Whilst there are exciting opportunities for schools that convert, there are also challenges, many of which will not have been faced before. Typically these fall into the areas of Human Resources, finance, premises responsibilities and the legal process. There is also a considerable drain on the school management teams’ time during the transition process, which is often under estimated.
Many schools find the best solution is to outsource these areas to a specialist such as Strictly Education. One school that did just that is Hillyfield School.
Hillyfield School is a large primary school based in North East London. The school became an Academy in January 2011. It was one of the first primary school ‘convertor’ type academies, with Private Finance Initiative (PFI) provision on site. The school had been built with private funding in exchange for a long-term service contract to look after the buildings.
Strictly Education worked with Headteacher Steve Lancashire and his team to handle the human resources and financial matters involved in the conversion. Whilst quite straightforward, the demands on the time of the management team and the Governors was not insubstantial, as they wanted to thoroughly consider the options and consult with their community before making the final decision.
However, the existence of the PFI relationship did present a challenge. New legal agreements had to be worked out and put in place. In addition to the standard Academy Conversion documentation, separate commercial negotiations had to take place between the Local Authority, the DfE and the School.
This is where Strictly Education brought in legal partners Winckworth Sherwood. They worked very closely with both the DfE and the LA to accommodate each party’s concerns and needs. Land and PFI or BSF complications can extend the normal 3-4 month conversion timescale, although in this case delays were minimised to just an additional week.
Strictly Education is an independent national company specialising in support to schools in the areas of Human Resources, Payroll, Finance, Property, ICT and Academy advice and guidance. They are currently working with over 60 schools (ranging from infant to multi-school academy trusts), assisting them in gathering the information needed to make a considered decision to convert, and in helping them through the process and beyond.
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