TURA it currently has in place.
Collective agreements in place at the time of the transfer also transfer to BEBCMAT. These include terms and conditions of employment negotiated through collective bargaining as well as the wider employment relations arrangements.
Terms and conditions from collective agreements may be renegotiated after one year provided that overall the contract is no less favourable to the employee.
Regulation 11 of the TUPE Regulations requires the outgoing employer to disclose certain information to the new employer in order that they can manage the employment contract going forward. This will also include your personal file. As the disclosure of this information is required by law your consent to disclose this information is not required.
You will be asked to verify the data that is held on you and BEBCMAT will:
- Only disclose this information for the sole purpose of preparing for the proposed TUPE transfer;
- Not disclose this information to anyone other than those authorised employees negotiating the proposed transfer and its advisers;
- Ensure that the employee information provided is kept securely.
You will not be required to undergo a new DBS check as part of the TUPE process.
When there is a TUPE transfer, its effect is to transfer all those employees who are assigned to the outgoing employer immediately before the transfer. If you fall into that group, when the transfer happens, you become employed by BEBCMAT.
The only exception is if you were to make a valid objection to becoming employed by the new employer. However, in those circumstances, the transfer simply terminates your contract without any dismissal. In these circumstances there is no dismissal in law, so you would not be entitled to any dismissal-based claims against the old or new employer, including for a redundancy payment.
Your job still exists, it has simply transferred to BEBCMAT therefore you are not redundant.
A three week consultation period will run from Monday 15th November 2021 to 3pm Friday 3rd December 2021, during which time the Local Governing Body have asked for stakeholder views of which you are an important group. You are encouraged to feed into this process; following consultation the Local Governing Body will make their final decision about academy status and joining BEBCMAT.
Should the Local Governing Body make the decision to proceed to apply to convert to become an academy trust and join BEBCMAT this will be considered, in the spring term, by the Regional Schools Commissioner’s Headteacher Advisory Board on behalf of the Secretary State for Education.
If approval is given and the Secretary State approves an Academy Order for the school then a full TUPE consultation process will be undertaken with staff and their trade union representatives in the summer term.