REAch2 centralisation plans put on hold by unions

Plans by England’s largest primary-only multi-academy trust REAch2 to centralise school reserves and funding have been put on ice by unions.

The trust, which is the second largest overall in the country, had launched a consultation on moving to a system called general annual grant (GAG) pooling.

Finance and HR services would also be centralised, which the trust previously said would deliver “around £2.5 million of investment…in frontline activities”.

But unions representing trust staff said the plans could lead to the loss of up to 26 per cent of school office staff – around 57 roles.

They have now triggered a “failure to agree” clause under the trust’s trade union recognition agreement.

It comes after unions claimed REAch2 had not given enough detail on its plans and and failed to assess the impact on affected schools.

The trust is said to have refused a previous request from ASCL, NAHT, NASUWT, NEU, Unison, Unite and GMB to halt the plans.

But REAch2 said the “single loudest message” from staff during the consultation had been for it to “move as swiftly as we can to provide certainty about roles”.

Unions have now referred the matter to the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) to allow for “meaningful discussions” to take place.

Plans will be paused until a resolution between unions and the trust is found.

Cuts would have ‘detrimental’ impact on schools

Outlining their grounds for invoking the clause in a joint letter, unions said the trust had refused to discuss “further financial matters”.

This has “actively undermined our ability to bargain on behalf of our members”, the letter added.

They said the lack of “any impact assessment on the schools affected alongside the lack of detail” in REAch2’s programme meant the consultation period and timeline “is neither fit for purpose or achievable”.

Cuts to office staff would “have a severely detrimental impact on pupils and schools”, they added.

A spokesperson for the trust refuted claims that requested financial information had not been provided to the organisations.

They added that REAch2 took “extremely seriously our duty of care to our staff”, with its executive team making proposed changes in “direct response to what we have heard” from staff.

This included enhanced pay protection, “clearer” job descriptions accompanied by a workload impact assessment and improved salaries.

“Sadly, [unions’] imposed break in consultation means they will not listen to, or discuss, our planned changes as we would expect from meaningful consultation,” they added.

Accounts show trust head office deficit

Schools Week analysis suggests REAch2’s centralisation proposals would help plug a budget gap in the trust’s central team .

The trust’s 60 schools currently receive funding allocated to them according to the government’s national funding formula or local authority funding policies.

The trust takes a 6.5 per cent top-slice of funding to cover central services, including accountancy, HR, estates, risk management and leadership development.

It also holds reserves worth 7 per cent of GAG income.

The trust previously said the shift to pooling all funding instead would mean REAch2 can “look at what each school needs to deliver a great education in the most efficient and effective way”.

Under the proposed plan, cash would sit with the academy trust – which can then dish it out based on its own measures.

Accounts show REAch2 schools received a combined £87.3 million in GAG funding for everyday operations in 2021-22, and had combined reserves of £7.1 million.

But the overall reserves position masks a significant divide between the health of school-level and trust-level balance sheets.

School-level data for 2021-22 shows individual schools had £14.5 million in reserves – whereas the trust’s central team recorded a £7.5 million deficit.

The head office deficit has grown by £1.7 million since 2020-21.

However, schools’ budgets varied significantly, from a £760,000 surplus to a £719,000 deficit – with eight schools in deficit in 2021-22.

Trust grows central team

REAch2 said it had been “building capacity” in its central team over recent years, which has helped it move to a “cluster model” to help individual schools manage workloads.

Under the model, it said schools had been given additional educational, HR and finance support, while building works including 15 new builds were led by the central team.

It added that 93 per cent of its schools were graded good or better by Ofsted, despite only 9 per cent being graded good before joining the trust.

Unison’s head of education, Mike Short, said axing office staff would “mean not only more pressure is heaped on colleagues but less support is available for pupils and parents too”.

“It’s right to put the brakes on these ill-advised plans. Local schools shouldn’t be suffering because the trust’s head office has gone into the red.

But a spokesperson for the trust said: “We simply don’t recognise this characterisation.

“Everything has been about better support for our schools – all of our decision making is done through that lens so that our schools can focus even more time on teaching and learning.”