Understanding the Middle Tier: Comparative Costs of Academy and LA-maintained School Systems

The LGA commissioned and part-funded this research to understand the comparative costs of the middle tiers in England. By ‘middle tier’ we mean the systems of support and accountability connecting publicly-funded local authority (LA) maintained schools and academies with the Department for Education (DfE). The research took place over five months (October 2018 to February 2019) and had three broad components. a. We analysed financial data for 2016/17, the most recent year with full information: o From top down – by exploring the main organisations forming the middle tier in England and how much they spent on LA schools and academies. o From bottom up – by examining the funding for and expenditure by LA schools and academies on middle tier functions. o We also recorded the salary of the highest paid person in 216 academy trusts. b. We explored the issues around the middle tier in case studies of three contrasting geographical areas by interviewing headteachers, local authority directors of education, multi-academy trust (MAT) CEOs, diocesan directors, heads of school-led partnerships and a regional schools commissioner. c. We identified the key features of the middle tier in four leading education systems. The big picture illuminated by our research is how expensive running two middle tier systems is.