Clause 1 - Duties in relation to high standards and the fulfilment of potential
Education and Inspections Bill
12:30 pm
Jacqui Smith (Minister of State (Schools and 14-19 Learners), Department for Education and Skills; Redditch, Labour)
Well, haven’t we made a good start, Mr. Cook? The debate on clause 1 has been interesting and generally well-informed. That is appropriate, because the clause establishes a fundamental duty on local authorities to promote the fulfilment of every child’s educational potential. It bears on the discharge of all local authorities’ educational functions, and stands alongside their existing duty to promote high standards.
The clause and the duty represent the fundamental expression in legislation of the Government’s undertaking in last year’s White Paper to ensure that we will continue to create opportunities to achieve the highest standards in our schools. We also undertook that in doing that, we would pursue the principles of equity and ensure that those standards are made available to every child through a real, new and invigorated approach to personalised learning in planning, organising and securing education that contributes to the spiritual, moral, mental and physical development of the community.
The hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke), who is not in her place at the moment, suggested that clause 1 would replace the wording in section 13 of the Education Act 1996, with its statement about contributing to the spiritual, moral, mental and physical development of the community. It would not; it would be additional to that provision. It would in fact replace a previous provision, which identified only the need to promote high standards, and put the fulfilment of educational potential alongside high standards. I hope that that reassures the hon. Lady somewhat.
Under clause 1, local authorities will have as their touchstone the twin duties of high standards and the fulfilment of individual potential. The clause establishes local authorities’ responsibility to promote every child’s achievement and to deal with the factors that stand in the way of that achievement. In taking account of the duty, local authorities will have as the test of their strategic policies and practices their capacity to draw out the abilities of children and young people according to their potential, rather than their background or circumstances. The duty will bear on functions as diverse as deciding where to establish new schools, providing support for educational achievement among particular groups in the community and, for example, consideration of the effects of the local funding formula in encouraging the personalised curriculum. I shall return later to the point that my hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham made about the resources for personalised learning.