England鈥檚 biggest local authority has admitted it cannot afford to provide school improvement support, just days after ministers confirmed they want councils to help drive their new standards agenda. 鈥 which has a 拢200 million SEND budget deficit 鈥 said its 鈥渃urrent financial position鈥 meant it could no longer pay for support for schools. Schools must now pay themselves for help 鈥 with specific support for struggling schools pulled altogether. Other authorities have also opted to buy in the support for their schools, scrapping in-house teams as funding is cut and budgets are squeezed by academy conversions. Multi-academy trusts were the go-to school improvement solution under the Conservative government. But Labour last week revealed details of new regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams that will commission support to improve struggling schools, including from councils, from January. ‘Bulk’ of support will come from elsewhere However, Loic Menzies, a policy expert, said there were doubts that many councils would have the resource and expertise to get involved. 鈥淲hilst RISE teams鈥 role as brokers has the potential to help schools navigate a fragmented landscape, the continued withering away of local authority capacity makes it clear that the bulk of support schools access is likely to come from [elsewhere]. Loic Menzies 鈥淚n the long run, most schools will probably be best off in a strong family of schools.鈥 Last year, the government scrapped a 拢50 million grant for local authority school improvement activities. In an update posted online last week, Christine McInnes, Kent鈥檚 education director, said the council had 鈥渃ontinued investing in school improvement services鈥, through its company The Education People (TEP). But the authority鈥檚 current financial position meant this was 鈥渘o longer possible鈥. Instead, schools would have to use their own money if they wanted to access support. Under the plans, additional cash for 鈥渟pecific interventions鈥 or brokered support would also no longer be available, with schools having to fund this themselves. In-house teams ‘reduced or cut’ Lucia Glynn, an academy consultant, said many council in-house school improvement teams had been 鈥渞educed, or cut completely, with external consultancy [companies] taking their place鈥. In Haringey, north London, headteachers banded together six years ago to launch their own schools-run improvement company. The authority expected to pay up to 拢275,000 on redundancies as it 鈥渨ould no longer require employees to carry out these functions鈥. Lucia Glynn Haringey said it used to get 拢1.4 million as part of the education services grant, scrapped as the government aimed to 鈥渞educe the role of local authorities in school improvement鈥, council documents said. Staffordshire used previous improvement cash 鈥渢o commission quality assurance visits based on our analysis of schools鈥. But after the grant was pulled, its schools forum 鈥 which votes on local funding matters 鈥 decided leaders should instead be responsible for taking on the work. Hull City Council said it no longer ran a school improvement team 鈥渁s it operates in a near fully-academised education system鈥. Ninety-four of its 98 schools are in a trust. 鈥淎s such, the LA can no longer access central funding to directly deliver school improvement services. This is the case nationally for academised education systems,鈥 a spokesman said. 鈥淚t is important to recognise that due to increasing financial burdens, the LA has been forced to focus on the delivery of statutory duties.鈥 Many councils have majority of academies Schools Week analysis suggests that at least half of primaries and secondaries in six of England鈥檚 10 largest local authorities are academies. In all, 45 per cent of councils had a majority of academies. Thurrock in Essex no longer has any maintained schools. As such, it 鈥渄oes not have a duty to provide school improvement support鈥. Academies in the area 鈥渉ave access to the well-established local teaching school hub鈥, though, the authority added. North Somerset continues to provide in-house improvement support for its last six maintained schools. But the scope of the support 鈥渉as changed over the years, due to increased academisation, changing responsibilities鈥 and funding cuts. Hampshire still runs more than 85 per cent of schools. The council stressed its improvement work 鈥渉as not been scaled back and indeed continues to expand鈥. Glynn said RISE 鈥渨ill work best鈥 in areas such as Hampshire, where authorities 鈥渉ave retained and invested in their school improvement teams鈥. But she called on the DfE 鈥渢o review the dedicated schools grant and ensure that it is sufficient to recruit and retain high-calibre school improvement leaders in-house鈥.