I thank the noble Lord for that. I will endeavour to find some examples that he can share with those who have expressed such concerns of where smaller rural schools have benefited from being
part of a trust with the unattractively named GAG pooling, which the noble Baroness opposite will be dreaming about tonight.
Multi-academy trusts must publish their annual audited accounts online, including details of their objectives, achievements and future plans. They must set out what they have done to promote value for money in support of those objectives as part of their accounts. We currently publish funding allocations for each individual academy. School-level income and expenditure information for schools that form part of a MAT is also available online. If noble Lords are not familiar with that information, it is extremely comprehensive and useful. Parents and others are able to see not only what their child’s individual school receives and spends but how this compares to the income and expenditure of other similar schools, whether they are academies or maintained schools. I will put the link to that website in my letter to noble Lords after this debate.
Turning to Amendment 157, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Chapman, I am pleased to say that we have launched a new regions group in the Department for Education. It brings together the ESFA and the former regional schools commissioners to address some of the issues that the noble Baroness pointed to. We are confident that this new group will deliver the singular role of scrutiny that is set out in the noble Baroness’s amendment.
I thank the noble Lord, Lord Knight, for his Amendment 79B, which proposes a regional schools commissioner advisory board. He will be aware that, as he alluded to, regional directors—formerly regional schools commissioners—are currently supported by their own advisory boards. We believe that it is beneficial that those board members are made up of a mixture of head teachers, trust leaders, trustees and business leaders who bring specific expertise and experience to decisions that directly affect academies, in particular approving academy conversions and matching schools to strong trusts. It is important to note that advisory board meetings are transparent: agendas are already published in advance and records of meetings are published. The noble Lord, Lord Knight, referred to an annual report, but an annual report is already published by region.
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Last but by no means least, I turn to Amendment 159, tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Chapman and Lady Wilcox, opposite me. It requires that academies and maintained schools keep digital records on pupils’ grades, effort and behaviour. I am pleased to reassure the noble Baronesses that the Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005 state that schools are required to keep and update pupils’ educational records. The Government’s updated behaviour in schools guidance, due for publication very soon, proposes to strengthen the expectation that schools should have robust systems to record and evaluate behaviour data and that schools should maintain positive relationships with parents.
With that, I conclude this group. I hope that I have provided responses that are sufficiently clear for the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, to feel able to withdraw his Amendment 41 and for other noble Lords not to move theirs.