Members of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) have voted to lobby the government to provide a pathway for academies to return to local authority control, .
Delegates backed a motion for schools to be able to 鈥渓eave one trust and either join another or rejoin the local authority鈥 at their annual conference in Harrogate this weekend.
Heads backing the motion underscored concerns with the problem of 鈥渦ntouchable鈥 schools that MATs did not want to take on, while others said headteachers should 鈥渉ave autonomy and be allowed to decide for themselves if a MAT was an appropriate fit for their school.
Headteacher Alasdair Black, proposing the motion, spoke about his own 鈥渄readful鈥 experience with academisation where he had been told there was no way back if he felt joining a multi-academy trust (MAT) was not right for the school.
鈥淓ffectively, it was a marriage without the prospect of divorce,鈥 he said.
Officially, the NAHT does not have a preference for one type of school structure over another.
Speaking against the motion, headteacher Debra Walker said the existing system was 鈥渇ar from perfect鈥 but expressed concerns about the 鈥渄emonisation of us as leaders and workers within the academy system鈥.
The government鈥檚聽Children鈥檚 Wellbeing and Schools Bill聽clamps down on a number of freedoms afforded to academies, giving councils more power over key areas such as admissions.
However, the bill does not include a clause that would enable academy schools to choose to return to local authority control.
