Clause 31
Education and Inspections Bill
2:15 pm
Nadine Dorries (Mid Bedfordshire, Conservative)
The idea of foundation schools is to create schools maintained by the state, but to exercise within that system the freedom to manage and teach. Regrettably, the Secretary of State sometimes falls short of that objective in the Bill. She is still attempting to micromanage all schools, even foundation schools.
Subsection (3) permits local authorities, or persons appointed by them, to be part of a foundation, even though subsection (2) says that the foundation must be a body corporate and a charity. The amendment would delete subsection (3) and replace it with the instruction that local authorities cannot be on foundations for foundation schools. If they were, it would make a nonsense of the scheme.
It is no secret that I and, I suppose, my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough, are outriders. We are opposed to all LEAs. The other day, the Minister laughed at me when I cited the example of Essex LEA, but I meant Essex. It does not matter to me what political colour a local education authority is. I do not approve of local education authorities being involved, especially as the essence of the Bill is the freedom of new schools, be they trust schools, foundation schools, grant-maintained schools or whatever one wishes to call them. LEAs restrict freedom and good management, and we do not want them to have any part in the running of a foundation, a trust or a grant-maintained school.