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Education and Inspections Bill

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time. Valid concerns have been raised during the passage of this Bill, and I hope that Members on both sides will agree that the Government have listened very carefully and responded where possible to make this a better Bill. The House has conducted a mature and healthy debate on a matter of supreme importance to all of our constituents. Education remains this Government’s priority. Since 1997, we have almost doubled education spending, so that today there is an unprecedented rebuilding and refurbishment programme, with more teachers and support staff who are better trained and using new books and computers in our classrooms. We have also made huge progress in tackling embedded problems with literacy, numeracy and failing schools. All this is reflected in the fact that schools today are achieving the best ever results at every key stage. However, serious problems remain. High achievement is unevenly spread, and the scales of educational opportunity are still tipped far too heavily against disadvantaged children. The Bill focuses on unleashing the potential of each and every child, and with nine years’ successful experience in raising educational attainment, we can build on what we know works well. The Bill will help more schools to follow the path to high achievement. By enabling schools to become self-governing and to form links with a charitable trust, the Bill will give greater independence, but within a structure of increased interdependence, so that all those with an interest in successful schooling can make a full contribution to their local school. The opportunities are great for further and higher education establishments to entice more children to climb the ladder of attainment, for voluntary groups to bring in new ideas and fresh thinking, for business trusts to help focus on future careers and take forward the 14-to-19 agenda, and for schools to share best practice. The trust model also ensures that those relationships are permanent and lasting, rather than transient and dependent on a few visionaries whose departure heralds the collapse of the project. Trusts combine the best of all the existing models, and there has been broad consensus about their potential in principle. However, concerns have revolved around how they might operate in practice.