Multi-school contracts
The Government is taking steps to enhance the charter school model to support school choice and increase innovation.
The Authorisation Board can now offer sponsors of converting schools contracts with an initial term of 20 years, with two 10-year rights of renewal, a move which will give sponsors and their communities more certainty.
Two other changes will be progressed through proposed legislation to be introduced this year.
- Sponsors will be able operate multiple charter schools with only one multi-school contract.
- A pathway for state and state-integrated schools that convert to a charter school to revert back to a state school.
This change aims to provide greater certainty for state schools that want to convert. A charter school that was previously a state school may seek to revert to a state school if its contract is terminated by mutual agreement with the Charter School Agency or the sponsor chooses not to renew the contract. This does not apply to new charter schools.
Multi-school contracts
How will having multi-school contracts improve the charter school model?
Currently, sponsors can operate multiple schools, but only through separate contracts for each school. This is inefficient and does not capitalise on the potential benefits a single sponsor could provide in operating multiple schools under one contract. The proposed changes to enable multi-school contracts aim to:
- lift performance of the system by encouraging collaboration and sharing of best practice across schools within a multi-school contract
- enable sponsors to streamline processes and services across schools to reduce duplication. For example, sponsors could combine corporate functions or share teachers and staff between schools to create efficiencies
- provide greater flexibility for sponsors to decide how resourcing is distributed across schools based on their individual needs
- allow for efficient application and contract management process processes for sponsors with more than one charter school, minimising the administrative burden on the Authorisation Board and Charter School Agency as well.
How will the approval process work for sponsors wanting to operate multiple schools under a multi-school contract?
A sponsor that wishes to operate under a multi-school contract would be approved via a two-tier process, approval of the sponsor and then the approval of establishment of each school separately. If a sponsor wants to open another charter school at a later stage, the sponsor would be able to submit an additional shorter application.
All existing legislative requirements regarding sponsor approval in section 212I of the Education and Training Act 2020 will apply in these circumstances, along with two additional considerations:
- the overall operating model of the cluster of schools including how the sponsor intends to share resources, and
- if applicable, the performance of the school that the sponsor currently is contracted for.
This gives the Authorisation Board more flexibility to decide to decline some of the schools within the proposal if it wishes.
How will the Authorisation Board ensure that schools operating under a multi-school contract are performing well?
Charter school contracts contain requirements for performance reporting, targets and outcomes, and annual self-auditing. Sponsors will need to report on student outcomes (attendance and achievement) for each school. Financial reporting will be at the sponsor level, to show financial health across all the schools within the contract and how funding is being allocated between them.
How will the Authorisation Board be able to intervene in poor performing schools?
The Authorisation Board has a range of interventions they can use if a sponsor isn’t meeting its legislative or contractual obligations. These range from requiring the sponsor to provide specified information or undertake a specified action, requiring a review of the governance and management of the school by the Chief Review Officer, to terminating the contract of the sponsor.
Two additional interventions will be included to give the Authorisation Board more flexibility to respond to performance issues within a multi-school contract. These are:
- removal of a school from a multi-school contract and the closing of this school; and
- removal of a school from a multi-school contract and approving a new sponsor to contract the school.
How will schools in a multi-school contract be funded?
Funding will be calculated for each school in the same way it is calculated for charter schools on an individual contract. All funding will be allocated to the sponsor and they will have flexibility in how this is allocated between schools in the contract, including any amount to be retained for shared services.
Targeted funding, including learning support and capital funding for Ministry-owned property, will continue to be tagged to a specific student or school to ensure funding is used for the right purpose.
Extension of initial contract term to 20 years
Why increase the length of the contract?
Increasing the initial contract term from 10 to 20 years will provide greater certainty for sponsors and communities, when entering into a contract. The contract will still have two rights of renewal of 10 years each.
Will all sponsors be offered a 20-year contract?
Only sponsors of converting schools can be offered an initial contract of 20 years. Limiting this only to converted schools ensures a lengthier initial contract term is only applied to schools that are more likely to have an established pipeline of students and broader community support for its ongoing operation.
Whether the initial contract is 10 or 20 years will be on a case-by-case basis. The Authorisation Board will seek the view of the Ministry of Education and ERO, as part of their usual consultation process, on the appropriate contract length.
What will happen if the school is performing badly, and they have a 20-year contract?
The performance management framework gives the Authorisation Board the ability to intervene if there are performance issues in a school. Where there are serious performance issues and the Authorisation Board considers it’s unlikely these will be resolved, they can terminate the sponsor’s contract.