Education and Inspections Bill

I want to comment on the remarks made by the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, for two reasons. I think that he will recall that at Second Reading I made similar comments about the importance of schools being at the heart of the community. I therefore support that. However—not daily but periodically—I have had to think about decisions such as those to which he referred. About five years ago, it came to our attention that a school serving an out-of-town council estate primary school was producing poor results. Parents were beginning to vote with their feet, moving off the estate, even though that was inconvenient for them, to go to other schools where performance was better. We examined that and I listened carefully to the remarks of my colleagues. I was sympathetic, so we kept the school open and the local authority gave it additional support. I must report to noble Lords that, two weeks ago, the school was put into special measures. So I feel responsible for the fact that for five years, despite all the support, because of all the problems on the estate and in the school, where market forces were ensuring that better parents moved off the estate, and so on, I had not been offering children the quality of education that I felt I should. I have great sympathy with the concept of the school being at the heart of the community. I believe that. But we must also ensure that we are providing good-quality schools, because we cannot support schools that are not providing that basic quality of education.