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Education and Inspections Bill

I want to remind the House of precisely what happens when a community school becomes a trust and why it is so important that we agree to the new clauses on ballots, particularly new clause 23, which stands in my name. When a governing body decides that a community school should become a trust, it is effectively a one-way street with no way back; it remains an irreversible decision in perpetuity. That is spelled out in clause 17. When a governing body decides that a community school should become a trust school—or a foundation school, as it is described in the Bill—the school that is established is removed from the local authority family in terms of admissions. As a result, a marketplace will begin to exist. That is the fundamental philosophical underpinning of the Bill. Parents and children will be turned into consumers as opposed to citizens in an active democracy. The foundation school will determine its own ethos and, to some extent, curriculum. That again means moving away from the local authority family. Competition will develop between schools for those parents who are more mobile than others. A marketplace will come into existence and some schools will be seen to be successful while others fail. A discourse will come about whereby we begin to talk about mergers and acquisitions, profitable schools, failing schools and bankrupt schools. The language and practices of the stock exchange and the marketplace will enter into our state education provision. That is Labour Members’ fundamental objection to this operation. It will be a socially, ethnically and religiously divisive process whereby some schools and some generations of children, particularly from working class communities, will be left in schools that are destined to perish. I should have thought that that was anathema to any Labour education principle. The assets—property, buildings, land and playing fields—that lay within the remit of the local authority will be removed from it and go into the foundation. It may interest Members who have not studied the Bill to know that local authority duties are covered in six lines which simply say that the local authority will promote diversity and parental choice, while 27 pages are to do with assets, property and buildings. That tells one about the priorities that lie behind the Bill. Frankly, it is about asset disposal and a form of privatisation. That is a further reason why I believe that why we should support amendments that weaken it and reject it on Third Reading. As I said, the process of moving from a community school or comprehensive to a foundation school is a one-way street with no way back. Indeed, the Bill expressly forbids the possibility that a trust, once established, can ever revert to being a community school. The Secretary of State accepted that in his impressive maiden speech in that role. Let us reflect on that irreversible process and how it is produced. How will a community school become a trust, or foundation, school? In the final analysis, it will be done by a simple majority vote of those governors present. I could have asked the Secretary of State what he thinks is the quorum for a governing body of a comprehensive, but I did not want to set him that test in case he did not know the answer. In fact, a third of the governing body comprises a quorum. It is therefore possible—almost probable—that in a governing body of, say, 24 people, with a quorum of eight, five governors could dispose of a comprehensive school that has served the community for 10, 20 or 30 years. I accept that the Bill provides for obligations to consult but, ultimately, the decision is for the governing body, by simple majority. It is wholly inappropriate to allow five members out of a governing body of 24 to make an irreversible decision to put land and property outwith local authority use and take on an admissions policy in perpetuity to determine the ethos and character of the school. The least that we can ask from the Secretary of State is for a parental ballot so that it can be determined whether the 2,000 or probably more parents with children at the school want that irreversible process to begin. With all deference to the Secretary of State, five members of my hypothetical governing body could not outweigh the votes of thousands of parents. What arguments have been used this afternoon against holding such a ballot? The Opposition’s arguments have been a disgrace. I do not know if all my hon. Friends were present to hear it said that, if a ballot were held, groups of left-wing people might come together and argue the case. The right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke), who is no longer in his place, developed another argument, which was that most parents would vote for the status quo, not many ballots would be won and we should not therefore hold them. There was an anarchist slogan, ““If voting changed anything, they’d abolish it.”” That argument has been reversed this afternoon. It was argued that, because parents would vote for a community school in a proper, organic relationship with its community rather than an ideological experiment in education, ballots should not be held. That argument is in Hansard for all to see.