28 July 2006
It's been all around the Houses, argued over and amended beyond recognition. And it only managed to get this far with Opposition support. Phil Revell considers the progress of the controversial education legislation and what lies ahead before it becomes an Act
It's had almost 12 months of debate, six months of parliamentary time, half a dozen backbench revolts and hundreds of amendments – and it's still not finished. Labour's controversial Education Bill is now unlikely to receive royal assent until November – and that's at the earliest.
Some Labour rebels believe they have drawn the teeth of the Bill. David Chaytor sits on the education select committee and was one of the leaders of the opposition campaign in its early stages. 'We achieved significant changes,' he tells Public Finance. 'The big shift was between the release of the white paper in October and the publication of the Bill; there were changes of emphasis and detail.'
But 46 rebel MPs held out to the end and the then education secretary Ruth Kelly saw her first major piece of legislation scrape through the Commons on the back of Conservative party support. The Education and Inspections Bill was preceded by a white paper that unleashed a storm of debate and controversy. Prime Minister Tony Blair poured fuel on the flames by emphasising his personal commitment to the most contentious proposal – that schools should be encouraged to form trusts and become independent within the state sector. Almost as contentious were the proposals that local authorities should lose their power to create new schools, and that failing schools would face closure within a year unless they could demonstrate real progress.
When the Bill was published in February, there were some changes, but not enough to deflect a series of backbench rebellions, with the largest involving 69 rebels.
Shadow schools minister Nick Gibb explained to Public Finance why his party supported the Bill's progress through the Commons. 'The Bill isn't perfect, but we were happy to support the government on this issue. The Bill should have gone much further and we regret the concessions made to the Labour Left. We don't want a homogeneous system; we would have given schools even more autonomy,' he says.
Veteran MP Michael Meacher summed up the mood of the Bill's opponents. 'We need a wholly different model, not one that tinkers with structures and private markets – and then has to be tinkered with again to ameliorate some of the worst effects – but a modernised public services model,' he says.
By May, the government had won over some of the doubters. Concessions included a new admissions code that would outlaw the practice where schools interview prospective parents, and a commitment to restrict selection to the remaining grammar schools. Local authorities were told that high performers would be able to create new schools – with the education secretary's permission.
Most observers believe that there will be few new amendments as the legislation passes through the Lords, and former education secretary Estelle Morris sees the concessions won as a demonstration of the effectiveness of the democratic process.
'I think it has been neutralised,' she says. 'We had the row at the right time to make a difference.'
But has the Bill been 'neutralised'? MPs failed to persuade ministers that trust schools were unnecessary, or that parents should have a right to a ballot before their school converted to a trust.
A common assumption made by many observers was that few schools would be interested in trusts. Around a third are already foundation schools, effectively independent of the local authority. Head teachers were said to be lukewarm about the benefits of trust status. But, as the Bill progressed, that situation may have changed.
On July 14, Paul Kelley, the head of Whitley Bay's Monkseaton Language College, outlined his proposals for trust status to MPs. The school has signed memorandums of understanding with the software giant Microsoft and the Open University. Kelley says: 'Trust status offers a formal framework based on charitable arrangements that allows companies such as Microsoft to have a long-term partnership focused on educational objectives.
'Microsoft has zero interest in running this school. Along with other partners, it is joining with us to create solutions that benefit our students and can be scaled up to national levels to benefit other schools.'
Monkseaton is one of dozens of schools that have expressed an interest in trust status. At a recent dinner held by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, Sir Cyril Taylor urged his audience to consider the benefits. Many head teachers present were said to be considering the move.
One from the Northwest explains why: 'Trust status goes beyond foundation status. It offers us protection from local authority initiatives we would rather not get involved in.'
In Essex, the local authority is aware of several schools that are considering the change. The council has written to its head teachers suggesting that trust schools could be one model for partnership working under Every Child Matters, the government's programme for integrated children's services.
'It is in this setting we see trust arrangements having potential impact,' it says.
MPs also failed to make any substantial changes to the arrangements for school admissions. Schools are now bound by the admissions code, instead of merely having to 'have regard' to it. But the details of how the code will work in practice have yet to be published, and experts are sceptical whether the legislation will make any difference.
Professor Anne West, director of the Centre for Educational Research at the London School of Economics, argues that: 'Schools have a vested interest in recruiting kids who are easier to teach.'
Many parents are unable to find a suitable school for their child because local selective and church schools take large numbers of children from outside their immediate catchment area. Many of these are foundation schools, and control their own admissions. Entry is by ability in a selective school, or by religious affiliation, with parents having to prove that they are regular churchgoers. But these arrangements are entirely legal, and will not be affected by the provisions in the Bill.
'Until admission arrangements are taken out of the hands of individual schools, there will not be a fair system,' says West.
David Chaytor believes that this situation will be exposed by the new choice advisers local authorities have to provide. This might 'actually raise the level of public understanding on parental choice', he says.
But in many areas the advisers will be reduced to confirming what parents already know – that there is no local school place available for their child.
One major element in the Bill that appears to have slipped under everyone's radar is the section on changes to the 14–19 curriculum. These received very little attention on the floor of the House of Commons and were not discussed at all when the Bill went through its report stages.
Yet one local authority expert describes them as the 'biggest change agenda that we have ever seen in education'.
Between 2008 and 2013, the Bill proposes to change the nation's examination system completely. There will be 14 specialised vocational diplomas, which the Department for Education and Skills calls 'lines of learning'. Running alongside the traditional GCSEs and A-levels, the new diplomas will be offered at three levels. Levels One and Two will be comparable, in terms of average length of study, to between four and six GCSEs; a Level Three diploma will be comparable to three A-levels.
By 2013, students should have access to 42 different diploma courses. But teachers and school managers face a revolution in the way they work if they are to provide these courses.
'This is not realistic for any one educational institution,' says Jo Rowley, a deputy head at Walton High School in Staffordshire who has assessed the new system for the Association of School and College leaders. 'It could be a challenge for some schools and colleges to deliver just one or two diplomas at all three levels,' she says.
Pilot arrangements for the new diplomas have focused on the post-16 sector, with Wolverhampton and Knowsley demonstrating how institutions can collaborate to achieve success. But schools will have to co-ordinate their timetables with local further education providers, as well as track young people who take their GCSEs at school but their diploma on the other side of town.
Rowley argues that it is optimistic and naive to assume that collaboration will solve all these problems. 'School and college leaders know that collaboration works best when institutions are geographically close and the project is heavily subsidised,' she says, citing transport costs as one critical issue the 14–19 proposals are silent on.
Collaboration also sits uneasily with school autonomy, a point that worries Estelle Morris. 'I am in favour of collaboration and private sector involvement in education. I didn't share other people's concerns about those aspects of the Bill; I spent most of the past seven years getting these things on to the statute book. But the danger is what happens next, and I worry about the march to independence at the expense of interdependence,' she says.
Chaytor agrees. 'Independence and insularity are the main problems, not the linking with foundations or private sponsors. The issue should be around how to properly regulate increasingly autonomous schools,' he says.
Countdown to completion: the Bill's progress
2005
October – White paper published.
2006
February 28
Education and Inspections Bill published, first Commons' reading.
March 15
Second Commons' reading. The first vote is won by 458 to 115 with the support of 176 Conservative MPs who cancel out 52 Labour rebels.
May 23
Amendment proposing parental ballots before a school could become a trust defeated by 421 votes to 121: 69 Labour MPs vote against the government.
May 24
Third Commons' Reading. Government majority 324: 46 Labour MPs vote against.
May 25
First (formal) Lords' reading.
June 12
Second Lords' reading with first vote on the Bill in the Upper House.
June 26–July 25
Lords' committee stage.
October
Lords' report stage, followed by Lords' third reading.
The Commons considers Lords' amendments with the possibility of the Bill 'bouncing' between the Houses until there is agreement.
November
Royal assent expected, the Bill passes into law and becomes the Education and Inspections Act 2006.
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