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Today’s announcement follows a full consultation with key stakeholders, and, building on our discussions with local authorities, schools and potential school providers, the Government is inviting interested organisations to apply for the new accreditation. This will be followed by further application rounds throughout the year, including an opportunity for providers to gain accreditation to take on primary school projects. 

To achieve accreditation, providers will need to demonstrate they have the following key skills:

• sound governance
• highly effective leadership and management
• a strong model for managing and improving schools
• a track record of improving outcomes for children and young people
• the capacity to achieve transformational change in the schools they are supporting. 

Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, said today:

We want the best possible schools and organisations to apply. We know that strong providers can bring about dramatic improvements in school standards, and we have seen this in the Academies programme and in highly effective federations across the countries. 

We will announce the first successful applicants within the next month, with more to follow throughout the year. This is an exciting time and will mean more and more excellent school providers will be helping to drive school improvement across the country. 

School standards have been transformed from a decade ago. The number of schools not achieving the floor target of 30 per cent of pupils getting 5 A*-C GCSEs including English and mathematics has dropped dramatically. But there are still schools that need to improve further, and accredited school groups and providers will lead the way in making every school a good school.

The new accreditation process will select the organisations who will be eligible to partner or sponsor trust schools, federations and Academies. The first round of accreditation will run for a month from today until March 10th.

The Government wants the application system to be rigorous but light-touch, to encourage the best providers to apply. The consultation has helped ensure that views of stakeholders have been taken on board and the Government has welcomed suggestions so that they system meets the needs of the Government and potential providers. 

Levels of accreditation

There are two levels of accreditation. Accredited School Providers (ASPs) will be eligible to take over up to two underperforming schools in need of rapid, sustainable school improvement. In time those ASPs that are successful and develop the necessary capacity can apply to become Accredited Schools Groups (ASGs) leading 3 or more schools, as can those organisations already leading 2 or more schools and wishing to lead more. We are inviting organisations that want accreditation to apply now.

The Schools White Paper, ‘Your child, your schools, our future: building a 21st Century Schools system’ sets out that DCSF would develop and promote an accreditation system for education providers wishing to operate groups of schools. There are a range of formal partnerships which require a significant contribution from those involved, where a lead partner will have the majority governance, and be accountable for improvement in a school which is underperforming. These include federations, Academies and National Challenge Trust Schools. 

Further information

The application and criteria documents can be found on the DCSF website.

The consultation ran between 21 October 2009 and 22 January 2010 and a total of 82 responses were received. In addition to the online consultation, the following activities have taken place and supported the development of the proposals:

• four consultation events open to all stakeholders held in November and December in Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol and London
• meetings between DCSF and stakeholders at their request
• meetings between DCSF and key representative groups and unions. 

There was overall support from respondents for the proposed system of accreditation, which the majority of respondents felt was the right approach. 

The Schools White Paper, ‘Your child, your schools, our future: building a 21st Century Schools system’ set out the accreditation system for education providers wishing to operate groups of schools. Further information can be found on the DCSF's website. 

Accreditation will be removed if providers do not maintain the standards or behaviours expected of them. Existing sponsors/partners will not have to seek accreditation to continue running their existing Academies/schools, but will be expected to get an accreditation for future projects.