The National Audit Office has reported that many academies are performing impressively in delivering the Academies Programme’s intended improvements. Most are achieving greater rates of improvement in academic attainment than their predecessor schools.

New legislation and government plans mean that the Programme is likely to expand significantly in the coming years, giving successful schools greater freedoms as well as tackling underperformance. The NAO warns in today’s report that academies’ performance to date cannot be assumed to be an accurate predictor of how the model will perform when generalized over many more schools, given that the future number is likely to include schools with a much wider range of attainment, and operating in very different community settings.

Overall, academies have increased the rate of improvement in GCSE results when compared with trends in their predecessor schools. And although still below the national average, the proportion of pupils achieving five or more A*-C GCSEs is improving at a faster rate than in maintained schools with similar intakes. However, a small number of academies have made little progress, particularly when English and mathematics are taken into account.

The proportion of academy pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds has reduced, although it remains over twice the national average, and academies now have higher absolute numbers of these pupils on average than when they first opened. The performance of academy pupils from more challenging circumstances (those who are registered as eligible for free school meals, have English as an additional language or have special educational needs) has improved over time. However, the attainment gap between these pupils and others has grown wider in academies than in maintained schools with similar intakes, since less disadvantaged pupils appear to benefit more immediately from improved standards at the academy.

The rate at which new academies have been opening has increased rapidly in recent years, creating challenges around timely staff restructuring and appointment of senior teams. If not dealt with effectively, these challenges can impact significantly on teaching and learning, financial health and longer-term sustainability. Some academies have found it difficult to achieve financial balance without additional funding. The Department has identified that just over a quarter of academies may require additional financial or managerial support to secure their longer-term financial health, and a significant number have not received the financial contributions originally pledged by their sponsors.

The expansion of the Programme increases the scale of risks to value for money – particularly in the areas of financial sustainability, governance and management capacity. With greater numbers of academies opening in recent years, the Department’s capacity to administer and monitor the Programme has been stretched, particularly as funding is administered on an individual basis. Responsibility for administering and monitoring open academies has now transferred to the Young People’s Learning Agency, and plans for faster expansion of the Programme will also put pressure on the Agency’s resources.

The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) could have responded more quickly and cost effectively to the large and sustained increase in care cases from local authorities following the Baby Peter tragedy, had it fully resolved known organisational challenges, according to a report today by the National Audit Office. But Cafcass’s management could not have predicted the sustained increase in care cases from November 2008. In April 2009 they realised that the flow of care cases was not slowing and that they had to act.

Cafcass had to deal with an extra 200 new care cases each month from November 2008 – around 40 per cent more. Simultaneously, the courts needed advice on hundreds more children involved in family breakdowns. Consequently, the allocation of dedicated family court advisers to children’s cases slowed, and delays in providing advice to the courts increased. Between November 2008 and July 2009, the number of children involved in care and other public law proceedings without a dedicated family court adviser grew from around 250 to 1,250. Delays in allocating family court advisers can cause stress to children and families.

Cafcass was not well placed to respond efficiently and effectively because it had only partly resolved known organisational challenges around management information, IT systems and staff engagement by the time demand started to increase.

Cafcass increased its capacity and, between August 2009 and June 2010, reduced the proportion of children without a family court adviser, from 10 per cent to 2 per cent in care cases and from 34 per cent to 5 per cent in family breakdown cases. The Department allowed Cafcass to bring forward £4.6 million from the 2009-10 and 2010-11 budgets and gave Cafcass an extra £4.8 million. The cost increases do not represent a failure of value for money.

Cafcass continues to face enormous challenges in meeting the needs of vulnerable children and has responded with a major rethink of how it manages their cases. It is now implementing a £10 million transformation programme that should allow it to improve how it deals with future fluctuations in demand. In order to be successful, these changes will require greater organisational cohesiveness and improvements in staff morale.

Autism, which includes Asperger syndrome, is a lifelong condition which affects the way in which people interact with the world around them. It is estimated that there are around 400,000 adults with autism in England, many of whom may require specialised support. Yet the NAO found that most NHS organisations and local authorities do not know how many people with autism there are in the areas they serve, and three quarters of local authorities do not have a specific commissioning strategy for adults with autism.

GPs and social care staff have low awareness of autism and how to diagnose it, with 80 per cent of GPs surveyed reporting that they need additional guidance and training in order to identify and treat patients with autism more effectively.

Around 200,000 adults with autism do not have a learning disability. This group often fails to secure appropriate support, as health and social care services are traditionally configured for people with a learning disability, a physical illness or disability, or a mental health problem (which autism is not). Three quarters of local authorities said adults with autism who do not meet eligibility criteria experience or report difficulties accessing the services they require. Almost two thirds felt that current services for adults with autism are limited. Providing specialised support could improve outcomes for this group of people and their carers, and potentially enhance value for money, as the costs of establishing such support could be outweighed over time by overall savings.

There are few specialised employment support services for people with autism. A lack of understanding of autism is a significant barrier to gaining employment and more training is needed for those delivering employment support and those administering benefits.

The Department has built up a large capital underspend, which increased from £1.9 billion at 31 March 2008 to around £2.4 billion at the end of March 2009.  Its capital expenditure programme will need to be carefully managed given the history of underspending and the challenge of bringing forward £924 million of expenditure from 2010–11 to 2009–10 as part of the Government’s fiscal stimulus.

At March 2008, schools in England had a net cumulative surplus of £1.9 billion.  Only 1 in 5 local authorities reduced their total net school surplus in 2007–08.  Local authorities are accountable for school spending and the Department should encourage them to redistribute  excessive uncommitted surpluses in line with local needs.

The Department was, in 2007, one of three departments which had not implemented in-year accruals accounting systems, which would help to improve the accuracy of financial forecasting and reporting.  It has introduced a system to identify monthly accruals which is fully in place for the start of the financial year 2009-10.  The planned introduction of a shared services arrangement for finance with procurement and personnel support should also help improve financial management and lead to efficiencies, though implementation has been delayed because of slippage in another Shared Service implementation programme.

Every year around 10 per cent, or 60,000, newborn babies require some form of specialized neonatal care. And these numbers are increasing, up 5 per cent between 2005 and 2006, due to an increase in the proportion of women with high risk factors such as high or low maternal age, obesity, ethnic origin, deprivation and assisted conception such as IVF. In 2006-07, some £420 million was spent on running the 180 neonatal units in England, which are organized into 23 managed clinical networks.

Today’s report identified a number of improvements since the Department announced the reorganization of neonatal services into networks in 2003. There has been a reduction in long distance transfers of mothers and babies, with only 3.4 per cent of babies across England admitted to units outside of their network. Overall, 17 networks are meeting the target to treat babies within their network and the consistency, communication and co-ordination of care within and between the networks has improved. The number of cots has also increased from 3,243 to 3,521. Neonatal units have made strides in considering the needs of parents and involving them in their babies care. Parents are mostly very happy with the specialist care and expertise their babies receive.

In 2005, England’s neonatal mortality rate was 3.5 deaths per 1,000 live births, similar to other developed countries. But the report found that this figure masks wide variations across the country. The South West Midlands had the highest mortality rate of 4.8 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to Surrey and Sussex with 1.8 deaths per live 1,000 births. More work is required to determine the contribution that different socio-economic, ethnic, demographic, cultural and service factors are making to these variations in mortality rates.

The report also highlighted shortages in the numbers of neonatal nurses. On average, each unit had nearly three nursing vacancies for nurses qualified in neonatal care. Only half of units met the British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) professionally developed standard for high dependency care of one nurse to two babies, and only 24 per cent met the standard for intensive care of one nurse to one baby. The vast majority of level three (intensive care) units, which require a 1:1 ratio of nurses to babies for the whole unit, did not meet the standards for intensive care.

Cots for the right level of care are not always available, resulting in units having to close and babies being cared for in the wrong places on occasions. On average, each unit had to close to new admissions once a week, the most common reasons being a lack of cots or skilled nursing staff. Nearly a third of units had to care for a baby who should have been transferred to a higher level of care and just over half looked after an improving baby who was ready to be transferred but could not because a receiving cot was not available. In 2006-07, nearly a third of neonatal units operated above the BAPM recommended occupancy rate of 70 per cent and three units operated above 100 per cent. High occupancy rates could have consequences for patient safety, for example due to increased risk of infection or inadequate levels of care.

Neonatal transport is an essential element of networked neonatal care, with all bar one providing some form of specialist transport during day time working hours, but only half of networks providing specialist transport services 24 hours a day seven days a week. Few transport services have separate staffing arrangements from the clinical inpatient services meaning that staff have to leave the unit to accompany a baby on a transfer. Three quarters of units experienced delays in moving babies and 44 per cent believed that care was compromised as a result.

The report concludes that the cost of neonatal services as a whole are not fully understood and there is a mismatch between costs and charges. Also charges per day for an intensive care cot varied from £173 to £2,384. The reorganization of care into neonatal networks has improved the co-ordination and consistency of services pointing to increased effectiveness, however there is still capacity and staffing problems and a lack of clear data on outcomes. In addition, the variable financial management information makes it difficult to judge the economy and efficiency of the service.

The NAO recommends that NHS and Foundation Trusts need to improve their financial management information. Commissioners, in conjunction with networks and Strategic Health Authorities, should commission all neonatal care services together and in particular examine the relative cost-effectiveness of the different transport options currently in place. In addition, NHS and Foundation Trusts should develop a targeted action plan to address neonatal staffing shortages.

Central to the reforms are local 14-19 partnerships, made up of key organisations including schools, colleges, independent training providers and employers. These partnerships are working with local authorities and the Learning and Skills Council, who have a responsibility to to make sure that every young person in their area has access to the full curriculum they are entitled to – including the Diplomas – by 2013.

Effective local collaboration through the partnerships is fundamental to the successful implementation of the reforms. Institutions need to work together to provide the full range of Diplomas because most institutions will not be able to provide every Diploma in full. This joint working has to be built on trust between institutions who may not have worked together before. Partnerships which have a history of collaboration have benefited from their earlier experience.

The NAO found wide variations in the preparedness of the local partnerships at this early stage in the reform programme. Those which are less well prepared will need to make full use of support from the Department and other organisations to make sure that every young person has access to the full range of courses by 2013.

The local 14-19 partnerships need to establish a complete picture of where staff resources, skills and facilities are within their areas, to make the most of them and meet the needs of pupils. The logistics also need careful management so that young people can gain practical access to the whole curriculum – with effective transport between the different points of learning and avoidance of timetable clashes. Most importantly, the partnerships must give young people good, clear information about what is on offer so they can make the right decisions about their future.

Involving employers is a crucial element of the reforms, and the introduction of the Diplomas is likely to put significant demands on employers. Over two-thirds of partnerships reported problems with engaging sufficient numbers of employers to meet current work experience requirements, and many expressed concerns that it will be difficult to engage the number and range of employers that will be required.

Local partnerships, individual institutions and training providers need to be confident that the reforms as a whole will be delivered effectively. It is therefore paramount that the Department gives clear funding arrangements and consistent guidance to partnerships.

These are some of the main findings in today’s NAO report to Parliament, which concludes that if the trends in raising attainment continue, the Academies programme will meet its objective of raising attainment in deprived areas.

The full impact of the first academies will not be known for several years because all pupils who have taken GCSEs in academies have spent time in other secondary schools. Evidence so far indicates that performance is improving compared with the predecessor schools. Most academies’ results remain well below the national average, but good progress is being made towards that target. Academies are raising the achievements of pupils from deprived backgrounds. Taking account of pupils’ personal circumstances and prior attainment, academies are performing substantially better than other schools. Overall performance in English and maths is low, but the position improved with the 2006 GCSE results. Academies are also improving pupil attendance faster than other schools.

Most academies are not achieving good results at advanced level. This reflects in part a lack of priority given to sixth forms in academies’ early years, the small size of most academy sixth forms and predecessor schools’ historically low attainment. The report concludes that while there can be a good case for having a sixth form, the grounds need to be solid and address the potential risk of lowering the standards of post-16 education in the area.

One of the Academies programme’s three objectives is to drive up standards by raising achievement across the local area, but there has so far been little collaboration between academies and neighbouring schools. The Department expects new academies’ first priorities to be improving education and standards, but as academies become better established themselves they need to step up collaboration so that their benefits are more widely spread in the communities in which they are located.

Two thirds (17 out of 26) of the first academy buildings have suffered cost overruns averaging £3 million (the other nine were within their original budgets), and academies have cost an average of £24 million (£27 million for those that are entire new buildings) which makes them more expensive than other secondary schools. It is difficult to make direct comparisons with other new schools owing to differences in location, school size, site constraints and age range of pupils. Most academy buildings have been better designed and built, compared with a group of other new schools.

Today’s report also states that the Department and HM Treasury need to agree on an appropriate way to enable academies to raise community usage above the 10 per cent threshold allowed under the regulations governing eligibility for VAT relief.

Those were the main conclusions from today’s report to Parliament which finds that good progress is being made in creating children’s centres which bring together a range of services for pre-school children and families. The full effectiveness of the centres will be measurable only in the long term but so far a thousand centres have been built in deprived areas and the programme is exceeding its target to reach 650,000 children by the end of March 2006.

The NAO interviewed 191 centre and local authority managers and visited 30 established centres as well as meeting parents. Centres were raising the quality of services and making them more relevant to the needs of lone parents, teenage parents and ethnic minorities in communities with large minority populations. However less than a third of centres were proactively identifying and taking services out to families with high levels of need in their area, including lone and teenage parents, disabled children’s parents and parents from some ethnic minorities in areas with small minority populations. These groups are typically the hardest to reach and are least likely to visit a children’s centre to use the services provided there.

Reflecting the relatively recent establishment of children’s centres, they and local authorities had as yet collected only limited data to assess cost-effectiveness. Over half (56 per cent) of the local authorities consulted were not monitoring the performance of centres and a similar number (52 per cent) were doing no work to identify the cost or cost-effectiveness of services. Local authorities and the centres themselves need to direct resources where they would be most effective. The NAO found that there was no close relationship between spending by centres and the number of children and families using key services.

To provide an integrated service, organisations that have previously operated independently must share information and resources. This is a significant challenge and will require local authorities and a range of agencies, particularly Primary Care Trusts and Jobcentre Plus, to work more closely together to deliver children’s centre services.

The report makes recommendations to improve the delivery of services within the centres. These include projects to reach identified disadvantaged groups; training staff in financial expertise and new ways of working; centres and local authorities establishing the cost of activities; enhancing relationships with partner agencies; and better local monitoring to secure value for money.

The NAO report also contains details of a model used by one local authority to allocate resources, and gives examples of good practice in reaching families with the highest needs, forming effective partnerships and monitoring performance.

Reflecting the inherent difficulties in delivering the original policy, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has commissioned a fundamental redesign of the child support system by Sir David Henshaw, which is expected to recommend options for longer-term policy and delivery arrangements.

So far, the Reforms have cost £539 million for a scheme that has performed no better than its predecessor, although there are recent signs of improvement. A Child Support Agency operational improvement plan, involving new investment of up to £120 million, has been launched to clear the backlog of cases, deal with operational problems and to enforce payment from parents who do not meet their responsibilities.

The Department for Work and Pensions and the Agency have learned lessons from the difficulties they encountered and are taking action to prevent similar problems in future. The Agency is building a team of high calibre professionals to help deliver quality IT systems in future, adopting a more cautious and realistic approach to planning, building a stronger working relationship with its IT contractor, EDS, introducing improved governance arrangements and recognising the need to simplify their processes in developing IT projects.

Where it works well the Agency manages to secure regular contributions from non-resident parents and transfer this to the parent with care or the Secretary of State, where the parent with care is in receipt of benefits. By the end of 2006, the Agency estimates that it will have collected over £5 billion in maintenance payments since it was formed in 1993 and currently administers 1.5 million live cases. However, the inability to implement the Reforms effectively has had a significant impact on the quality of service provided by the Agency. Three years after their introduction, 61 per cent of the Agency’s caseload is still dealt with under the old rules and there is currently no date for the conversion of the 923,000 old rules cases. Although many parents with care on income support have benefited from the reforms, some parents with care on Income Support may be losing up £520 a year in Child Maintenance Premium payable under the new scheme.

By March 2006, one in four applications received since March 2003 were still waiting to be cleared and there is a backlog of around 267,000 new scheme cases and a further 66,000 old scheme cases. On average new scheme cases are taking 34 weeks to clear. Including the costs of implementing the Reforms, it cost the Agency 70 pence to collect each £1 in 2004-2005. Largely this reflects a policy design, which requires substantial administrative input to collect and transfer relatively small amounts of maintenance. During 2005-2006, however, 81 per cent of the last decisions made in the new scheme cases checked by the Agency were found to be correct, up from 75 per cent the year before.

There have been well-publicised problems with the design, delivery and operation by EDS of the new IT system that have contributed significantly to the Agency’s difficulties. Nine months after the system went live an independent review found that its stability and performance needed significant improvement. A substantial amount of work has been undertaken since to resolve defects but many technical problems still exist and some 600 manual workarounds are needed.

At present there is an estimated £3.5 billion of outstanding maintenance to be collected, although 60 per cent of this is considered to be uncollectible. Almost one in three non-resident parents do not pay any maintenance where the Agency has assessed money is due. The Agency has not made full use of the range of enforcement powers it has available to recover debt, but is starting to do more to get these payments. In 2005-06 it secured almost 10,000 liability orders from the courts to support their enforcement efforts. There are also currently 19,000 cases with enforcement teams for action, out of a total of 127,000 cases where the non–resident parent has paid nothing despite requests from the Agency.

It is now clear that the reform programme was over-ambitious and introducing such a complex IT system was at the upper end of what was achievable. To develop a new IT system at the same time as making fundamental changes to the Agency’s business structure added to the risks of the project, particularly given that the Agency was already underachieving and overstretched when the reforms were announced in 1999.