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Education and Inspections Bill

That would be an exaggeration. The Thomas Telford school has high-quality leadership, but it would help if schools were given autonomy. Some 66 per cent. of pupils in schools with CTC status achieve five or more good GCSEs at grades A* to C, which, while it is not the same as the 100 per cent. rating at the Thomas Telford school, is significantly higher than the national average and higher than the average for community schools. In Committee, it became clear how much in favour of promoting such schools the Government are. Paragraph 30 of the draft guidance on clause 3 states:"““Where the level of parental demand for a new school appears to be considerable and where a group of parent promoters come forward then the local authority should offer help and support for parents in developing their proposals.””" Paragraph 34 says:"““The kind of material help and support which local authorities should offer includes dedicated consultancy support””." Paragraph 35 goes on to say:"““In helping to develop and facilitate proposals local authorities should be flexible in earmarking potential sites and creative in removing capital barriers.””" We regard that guidance as very helpful, which is why we incorporated it into new clause 22. I cited those paragraphs not to annoy those on the left who believe that local authorities should run all schools directly, and that all schools should be the same homogenous bog standard, but to assure my hon. Friends—