28 October 2005
Education experts fear white paper proposals will increase inequality and cause admissions chaos
Proposals to 'free' schools from council control will exacerbate inequalities and frustrate child protection plans, education experts warned this week.
The education white paper, heralded by ministers as a 'once in a generation' opportunity to transform school standards, set out a new role for local authorities as commissioners, rather than providers, of education.
It proposed ceding LEAs' powers over assets and admissions to individual schools. They will be placed under a new statutory duty to promote choice, diversity and fair access.
'[Local authorities] will become the… champion of the pupil and parent and the local strategic leader,' Education Secretary Ruth Kelly said at the document's launch on October 26.
'They will tackle coasting and failing schools. They will oversee competitions to deliver new schools, and they will work with the office of the schools commissioner that I will create to promote new trust schools and academies in response to parental demand.'
But education managers forecast chaos, particularly over admissions. One senior education source told Public Finance the proposal would make the whole admissions process more adversarial.
'Every school will be its own admissions authority and all sorts of Spanish practices go on to get rich kids into good schools,' he said. 'In terms of equity, this is going to make things far worse for disadvantaged children.'
Chris Waterman, executive director of the Confederation of Education and Children's Services Managers, said LEAs were doing a good job and improving. 'They offer strategic oversights which will be more difficult to maintain when every school owns its own land, employs its own staff and manages its own admissions,' he told PF.
'There is no evidence in the white paper that the government's aim of increasing social mobility and assisting disadvantaged children will in fact materialise.'
There are further worries that the thrust of the white paper, with its promise to open up options to within six miles of a child's home, goes against the grain of the Every Child Matters programme, which aims to deliver seamless services.
The Local Government Association criticised the white paper for failing to give councils enough clout.
Alison King, chair of the LGA's children and young people's board, said councils would be able to negotiate admissions guidelines only for three years at new schools, while they would be unable to influence them at all in existing schools.
'This flaw means new schools will soon be able to go their own way,' she said. 'Schools must work within a shared system that promotes improvement and fair access. While most local authorities have been given a role in championing children and challenging schools, we need sufficient teeth with which to achieve this for all children and with all schools.'
The white paper also set out plans for trust schools that will own their own assets, directly employ their own staff and be able to vary the National Curriculum to suit their own ethos. They would be backed by an external partner such as a not-for-profit company, faith group or parent group.
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