Clause 2 - Duties in relation to diversity and choice
Education and Inspections Bill
9:00 am
Jacqui Smith (Minister of State (Schools and 14-19 Learners), Department for Education and Skills; Redditch, Labour)
I welcome you to our proceedings, Mr. Chope. I am sure that it will be a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship in this Committee.
We had some good debates on Tuesday and made some progress, although it could be described as being of quality rather than quantity. Nevertheless, we got up to debating the amendments to clause 2, which requires local authorities to have regard to the needs and wishes of parents and local communities when planning on securing the provision of schools in their area. Specifically, they will have to do so with a view to ensuring a diverse range of schools to meet local needs and with a view to maximising the opportunities for choice among good schools for parents. That duty will bite, for example, when the authority undertakes planning through the children and young people’s plan, or when it thinks about specific school organisational planning issues. It will be supported in future by considerable investment in, for example, the “building schools for the future” programme, which will allow local authorities to take a fundamental look at provision in their area and which will give them the opportunity to make radical changes, backed with the necessary capital investment.
Those duties are absolutely key to delivering a school system that is shaped by parents, and for the first time local authorities will have to find out parents’ wishes in relation to schools and extended services and reflect those wishes in their strategic plans. The effect of the clause, taken together with the provisions in clause 1 and in clause 3, which we shall debate this morning, will be to make the system more responsive. Depending on the nature and level of parental demand, that could mean bringing pressure to bear on failing or coasting schools to improve standards; it could mean encouraging schools to federate to improve; encouraging popular schools to expand; and enabling new and innovative school partners to come into the local system by holding a competition for a new school.