Mr Chris Grayling (Epsom & Ewell, Conservative)

I want to return to a theme that I have touched on before. As the Committee is aware, I am a strong supporter of the principle of autonomy for schools and giving schools the ability to take decisions about many of their activities. However, I also believe that that freedom should be counterbalanced by a minimum curriculum framework that provides consistency to our education system. Most particularly, we need an identifiable framework so that parents can make informed judgments on the nature of their children's education.

The purpose behind the amendment is to give parents a check against a decision by a governing body that involves wholesale changes to the curriculum in the school. In particular circumstances, there may be good reason for making such decisions, but it is not right and proper that those changes should be sufficiently substantial that they divert completely from the framework provided by the national curriculum.

Parents should have a detailed right of reply to proposals from a governing body. Under the clause, the right of consultation enjoyed by parents is too vague. There is no clear statement about the rights of parents, or about the responsibilities of governing bodies to consult and to secure the backing of parents before they pursue a path that will have a radical effect on the education of the children in that school. The amendment would ensure that there was a bottom line for that consultation process. The governing body would need to demonstrate that it had reached out to a reasonable proportion of parents.

I recognise the difficulties faced by governing bodies when trying to engage parents in consultation exercises. Anyone who has ever managed a consultation exercise in the public sector knows how difficult it can be to generate responses. I attempted to be realistic when setting the figures in the amendment. There should be a minimum number of parents with which the governing body discusses proposals. It should be able to demonstrate that it has the support of parents when pursuing significant changes to the curriculum. Clearly, that does not apply to small changes, such as the introduction of an additional subject or minor modifications in the school's activities. However, if a school has a radical plan for change under the terms of the Bill, it should be able to demonstrate that it has the support of parents. The amendment would give parents the minimum guarantee that they will be consulted and that their views will be taken into account.

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