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Education and Inspections Bill

moved Amendment No. 83: Page 43, line 38, at end insert- ““( ) an Academy, ( ) a city technology college, or ( ) a city college for the technology of the arts”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 84 and 85. All the amendments relate to Part 4, which is about local-authority intervention in schools that are causing concern. The Minister will have noticed that we on these Benches have been very reticent, in contrast to our deliberations in Committee, about tabling amendments on academies, city technology colleges and so forth. This is not because he has convinced us that handling everything via the funding agreement for the academies is satisfactory; on the contrary, we remain sceptical about whether exempting this category of school from much of the legislation that applies to other maintained schools is a satisfactory way of proceeding, especially as the number of academies grows. This is particularly so when wide-ranging duties are imposed on local education authorities or local authorities. Yet the ability of the local authority to deliver is limited because many of the key schools in the authority’s area are academies or city technology colleges and will in future be trust schools and outside its control. In Southwark, for example, all secondary schools will shortly be academies. Children may well attend these schools, which are not maintained by the local authorities, but the council is still responsible for their well-being and educational fulfilment. Indeed, the schools are assessed in their APAs on how well they perform, whether or not the council is responsible for them. The amendments seek to change that situation, and to give local authorities the power to intervene in all schools that are not performing adequately. Councils should have powers to intervene and to assist schools where there is poor delivery against the wider Every Child Matters outcomes outlined in the Children Act, not only against the failure to improve educational attainment. While many academies bed down in the system and increase in number, they will not be immune from failure. The Government should give the councils the powers to intervene to ensure that academies are provided with support if they are failing or coasting, so that the children’s well-being and educational potential are promoted. This is the situation for trust schools, and we feel that this should also be the case for academies and city technology colleges. This would strengthen the duty on schools to have regard to the local children and young people’s plans, and would ensure that the key role of schools in delivering the improved well-being for children under the Every Child Matters agenda is adhered to. These are important amendments. There is a real dichotomy between the emphasis being placed on local councils to have responsibility for the overall performance of schools and to deliver the general objectives cited at the beginning of the Bill. Some councils will have very little control over the schools that will be delivering those outcomes. I beg to move.