Clause 7
Education and Inspections Bill
9:00 am
Annette Brooke (Children & the Family, Cross-Portfolio and Non-Portfolio Responsibilities; Mid Dorset and North Poole, Liberal Democrat)
The hon. Gentleman misunderstands my point. I am suggesting that we are not talking necessarily about a call for a locally delivered service to which one would expect an instantaneous response. The proposal would mean a great deal of expense for a local authority. It is not the same as ensuring that the refuse lorry goes down someone’s street next week. The proposal represents a lot of work for the principals involved. As my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, North-West (Greg Mulholland) said, we think that it is an interesting concept for the local authority to have to review some of its processes or perhaps to convene a committee. However, to start triggering the whole process of setting up a new school is an administrative burden that is a few steps too far.
I should like to be brief. I was moving on from that point and I think that I am delaying the Committee. On the Liberal Democrats’ probing amendment, I should like to convey our real concerns, as we move further through the Bill, about the governance of schools being taken away from the local community. I believe in local decision making. We do not even know how far the governance will be taken and in what direction, but it is pertinent, in respect of this clause, to know who will be able to set up a trust foundation and take on the valuable assets of the local authority and the community. As far as we can see, looking at the potential for trustees, there could be mismanagement of those valuable community assets, yet later in the Bill we will see the power to control those taken away from the local community. I want to underline why we have the greatest concerns about the proposals for trust schools.