Read on Twitter
After today’s news there are, rightly, some more questions about @OakNational. As I said when we launched being transparent is important for all public servants and just because there is a crisis on it doesn’t mean you get a hall pass.
First up accountability. I’m accountable to the Reach Foundation Board (a charity) who are accountable to The Charity Commission. I’m also accountable to the DfE via via the grant and we’ve added an extra project board chaired by @IanBauckham.
We had feedback after launch that we needed to be more collaborative and involve a wider range of people from across the system. That’s fair. We’ve really tried hard to act on this because, frankly, we’re no use if schools don’t find us helpful. We’ve done a few things.
We've sought feedback on our plans from the main sector bodies unions that represent both teachers and school leaders ( @ASCL_UK @NAHTnews @NEUnion @NASUWT @teachingschools @CSTvoice @CharteredColl @TeachSchCouncil). They are making our work better.
We’ve also opened up our work to wider advisory groups made up of subject associations and others – we’ve published this list today. Do take a look 
https://www.thenational.academy/blog/making-oak-more-collaborative
https://www.thenational.academy/blog/making-oak-more-collaborative
And we have begun work with @publishersass and @besatweet who care as much as anyone about supporting our education system through this crisis and bring a wealth of expertise from their members to bear on our work.
We’re trying to create the biggest possible tent so we can create something that represents the widest possible views from across the system. That is the only way to support the maximum number of teachers (only if they need us!)
Second up is the grant awarding process we have been through. In normal times I think a full open competitive tender process should be the norm - it stops cronyism. Sadly this isn’t normal times - the situation isn't ideal and we need to move at pace.
Our current model of teachers producing ~200 lessons every week, supported by some volunteers (many on furlough) into next year just isn’t viable. Teachers need to go back to their own pupils in their own schools, our resource support team need to go back to their main jobs.
Importantly schools were clear they needed all resources upfront so that they can organise them around their own curriculum - not ours. This meant that, although outlandish, for Oak to be most useful we needed ~10,000 lessons ready by Sept. It was a text book ‘now or never’.
Given the situation, the DfE used its process to support emergency initiatives. This rightly included scrutiny of our plans, budget, governance & conditions on our grant. The alternative was a tender process over a number of months which would have been too late for September.
The money will fund a big spike of work over the next two months, and then a much smaller core team for the year plus things like tech costs (which i've learnt very quickly are not small!). I’ve tried to outline our plan here https://www.thenational.academy/blog/continuing-oak-next-year
All of this has required hard work and compromise. The hill to climb in the next 6 weeks is huge. But this massive tent we’ve built contains huge quantities of the collective wisdom of our profession. I trust them to pull it off.
