Andrew Theobald, school governor at Robin Hood Junior School and Tweeddale Primary School said: “I am not a fan of academies. My concern is the affect or potential effect on the provision of services by the local education authority (LEA) for special needs children.

“If schools stop buying services from the LEA then it may not have enough critical mass to continue to provide the services at all.”

“More children could end up being excluded from local schools. That said, some academies have been very successful, so I do have mixed views.”

Spencer Cullen, a parent from Sutton said: “I cannot believe it will be a good thing for Sutton. We will completely lose control of our schools.

“It seems to be the opposite to the big society idea, which is about local people taking control of local services.

“It makes it more important than ever, before all these schools disappear and turn into academies, that we have some kind of public debate on the provision of secondary school education in the borough.”

Tim Crowley, deputy leader of Sutton Conservatives said: “The worrying thing is the lack of detail. My concern is they have no contingency plan, they could be left with a Local Education Authority (LEA) which does not do anything.

“The LEA has almost decided to ignore this, which would be the totally wrong course of action.

“I hope over the past few months the LEA has been in discussions with the schools to put across the positive aspects of being part of the LEA rather than putting its head in the sand.

David Theobald, a former Sutton councillor, has a 10-year-old son who suffers from autism.

He said he was concerned the move towards academies would exacerbate the problems he experienced with the provision of education for special needs children in the borough.

He said he had to send his son to school in Merton as there was no special needs school in the borough.