24 October 2003
Concern over Bradford's schools has moved the Department for Education and Skills to impose a partnership board.
The city's schools were taken over by Education Bradford, run by contractor Serco, in 2001.
The DfES said it had 'specific concerns' about the need for faster progress in schools that are either in special measures or have serious weaknesses. A DfES spokeswoman said: 'The school improvement partnership board has been established to build upon and accelerate progress already made by Education Bradford.
'We are adopting this approach in other areas with other LEAs.' She said that there was 'nothing to add at this stage' on funding.
Mark Pattison, Education Bradford's managing director, said: "Education Bradford has a rigorous process of identifying schools needing additional support. There are 44. This does not mean that these schools would necessarily be in special measures or serious weaknesses if inspected by Ofsted.
'It is our view that the number of schools in special measures or serious weaknesses is nearing its peak and we would expect to see the figure coming down during 2004.'
Serco caused controversy when it negotiated a downward revision of the targets it must hit to trigger bonus payments.
A spokesman said this was because there had not been inspections in the city for two years before it took over following a major reorganisation, and it did not know the true state of schools. 'The scale of difficulty is greater than we first thought,' he said.
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