Schools White Paper

My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement. Our approach to his proposals will be straightforward. Wherever the Government promote rigour, encourage discipline, and give schools more autonomy and parents more choice, we will support them. With the Cabinet clearly divided regarding this crucially important issue of how we genuinely achieve higher standards in schools for all, our real concern is whether the many promises set out in this White Paper will actually materialize. After all, eight years ago this Government abolished grant-maintained schools. Let us remember: those were state schools, free of local authority control, able to set their own culture and ethos. That sounds familiar does it not? Why has it taken the Government eight years to have the courage to admit that the one-size-fits-all approach to education has now failed generations of children? Turning now to the key issues, let me begin with school autonomy. All the evidence shows that standards rise when schools are free to innovate, free to diversify, and free to specialise. The question for the Government is this: will today’s proposals lead to real autonomy? Real autonomy means schools controlling their own finances. So will the Minister confirm that in future funding for schools will go directly to them or will it continue to go through the local education authorities? We have a sense that the role of the local education authority is set to remain strong. Is that as a result of Cabinet disagreement? Is it really possible for schools to have real autonomy, when the local education authorities control their budgets? We see that local authorities will change from ““provider”” to ““commissioner””. Is this a leopard changing its spots? How, in practice, will they engage with parents to achieve fairer access to,"““good schools in every area””?" Real autonomy means head teachers in control, not tied up in centralised rules, regulations and bureaucracy. So will the Minister take action and cut paperwork, including the self-evaluation reports running to hundreds of pages that are driving head teachers up the wall? What guarantee can he give that this White Paper will not add to bureaucracy? Can the noble Lord tell us whether the new parents’ councils will replace governing bodies, or will they be set up in addition to them? If the Government want real autonomy can he confirm that these independent schools in the state sector will own their buildings and land, employ their own staff, have the freedom to expand and the ability to opt out of national agreements? One of the statements in the White Paper that concerns me most is,"““widening curriculum choice in secondary education, so that more young people are motivated by study that interests them.””" Will the Minister please at least attempt to allay my fears by confirming today that this so called ““personalised learning”” will not in any way compromise or diffuse educational standards, and that this is not about undermining academic subjects, so that it looks like pupils’ attainment has increased? We accept that it is important to motivate and inspire. However, the national curriculum supports the core subjects and should not be tampered with lightly. We support the proposal to get independent providers into the state sector. But we have heard it so many times before from this Government—in 1998, 2002 and earlier this year. Can the Minister confirm that so far one—just one—additional independent school has come into the state sector? The White Paper talks of a new role for LEAs. Can he tell us what will be done to stop them preventing new providers from coming into the sector? If they are replacing school organisation committees—another set of quangos that Labour set up and is now abolishing—will not the problem get even worse? The next point is the expansion of good schools. Education Ministers have repeatedly given assurances that the surplus places rule did not exist. Yesterday, the Prime Minister confirmed that it did and that it would be scrapped. Why has it taken so long for the Government to identify and get rid of the road blocks to giving us more good school places? The White Paper praises city academies. We back academies, which are, after all, based on Conservative city technology colleges. But how will he avoid the real danger that they end up replicating failed comprehensives in smart new buildings? Will he give them real freedom in setting admissions? Will he let the business backers cut waste and open their buildings to the community so that they can be engines of regeneration, not islands of investment? The next key issue is a difficult one for any Government: admissions. We all want to move from the situation where we have selection by house price to genuine diversity in schools, with parents having choice. But the Government have created total confusion over this issue. One briefing suggested the compulsory banding and then bussing of children across LEAs. This would represent top-down social engineering beyond even the wildest dreams of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. So will the Minister rule out bussing designed to meet some arbitrary central admissions quota? The White Paper argues that streaming and setting should be the norm in schools. We agree. Again, as with ““personalised learning”” can we be sure that this is not a means to achieving targets? Will the minister confirm that in streaming, pupils are taught in classes according to academic ability and attainment so that if they do not bother to work they move down a stream or if their work improves they move up a stream? If the Government are serious about standards is it not time to reform the QCA, to insist on rigour in exam standards and to give heads the final say on discipline and exclusions? Yesterday the Prime Minister said that this is a pivotal moment. In the past eight years we have had lines in the sand, final moments, final chances, defining moments—and now it is pivotal. But it has been pivotal for pupils and parents all along. The problem is this Government’s sheer inability to act. What I fear is that only the worst parts of the White Paper will be implemented and the best will be forgotten. The only way that the best ideas in this White Paper have a chance of being introduced is if we have a Government who believe heart, head and soul in rigour, autonomy and choice. It is the relationship between pupil and teacher and excellence in teaching that will raise standards in all our schools. This must be underpinned by a strong curriculum. If the White Paper is as pivotal as the Prime Minister says it is, I believe it is essential that noble Lords have an opportunity to debate it on the Floor of the House. That debate should be accommodated well before Christmas so that the House has an opportunity to influence the development of policy.