By Mark Smulian in Birmingham | 7 July 2011
A pioneer of the free school movement yesterday accused the government of breaking faith with the Big Society idea by putting bureaucratic obstacles in its path.
Journalist Toby Young told the CIPFA conference in Birmingham that ministers last year appeared to believe in a ‘post-bureaucratic age’, in which free schools and other Big Society public services projects would be left to succeed or fail without ministerial interference.
But now ministers feared they would be held accountable for any failures and so had imposed burdensome restraints, he said.
Young, who is setting up a free school in west London, said: ‘The problems are bureaucratic inflexibility, bureaucratic impenetrability and ministerial risk aversion.’
He said his project had tried to partner with the private sector to reduce its capital expenditure, but had been thwarted by public procurement rules. ‘The solution would be for the Department for Education to have a framework contract to allow projects to partner with charitable and private providers,’ he said.
Objections made to free schools on the grounds that promoters would seek special favours for their own children were ‘soluble’, Young added.
The session was also addressed by Phillip Blond, director of the ResPublica think-tank and author of the book Red Tory, widely credited with shaping the prime minister’s thinking on the Big Society.
He denied claims that the Big Society was merely political cover for spending reductions, saying: ‘It is nothing whatsoever to do with cuts, it was conceived long before Lehman Brothers collapsed.’
Blond said the Big Society sought to break up increasing concentrations of assets among the wealthiest.
He said: ‘The problem is not inequality of income but of assets. They have been captured by a very small group who are stripping away capital from others. Unless we have mass asset ownership we will never recover.’
To view Phillip Blond's slides from this session click here
A pioneer of the free school movement yesterday accused the government of breaking faith with the Big Society idea by putting bureaucratic obstacles in its path.
Journalist Toby Young told the CIPFA conference in Birmingham that ministers last year appeared to believe in a ‘post-bureaucratic age’, in which free schools and other Big Society public services projects would be left to succeed or fail without ministerial interference.
But now ministers feared they would be held accountable for any failures and so had imposed burdensome restraints, he said.
Young, who is setting up a free school in west London, said: ‘The problems are bureaucratic inflexibility, bureaucratic impenetrability and ministerial risk aversion.’
He said his project had tried to partner with the private sector to reduce its capital expenditure, but had been thwarted by public procurement rules. ‘The solution would be for the Department for Education to have a framework contract to allow projects to partner with charitable and private providers,’ he said.
Objections made to free schools on the grounds that promoters would seek special favours for their own children were ‘soluble’, Young added.
The session was also addressed by Phillip Blond, director of the ResPublica think-tank and author of the book Red Tory, widely credited with shaping the prime minister’s thinking on the Big Society.
He denied claims that the Big Society was merely political cover for spending reductions, saying: ‘It is nothing whatsoever to do with cuts, it was conceived long before Lehman Brothers collapsed.’
Blond said the Big Society sought to break up increasing concentrations of assets among the wealthiest.
He said: ‘The problem is not inequality of income but of assets. They have been captured by a very small group who are stripping away capital from others. Unless we have mass asset ownership we will never recover.’
To view Phillip Blond's slides from this session click here
