---

Education Bill

I will not. This Bill removes communities' rights to decide what kind of school they have—the Secretary of State is offering a one-size-fits-all model: an academy or nothing— and restricts the information available to them about their schools. It makes strategic, community-wide planning for children and young people more difficult. According to the National Children's Bureau,"““it fails to promote and indeed protect the strategic relationship that schools must have with their local community.””" We know the Government's answer to this—that communities can set up their own schools. It is the same with libraries, forests and children's centres. Communities want control and involvement, but they do not want chaos and cuts to be unleashed on the services they value and then to be told, ““It's okay—you're free to set up your own.””