Education and Inspections Bill

A generation ago, there was a great debate in this country on how we should run the economy. On one side were those who argued in favour of big government, planning and protecting failed industries and institutions; on the other were those who advocated competition, allowing successful institutions to expand and letting industries that were no longer fit for purpose fail. The latter view prevailed because some of the brighter elements in the Labour party recognised that the debate was no longer worth having, and that they needed to adapt. The same is happening now, in that those brighter elements recognise that the values of choice and diversity are also vital to our public services. Fundamentally, that is what this Bill is about. Clause 2, which deals with choice and diversity, makes it clear that local education authorities must have regard to"““securing diversity in the provision of schools, and . . . increasing opportunities for parental choice.””" Clause 3 states that they must take into account parental representations on these matters, and that they ““must have regard to”” guidance provided by the Secretary of State. That provides a huge opportunity. The Secretary of State could say that if a majority of parents petition for a school to become a foundation school, it must become one. That is an excellent step. There will be many more foundation schools than community schools. The Government, of course, have a vested interest in encouraging more foundation schools; it is, after all, a flagship policy. A few weeks ago, there was a power of veto preventing the creation of any new community schools, but the Government have bowed to pressure from their Back Benchers. Who is to say that they will not reverse their position once the pressure is off? I hope that they do, that the veto will be used to prevent the creation of such schools, and that we will see more foundation schools. The Bill includes powers for the Secretary of State to close failing schools in the interests of the welfare of children. If we have more foundation schools, what powers will they have? They will have powers under the power to innovate programme and they can seek further derogations from regulations. For example, the Department is in discussion with some schools about varying local teachers’ pay and conditions. That could be devolved to a local level under the Bill. The buzz phrase—everybody is using it in all sorts of situations—is direction of travel. There is no doubt about the direction of travel of the Bill. It is in the right direction, at least from my perspective, and I welcome it.