---

Education and Inspections Bill

May I set out the Government’s position on the new clause and the other propositions in this group of amendments? At the heart of the Bill is the Government’s desire and determination to ensure to ensure that every child is able to fulfil their potential. That means ensuring that every school achieves the standards of the best but, above all, it means ensuring that children from deprived backgrounds receive the same educational opportunities as more fortunate children. The determination that all of our children should able to fulfil their potential lies behind the school organisation provisions in part 2. We are creating a new system in which all schools operate with as much freedom as possible within a strong framework that guarantees fairness and promotes collaboration. Clause 1 demonstrates our commitment in that respect, and it gives local authorities new duties to carry out all their education functions with a view to ensuring high standards for every pupil and, if our amendment is accepted later in proceedings, to promote fair access. Over the past nine years, we have made significant progress in achieving these aspirations. Last year’s results at every key stage were the best ever. We have radically reformed the workforce—there are more, better trained teachers supported by a wide range of professionals—and we have ensured that there are fewer schools in special measures. Schools that are in difficulties are turned round more quickly. Those are impressive achievements, but we cannot afford to stand still. There are still too many underperforming schools and too many children, especially in deprived areas, who are not given the educational opportunities that they need. We know what works. The best schools are self-confident, with strong leadership and governance infusing everything that they do. They harness other available sources of expertise, whether from other schools, colleges, businesses or the voluntary and community sectors. We have seen the benefits of such an approach through the success of specialist schools and academies. The proposals in the Bill extend those opportunities to all schools and give local authorities a distinct new role as the commissioners, rather than the providers, of school places, the champions of parents and pupils and the guarantors of high standards. Local authorities are central to the new system. Rather than sounding the death knell for local authority involvement in education, as some have suggested, if anything the Bill marks a rebirth of their role. There are new powers to intervene in failing schools and to take the lead in commissioning school places in line with the needs of the communities that they serve. For the first time local authorities will be able to propose expansion to or the addition of special educational needs provision to all maintained schools, and they will take a leading role in ensuring fairness and helping to overcome disadvantage. The Bill also puts parents at the heart of the system. Clause 3 gives local authorities a duty to respond to parental concerns, and we have published illustrative guidance which sets out how this duty should be met. Clause 35 requires all governing bodies to have regard to the views of parents, and any proposals relating to new schools or the acquisition of trusts must be subject to full consultation with parents and the wider community. We believe that these provisions provide the right degree of rigour, tempered by local flexibility. For that reason, we think that compulsory local ballots are an unnecessary red herring, whether they are designed to trigger competitions, as the Opposition suggest in new clause 19, to approve proposals within competitions, as proposed by my hon. Friends in new clause 17 and amendment No. 5, or to approve proposals to become a foundation school, as proposed by my hon. Friends in new clause 16. Compulsory ballots or petitions on any of these issues would be unnecessarily bureaucratic, requiring expensive procedures and precise definitions of process and electorates that would in many cases be inappropriate. In respect of new clause 16 and the proposition to ballot parents if a school plans to become a trust, I remind the House that a governing body that wished to hold a ballot would be entirely free to do so as part of locally determined arrangements for consultation, but that should be its choice, not a requirement dictated from Whitehall. Where there is controversy, it may make sense to hold a ballot. It is certainly important that we ensure that parental views are adequately taken into account through consultation. Where a school decides to acquire a trust, the local authority has the power to refer that decision to the adjudicator if it believes that the consultation process has been followed properly or that adequate attention has not been paid to the views of respondents. That is an extremely important check on the autonomy of the governing body.