Academic Achievements

Rod Aldridge, Chairman of the Aldridge Foundation, discusses the importance of the role of the sponsor in driving partnerships in the academy programme.

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) have played a significant part in my working life, both as Founder and Chairman of the Capita Group, and now as an Academy Sponsor.

There is much debate regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the academy programme and whether it is ethical to have an individual sponsor influencing the direction of a school. However, such debates often fail to recognise the part the sponsor plays in driving and delivering the project, years before students actually pass through the doors of their new academy. I am possibly unusual in experiencing two processes – the Darwen Aldridge Community Academy comes under the 'old' framework, where the sponsor contributed £2m to the capital spend, whilst the proposed Falmer Academy, in my hometown of Brighton, will be delivered under the 'new model', with the sponsor's contribution being in the form of an endowment.

The academy programme provides an unusual dynamic of a local authority, a government department, and private individual or organisation working together in a PPP to deliver a major capital project. As in any partnership, the disputes are mainly financial, with each party guarding its funding pots tightly. Around these participants are the wider partnership networks – a myriad of advisers and consultants, and the interaction with other key stakeholders, such as parents and the young people themselves.

The academy in Darwen opened in the predecessor school this September. However, it has taken over four years to get to this point. Since 2004, I have chaired monthly meetings of the whole Darwen project team to ensure progress and to gain consensus among the parties involved. A fundamental point in this process, therefore, is that the time, personal commitment and resources needed by the sponsor cannot be underestimated, and none of this is funded by the programme. I am surprised that such a fragile system was allowed to develop with expensive project managers and consultants having little long-term involvement or accountability for the advice they give – but the spade is now in the ground and the students of the Darwen Aldridge Community Academy will move to the new state-of-the-art facilities in 2010.

In 2006, the responsibility for delivering the academies building programme was transferred from the DCSF to Partnerships for Schools (PfS). Unlike the Darwen project, the academy in Falmer will therefore be delivered in a new partnership model, in which academy sponsors no longer have day-to-day responsibility for the timing, cost and quality of schools' design and construction, this now being driven by PfS and the local authority.

In general, it remains an immature system. The consultancy firms who are on the framework agreements and for whom this must represent a substantial commercial opportunity are generally under-resourced and the necessary expertise is spread too thin. In my view, there is a massive gap in the framework for quality educational and project managers to assist the academy programme. If the extent of the programme planned by the government is to be delivered, this issue must be addressed.

However, where I believe the academy system is refreshing and challenging is the freedom to bring on board partners to the education system, and provide a new way of thinking around relevant educational provision. Transformational changes can be made, at relatively low cost, by utilising that often forgotten resource – partnership with people. By that I mean involving the students, parents and school community in the decision process. As I experienced in business through building Capita, having the right people at the right time makes all the difference. We have, for example, recruited an outstanding Principal in Darwen, with whom we have worked closely to embed the chosen specialism of entrepreneurship in the ethos of daily academy life.

Through my foundation and its activities, I also bring opportunities for involvement with our other partners – I am Chair of the Lowry in Salford and the youth-led volunteering charity, v. We have already involved students in a Young Speakers Programme with the social innovation company We Are What We Do, and there may be an exciting involvement in a new national dance programme that we are designing. We are also developing models of best practice capable of roll-out across to other schools and communities – in career advice, relevant vocational experiences, catering provision, ways of including all students in sport and healthy living, for example. Through such partnerships, there is therefore a rich tapestry of opportunities emerging for young people to engage with and I challenge anyone, even the critics of the programme, to deny the chance for such innovation.