10 November 2006
Government policy to promote school independence and improve the wellbeing of deprived children has created a 'real tension', the Audit Commission has warned.
In its report More than the sum, published on November 8, the commission says that instead of viewing themselves at the heart of a community, many schools have an isolated vision of themselves as competitors for mobile, affluent families.
The report, on how councils and schools work together, argues: 'A real tension [exists] which schools and councils have to manage. This is a tension between… a commitment to the idea of schools at the heart of the local community and… maximising parental choice, with the consequent movement of children away from their local community and the school which serves it.'
Andrew Webb, director of children's services at Stockport Council and co-chair of the Association of Directors of Social Services' children and families panel, backed the report's conclusions.
He told Public Finance that initiatives such as foundation schools, academies and school trusts created 'more and more incentives for schools to create distance between themselves and local communities – just at a time when we, and apparently also the government, are trying to deliver the Every Child Matters agenda.'
Whereas initiatives such as homework and breakfast clubs, parenting classes and after-school care produced 'real results' for deprived children, schools did not have an incentive to offer these services, he said. They preferred to attract more affluent, high-achieving children. Councils had little power to demand schools behaved otherwise.
'If a school wants to pursue academic standards, then it'll want to recruit parents with the highest aspirations and there is evidence that it will ditch some of these wrap-around services which will encourage parents from more disadvantaged areas,' Webb told PF.
'The government's policy on school choice encourages people to think about school governance and structures rather than to concentrate on outcomes for all.'
But Les Lawrence, the Local Government Association's spokesman on children and young people, told PF the commission had over-generalised.
He said that such a tension existed only in urban areas with mixed income groups.
In the main, a new duty on schools to promote wellbeing and reformed inspection arrangements would address these concerns.
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