23 May 2008
Private and voluntary sector organisations will be encouraged to take charge of the education of some of the country's most troubled and challenging young people, under plans announced by the government this week.
The white paper on alternative provision for excluded pupils suggests closing the poorest performing pupil referral units – local authority-run schools for excluded pupils – and piloting new types of schools and programmes.
Launching the white paper on May 20, Schools Secretary Ed Balls said: 'Many alternative settings offer an excellent standard of education but there is a significant minority that are not up to scratch. We want these to improve or close.
'We want local authorities to hold competitions for running settings and encourage more organisations to come forward with the best and most innovative ideas. This could include using more private or voluntary sector providers… No ideas will be refused consideration.'
Currently, 70,000 pupils are being educated outside mainstream schools. Around half have been excluded from school or are at risk of exclusion. But only 1% of these pupils achieve five good GCSEs, something Balls said was 'unacceptable'.
But teaching unions were unhappy with proposals to give a bigger role to the private sector. Martin Johnson, deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: 'Unfortunately, the government has marred its honest and realistic report by insisting on making space for providers with a profit motive.'
Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, agreed. 'Privatisation of education is never acceptable,' she said. 'The last thing PRUs need is to be outsourced to private companies.'
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