Education and Inspections Bill
1:15 pm
David Chaytor (Bury North, Labour)
With respect, I suggest that the hon. Lady reads the White Paper and looks at the Bill more carefully, because that is not my interpretation. The White Paper argues for a different relationship between schools and their local education authority, not for the abolition of LEAs. The failure of the main opposition party to understand the shifting relationship between schools and LEAs is at the heart of the weakness of its position on the Bill and of its amendments.
I would have thought that there was overwhelming consensus among those involved in the management and evaluation of education that the key factors that determine whether a school succeeds are: the quality of management and teaching; the nature and the flexibility of the curriculum; the admissions policy that determines which children gain access to which schools; and wider issues such as parental engagement and the relationship with the local community. Those are the themes that come out time and again in Ofsted’s specific reports, thematic reports and annual reports. I do not recall any Ofsted report saying that the way for a school to improve its weaknesses would be simply to transfer its ownership from the local authority to an external body.
I am not arguing against greater diversity of ownership; I think that it has a role in injecting an element of competition into the system, which I believe helps to drive up standards. What I am arguing against is the simplistic assumption that diversity of ownership can in itself override the key factors of the quality of management, leadership and teaching, the flexibility of the curriculum and the nature of the intake.