Education and Inspections Bill

I have a great deal of sympathy with that point of view. What I want most of all is to scrutinise the Bill properly; I just do not think that we can do it at midnight. I beg to move Amendment No. 92: Page 13, line 32, at end insert- ““(g) a reduction in the statutory proportion of elected parent governors on a school's governing body”” The noble Baroness said: I shall also speak to Amendments Nos. 103, 105, 107, 108, 110 andClause 33 stand part, which are grouped with Amendment No. 92. The amendments would prevent any alterations being made to the governance of schools that would result in the reduction of the statutory number of elected parent governors. Therefore, a foundation could not remove parent governors so that it could have a majority on the board. Far from being averse to parents having real power in schools, as claimed on an earlier group by the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe, we on these Benches believe that governing bodies should be representative of parents and the local community, no matter what model of governance they have otherwise. The Minister implied that we could not have trusts without them being given majority control of governing bodies. Why not? I do not see why, if the trust is really operating in the interests of the children and parents rather than in its own interests. Surely the most important people to whom a school should be accountable are the children and their parents. The provision for parent councils that are purely advisory and have no teeth is merely a sop which inadequately makes up for the removal of parents from the organ of real power—the governing body. For 30 years the governing bodies of schools in the UK have operated on a consensus—a partnership between parents, staff, the local authority and the wider community. The governing body of Alsager School, on which I had the honour to serve before I came to your Lordships' House, was a model of such a partnership. We are all aware of the difficulties of getting people to serve on governing bodies these days, because of the great legal burdens put on them. All the same, the model works well and has wide support. Parent governors are of particular value in creating links between the governors and the wider body of parents, feeding in their concerns and points of view, and representing the views of the governors to the parents. However, it is important that those parent governors are not just placemen. They have more credibility as independent representatives of parents’ opinions when they have democratic legitimacy, so parents appointed to the board by sponsors just will not do. In his response to this amendment in another place, the Minister there said that the Bill allowed the right level of flexibility for schools to decide for themselves about the best model for them. He said that the necessary safeguards are built in, including a mechanism for removing a trust or its ability to appoint a majority of the governing body if the governing body feels that that is best. I ask noble Lords: do turkeys vote for Christmas? The idea of a trust school governing body voting to abolish itself is ludicrous. No. We need better safeguards than that. On the Question whether Clause 33 shall stand part of the Bill, I say that the clause is quite unnecessary; and this is the kind of thing to which I referred a few moments ago in response to the business statement. Parent councils are purely advisory and no substitute for properly elected parent governors and proper accountability through the ballot box of their election. I am passionately in favour of meaningful involvement of parents in their children’s schools. I have always been a member of the PTA of my children’s schools. I believe that they give the opportunity for vital links between parents and teachers. But parents need an adequate voice on the decision-making body of the school and that is the board of governors. As I said earlier, the parent council is purely advisory and any school which really wants one can set it up now. It does not need this legislation to allow it to do so. It is another of the many parts of the Bill which are superfluous. We are wasting our time talking about them. No, this is a sop since the shift from a community school to a foundation school would entail the reduction of elected parent governors from three to one. Others could be appointed but they would never be regarded as being truly independent of the sponsors and no sponsor would resist the temptation to appoint only those who he believes concur with his point of view. The benefits of parent councils are not clear. Why would they be better than three elected parent governors? Why would they be better than a good PTA where home-school links are so often forged? Why, if the Government really want to strengthen the power of parents, do they not strengthen the role of parent governors rather than reducing their number? The Government say one thing about parents and do the opposite. From their deeds shall you know them. I commend the amendment to the Committee.