RECRUITMENT OF ACADEMY HEADTEACHERS

That this House is alarmed by reports that the Department for Children, Schools and Families has employed the headhunting firm Veredus to recruit headteachers to work in academy schools under a completely separate procedure from normal recruitment processes; deplores the detrimental impact this will have on the recruitment of headteachers in the maintained sector, which is already experiencing recruitment difficulties; therefore calls on the Government to impose a moratorium on the academies programme while an assessment of the impact of private headhunting on neighbouring schools is carried out; and welcomes the decision of the Trades Union Congress to affiliate to the Anti-Academies Alliance and to join in its excellent work of opposing the privatisation of secondary schools.