The recent Centre for Policy Studies report makes a surprisingly weak case for the abolition of a clutch of education quangos. The Right-wing think-tank proposes that Ofsted be restricted to inspecting 'failing schools' (though currently its inspections reach that conclusion), while bodies responsible for teacher training, the curriculum and schools technology should go.
Some of these organisations have had to take on a much wider remit beyond schools, adding children's social services to their roles, but it doesn't follow that removing that remit or passing responsibilities direct to schools saves money. In fact, it could cost more.
Among the targets are Teachers TV (dismissed in 36 words) – an innovative digital channel that provides lots of teacher training material – and the National College for School Leadership, which trains head teachers and deputies. Both are seen as models by many overseas governments. The NCSL was hailed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last year and its courses are popular with heads.
The Training and Development Agency, as the TTA, turned around graduate perceptions of teaching as a career, making it the top choice even before the recession. Yet it is to go too, apparently because it has been too successful in recruiting teachers. There's a good argument for training teachers in school, as the CPS makes briefly, but the idea that all graduate recruitment can be local is an example of localism at its looniest.
There might be a good case for the curriculum role of the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency to transfer to ministers – the Tories plan this already – but it does rather cut across the notion of greater devolution. And the cost of breaking up the School Teachers' Review Body and getting rid of the national agency for schools technology, Becta, could exceed any savings: while some academies set their own pay levels, most heads choose not to do so. Good kitemarking and procurement should save money with technology – if Becta isn't doing this well enough, reform it, don't scrap it.
The truth is that it's easier to argue for scrapping quangos than it is to make a good case for getting rid of many individual bodies. And the CPS report is a pretty thin effort, reeking of ideological distaste for recent changes in education rather than providing a rational approach for the future.
Should anyone follow their prescription to the letter, I suspect the savings will be rather less than that which they imagine, and might be reversed by the extra costs faced by schools. Equally, as the Tories plan more independent state schools, expect a few new education quangos to see them through.
