Clause 57 - Powers of secretary of state to secure proper performance of lea's functions
Education Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale West, Conservative)
I seek clarification of the clause, which I hope that the Minister would have offered in any case. It is clearly an important aspect of the Bill, arising from earlier legislation, and I accept that it largely involves consolidation. However, I should like to press the Minister a little on the effects that the aspects of the Bill that we have debated will have on the interpretation of the powers under this clause. I am thinking particularly of the powers to secure proper performance of the LEA's functions. The Minister will be aware that the LEA's function has in many ways been redefined, not always predictably, by measures that are likely to become law under earlier clauses. I direct him to clause 2 in particular, which relates to exemptions from terms of existing education legislation. If one or more schools are exempted from an expectation to follow the requirements of aspects of education legislation, that will affect Minister's expectations of the LEA and its delivery. Implicit in much of the Bill is a transfer of powers and responsibilities in various directions and differing circumstances. That is perhaps most extreme in the case of schools that are granted powers to innovate, potentially in large numbers. Sometimes that may be at the invitation of the local authority, and other times at the behest of individual schools. It is in those cases that the effect on the LEA and what Ministers may expect will be the most stark.
Perhaps more profound in its effect will be the process of earned autonomy or
''exemptions related to school performance'',
as it is phrased in the Bill. The Minister told us that he envisages about 10 per cent. of schools qualifying for earned autonomy, which would be a starting point that would build consistently over a period. Reasonably, he was not prepared to be drawn on how quickly he expected the proportion to grow, but if it starts at 10 per cent., it does not require a long stretch of the imagination to realise that in a few years it could account for 50 per cent. or even 75 per cent. of schools. In which case, it could account for only 10 or 20 per cent. in some LEA areas but every school in others. That would have a dramatic effect on the role and responsibilities of the LEA.
In different circumstances, one could also envisage an interrelationship between the performance of the LEA and an individual school's responses to it. Schools may seek powers to innovate and operate more flexibly to free themselves from certain practices or use the earned autonomy route. It may become a particular objective of schools in a certain LEA area to pursue that, although not as earned autonomy because the Minister has said that he will try to define clear criteria by which schools will automatically gain it. If that is the case, schools will not automatically be obliged to take advantage of all the available freedoms. However, it is easy to imagine that schools in some LEA areas would be more keen to do so than in others. It is an important point, and I hope that the Minister will be able to give us an explanation.