Bradford free school funding fiasco: who is to blame?

Bradford Council was scrambling to place up to 30 students who had been preparing for their first day at the Valley Parade school on 3 September.

In a statement the Department for Education said:

“Setting up a Free School is a difficult task and we thank One in a Million for all their hard work. Before any new schools open their doors, we have to be sure that all the conditions we set have been met … We still hope that One in a Million will open in 2013.”

The Department later told Channel 4 News that although they expect the 55 Free Schools scheduled for this September to open, not all of them have been officially signed off yet.

A number of Free Schools due to open within days have still NOT been officially signed off, Dept for Education tells #c4news

— Ciaran Jenkins (@C4Ciaran) August 28, 2012

In an email to a disappointed parent, whose son will not now be able to start at the school next month, local Tory MP Phillip Davies said: “The Government felt that they could not justify a £5.5m spend for the 28 pupils who had confirmed to attend.” The school told Channel 4 News that the cost would be spread over seven years and it was the government which had come up with the £5.5m figure in the first place.

The school was expected to launch with 50 students, growing each year up to 350. Matthew Band, chief executive of the One in a Million charity involved in running the school, blamed bureaucratic delays, saying the school was at 100 per cent capacity in terms of student numbers in October 2011 but the government’s refusal to sign off on the funding agreement put the entire project at risk, with the uncertainty leading some parents to decide not to send their children to the school.

‘Nonsensical’ government decision

Mr Band said the government’s decision was inexplicable:

“It just doesn’t make sense and we don’t know of any other free school that has been put in this position with a week to opening and we will watch with great interest to see which schools do open in September, their student numbers and capacity, and whether their facilities are permanent or temporary.”

“We know of at least two examples of free schools where one opened last year with 34 students and have just been awarded a second school to open in September 2013 and also one which had 37 places allocated and had funding agreement sign(ed) off in May this year,” Mr Band said.

In a statement on its website the school said:

“With nearly two thirds of student places still filled, staff recruited and appointed, and building contractors on site up until only a week ago, the project team also had approval for its 50-100 per cent financial plans in June and were assured by the Department of Education the funding agreement required to open the school was all on track for sign off by the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove MP,”

The school describes itself as a secondary school for children aged 11 -18 with small class sizes and a culture of excellent teaching dedicated to providing education, sport and the arts. Parents, many of whom have already bought school uniforms and met the teachers, set up an online petition urging the government to reconsider.

Parents are ‘disgusted’

“(My son) James has additional needs and there is not another school in this area that is suited to James needs. He had no social skills and does not like to interact with many people and the nearest school has 1,800 pupils,” one exasperated mother wrote on the online petition.

“We would like to show the government how disgusted we all are with the decision not to fund at such a late stage in the academic year, when it is not possible now to look at alternative schools, get new uniform, sort out transport and child care,” she said.

Councillor Ralph Berry said he was not convinced by the school’s plan to take children from across the city to do a vocational learning module.

“It now falls to us to place these children and puts the local authority to considerable inconvenience,” Mr Berry told the local newspaper, adding that most of the children still have a local authority place. “But this is no way to plan or organise an education system with a growing population.”

Former Bradford City player Wayne Jacobs, a co-founder of One in a Million, said in the school’s online statement “We are completely baffled and stunned at this decision by the Department of Education and absolutely devastated for the parents, children and staff of the One in a Million Free School.”

Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg said the late decision on funding would leave parents angry and confused.

“This problem stems from an Education Secretary who prefers promoting pet projects without a clear assessment of local need on the ground,” he said.

Free Schools Factbox:
The first 24 Free Schools opened in September 2011. 
Around 50 more are due to open in September 2012. 
102 have been approved to open in 2013 and beyond.
Set up in response to demand from local people Free Schools, like academies, are funded directly by the government. They are able to set not only their own budgets, but also their curriculums, their teachers' contracts and the length of the school day.