Schools White Paper

I do not think that that is the case. I accept that schools are not bursting to come forward with plans for expansion—not many have been put forward in recent years, some have been approved, and some have been turned down—and if there are barriers in the system that prevent schools from even thinking about that, we want to remove them. The more likely model, however, is one that I see happening with my own eyes in my constituency. I have a head teacher who runs a successful school and I have a school that has been in special measures and has been very weak for many years. The head teacher of the successful school has now become executive principal of both, and the result, even in a very short space of time, has been dramatic. If we can get successful heads to want to take over under-performing, failing schools, that will drive up standards very quickly and spread opportunity across the system. The people who will benefit are those who are disadvantaged and who really need to benefit. That is at the heart of this White Paper.