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Education and Inspections Bill

Yes, as would the local authority. We are firmly persuaded that trust schools represent an important step in our ambition to raise standards for all. Good governance allied to effective leadership, high quality teaching and a flexible curriculum need to be a feature of every school. We have listened to the representations of, among others, the Education and Skills Committee. Consequently, we have agreed that, in some circumstances, a new community school could make sense in a specific area. My right hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Jacqui Smith), who is now the Chief Whip—and whose wisdom and sagacity we have all long admired, even before she became Chief Whip—set out in Committee the criteria that we intend to use in determining whether a local authority should be allowed to enter a community school into a competition. We have now tabled amendment No. 42 and new clause 33 to give effect to those commitments. The criteria would allow local authorities with an annual performance assessment—APA—score of 4 automatically to enter a community school proposal. There are 11 authorities in that category at present. Conversely, some authorities would not be allowed to enter a community school proposal until their performance improved. That group would comprise authorities with an APA score of 1, and those with an APA score of 2 and either more than 15 per cent. failing schools or fewer than 15 per cent. voluntary and foundation schools or academies for the relevant phase. At present, 10 authorities fall into that group at secondary level. The majority of authorities will need to apply for consent. Each case will be considered on its merits, but I would expect to approve requests from local authorities that have an APA score of 3 and either a lower than average percentage of failing schools or a higher than average percentage of voluntary and foundation schools or academies. This presumption would also apply to authorities that have an APA score of 2, a high percentage of voluntary and foundation schools or academies and no failing schools. Some 90 authorities would benefit from this presumption at secondary level. For the remaining minority of 40 or so authorities, I would like to make it clear that all applications will be considered on their merits, and that there will be no presumption against consent. In particular, no authority will be ruled out simply because it has no, or only a few, faith schools. I recognise that there is more to diversity than labels and governance structures. Schools may have different curriculum specialisms and different approaches to education that give them a distinct character or ethos. So, while I am committed to retaining the simple, objective test of diversity, as I have just set out, I will consider a much wider range of factors relating to diversity in reaching a decision on whether to give consent for those authorities that want to enter a competition.