asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether academies are their preferred model for school improvement.

My Lords, a range of school improvement approaches are available to local authorities and the department to raise standards in schools, including academies. The National Challenge aims to secure higher standards in all secondary schools, with a focus on ensuring that all schools achieve above the floor target of 30 per cent of students achieving five good GCSEs, including English and maths. Academies are a central part of the challenge, alongside National Challenge trusts, federations and additional support from National Challenge advisers.

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for that very encouraging reply. I wish to ask about a slightly detailed area. Can she confirm the enormous success of the academy in the great city of Liverpool? Some of us had an opportunity to meet prospective pupils from the Sacred Heart and Kensington primary schools. Can she confirm that all the good work being done in the academy will be available to those young children and live up to the great motto, "Only the best will do"?

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his question and allowing me to say that the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Liverpool chairs the governors of the Academy of St Francis of Assisi in Liverpool and has been a champion of the programme since it started. As the noble Lord opposite knows, the academy is situated in a deprived area of Liverpool and, thanks to the right reverend Prelate's efforts and those of the staff, the academy has made good progress since it opened, as Ofsted noted last year. I am sure that the right reverend Prelate and the noble Lord agree that there is more to do, but that academy, the North Liverpool Academy and the Belvedere Academy are helping to improve the life chances of pupils across Liverpool.

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that among their virtues, academies do two very valuable things; they help to bridge the gap between the maintained and independent sectors, which has had such a baleful legacy in the history of education in this country, and they attract more investment into schools in deprived areas?

My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord, and he gives me an opportunity to say how delighted I am that my noble friend Lord Adonis is sitting next to me on the Front Bench and how pleased I am that we in the ministerial team at the DCSF are able to continue the work he has championed on academies. Most importantly, academies do well by the children that they serve and are improving standards consistently; there is strong evidence to support this.

My Lords, the Liverpool academies are clearly serving their community. Will the Government consider allowing local authorities to select the sponsors for academies, based on their educational expertise and commitment to the particular community, rather than their bank balance?

My Lords, the noble Baroness gives me a chance to highlight the importance of the National Challenge, a programme working directly with local authorities to address the challenge of schools that are falling below the 30 per cent floor that I talked about. We are investing £400 million through the National Challenge to help those schools that have the furthest to go in terms of helping the pupils whom they serve. Academies are one option out of a very important range of support that will be negotiated and developed in partnership with local authorities. This work is going on in the department as we speak.

My Lords, I declare an interest. In fact, I have a personal involvement in three city academies. While the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, is in his place, I thank him for his personal work on the achievement of the academies in Liverpool. I thank also the noble Lord, Lord Lyell, for recognising the tremendous achievement of the young people in their academy in Kensington.

The Minister will be aware that in the spring of this year it was ruled that sponsors no longer needed to make a financial contribution, either to the capital costs or to the endowment of an academy. Will the noble Baroness recognise that those who entered into agreements before the spring of this year are now, in the light of the present economic downturn, finding it very difficult to raise the full sponsorship money? Can she undertake to review those agreements, so that those academy projects are not put at risk?

My Lords, I am very happy to hear what the right reverend Prelate says. As I said, an enormous amount of work is being undertaken, as we speak, through the National Challenge programme to work with local authorities to identify exactly what packages of help they need to support the schools in their areas. I shall be happy to look at this question and come back to him.

My Lords, is the Minister prepared to answer the Question posed by my noble friend Lord Lyell? Are academies the Government's preferred model?

My Lords, I tried to answer the Question as well as I could. We have a preferred model, which is to provide a range of options that best suit the needs of the children and young people in a particular area. In areas that struggle and face the greatest possible challenge, an academy will almost certainly be the right and preferred option. We are absolutely committed to meeting our target of developing and opening new academies, and I know that only a couple of weeks ago the Secretary of State announced his commitment to open some new academies this year. I absolutely support the role of academies in promoting improved school results for young people.

My Lords, important as the academies are to the improvement of schools, does the Minister not agree that the most important factor is the quality of the teachers? Does she accept that the Government's investment in teaching, particularly the Training and Development Agency for Schools, has tremendously improved the status of teaching and made it a significantly more attractive profession? Is that not a very welcome improvement over the past 10 years?

My Lords, one of the greatest successes of academies will be the strong leadership that they bring to schools. Obviously, the increase in the number of teachers in the UK, their improved status and the financial support for teaching have also played very important roles in driving up standards in this country.