Council’s education team to shed jobs as 80 per cent of schools soon to be outside local authority control

Saturday, 18 October 2025 12:50

By Chris Gee

Jobs are set to be cut at Bury council’s education department as schools convert to academies at a rapid rate.

Bury town hall bosses said that by the end of 2026, 17 of the borough’s 84 schools will remain under local authority control.

As of June 2025, there were 32 maintained schools and 52 academies in the borough, with further conversions in the pipeline.

Academy schools are state-funded schools that are independent of councils and funded directly by the government.

Bury’s five remaining Catholic primary schools will convert to academies in May 2026 and five further primary school conversions are forecast, based on the recent rate of conversions and discussions taking place.

The reduction in council-maintained schools has led to a decision this week to reduce the size of the town hall’s school finance team.

A report to the cabinet said: “Due to the reduction in workload and loss of income following academy conversions, the proposal is to phase down the schools finance team and to incorporate statutory and residual work into the wider children and young persons’ finance team.

“One school finance officer post will be retained to continue to provide finance support to maintained schools that have not converted.”

The job reductions will see roles the schools finance team scrapped through accepting voluntary early retirement applications with a schools finance officer leaving at the end of October 2025 and a senior schools finance officer role being terminated on June 30, 2026.

The report added: “Schools in Bury were initially slow to academise, but there has been a significant increase in the rate of conversion over the last 18 months.

“The senior schools finance officer, two schools finance officers and the schools finance support officer will be surplus to requirements
over the coming 18 months.”

If the council forecast is accurate, it would mean that almost 80 per cent of Bury’s schools will be academies or free schools by the end of 2026.

As of the 2024/25 academic year, 46 per cent of all schools in England were academies or free schools.

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