10:30 am
Nick Gibb (Shadow Minister, Children, Schools and Families; Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, Conservative)
Can I ask a couple of quick questions about academies and the YPLA, and then move on to Ofqual? The letter from Mike Butler of the Independent Academies Association says in its opening paragraph:
“It appears with every consultation, each missive and even new legislation from the DCSF, there comes further erosion of the independent status of Academies.”
Will you comment on that? Why was the YPLA chosen to administer the growing number of academies, given that the YPLA was set up to deal with 16-to-19 funding, yet academies go from 11 to 16 or 18, or even from 3 to 18? It seems an odd body to choose to administer academies. Was it just an afterthought—it had to be put somewhere so let us put it in the YPLA?