Headteachers have voted to press the government to establish a route for academies to return to local authority (LA) control.

At the NAHT school leaders’ union annual conference in Harrogate, delegates backed a motion calling for schools to be able to “leave one trust and either join another or rejoin the local authority”.

Headteacher Alasdair Black, proposing the motion, highlighted concerns with “untouchable” schools that are repeatedly rebrokered.

NAHT’s national executive voiced its support for the motion as “crystallising” NAHT’s position as a union that does not favour one structure.

“We are in favour of the right structure for the school and for the pupils,” said incoming president Angi Gibson. “This motion seeks to give the national executive a strong mandate and helpful instruction to lobby government for a system that suits the needs of schools.”

Academies rejoining a local authority

Supporting the motion, headteacher Toni Dolan said: “I do believe that headteachers should have autonomy and be allowed to decide if the trust they are in is not fit for purpose.

“They should be allowed to apply to another trust or ask to rejoin the LA.”

Mr Black spoke about his own “dreadful” experience with academisation: he had been told there was no way back if he felt joining a multi-academy trust (MAT) was not a good fit for the school.

“Effectively, it was a marriage without the prospect of divorce,” he told the NAHT conference.

Headteacher Michelle Sheehy, also in support, said: “My issue is that headteachers, when they do join MATs, often lose any say in what happens to them subsequently.”

Speaking against the motion, headteacher Debra Walker welcomed the debate and said the existing system was “far from perfect”.

However, she criticised the “demonisation of us as leaders and workers within the academy system”.

Fellow delegate Jimmy Nicholson spoke against the motion and responded to criticism of high MAT CEO pay. He said that “on behalf of any CEO in the room and across the country, there are only a few highly paid CEOs, and we have to stop this rhetoric that’s going ahead all the time”.

The government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill brings academies into line with maintained schools in several areas, and gives councils more powers over factors such as admissions.

However, it does not include a route to allow academy schools to return to local authority control.

Members of the NEU teaching union also voted for a motion calling for an amendment to the bill creating a legal route for academies to return to LA control.

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