Member

Amendments 195, 196 and 248 tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Storey, focus on the processes surrounding the use of academy orders and intervention powers. We share the noble Lord’s desire for strong sponsorship and clarity about the use of intervention powers, but the department already operates a robust and well-established process for matching failing schools with the right sponsor trust based on its expertise, capacity and proven track record of delivering rapid and sustained improvement when an academy order is made. That process is published and is underpinned by our commissioning guidance and the high-quality trust framework, so it is not necessary to formalise it in legislation; that would in fact add delay at the point when swift intervention is most critical.