Teachers at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) School are set to go on strike in the autumn over concerns about the school’s governance, safety and long-term viability following its abrupt closure last week.
The National Education Union (NEU) has served notice on the performing arts school, part of the LIPA Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), for six days of strike action in September, following what it described as “months of failed attempts to engage the trust in meaningful dialogue”.
The union said its members at the school had raised “serious issues” including health and safety risks, “unreasonable” management practices and “refusal to recognise trade unions”.
The school closed on 17 July, four days before the end of term, following safety concerns identified by council inspectors.
The Trust told the BBC a “safeguarding review” by Liverpool City Council had found “the school buildings require some adjustments to ensure total safety”.
The decision to close the building was taken, it said, as the issues raised were “not overnight fixes” and the safety of pupils and staff “must take top priority”.
Special measures
Established in 2022, LIPA Multi Academy Trust comprises LIPA School – an academy for 4-16-year-olds – and LIPA Sixth Form College. It is a separate organisation from LIPA Higher Education, which was founded by Sir Paul McCartney in 1995. The sixth form shares a campus with the specialist performing arts institution.
On 18 July, the Trust’s chief executive officer, Charles Bartholomew, resigned with immediate effect “to prioritise his health and family” after failing to attend a planned meeting with an NEU representative.
He will continue as principal of the LIPA sixth form college “before taking his long-planned retirement on 31 August”.
Both LIPA Sixth Form College and LIPA School have been the subject of critical Ofsted inspections this year, with the latter’s report published just a week before the closure, rating the school as inadequate in all areas and placing it into special measures.
The education watchdog found that although pupils at the school who are interested in pursuing creative and performing arts subjects in the future have “high aspirations for their next steps”, their ambitions are not being realised.
The report deemed the school’s expectations of pupils’ achievement “not high enough” and found that students “do not achieve well” and are “not well prepared for the next steps in their education, training or employment”.
‘A lack of accountability’
Following the closure and Bartholomew’s resignation, NEU members at the school voted unanimously to strike on six days – 2, 4, 9, 11, 16 and 18 September.
The union is calling for independent audits of leadership, finances and estates; urgent repairs and safety measures across both school sites; and an end to “unsafe delegation of statutory responsibilities to unqualified staff”.
“Our members have been raising serious concerns about the safety and governance of LIPA School for over a year,” said NEU regional officer Bora Oktas, who said he had seen a range of fire hazards on the site.
“They have tried every avenue to resolve these issues constructively. The Trust’s refusal to engage meaningfully, and the CEO’s unexplained absence from a critical meeting, has left staff with no choice but to take action to protect themselves and their pupils.”
“The recent closure of the school due to health and safety concerns only confirms what our members have been warning about for months,” he said.
Peter Middleman, regional secretary of the NEU, added that the union had served notice of strike action “with a significant degree of reluctance” but said that existing legislation around notice periods and their application in a school setting had “forced us into this position”.
“This whole sorry episode epitomises how a lack of accountability and democratic oversight at the top of some academy trusts creates wholly avoidable problems for students, parents and staff,” said Middleman.
“When international obligations around union rights are so flagrantly disregarded, it often means that those problems are so deep rooted as to be almost un-salvageable by the time the truth about governance failings are exposed.”
