By Richard Johnstone | 16 June 2014
The Local Government Association has called on the government to restore ‘stability’ to school governance by returning powers over school intervention to town halls.
Following an investigation by education watchdog Ofsted into extremism in schools in Birmingham, the umbrella group of local authorities said reestablishing local oversight of all schools was vital. The review by Ofsted found that some academies breached their funding agreements by failing to provide a ‘broad and balanced’ curriculum, and five schools were placed in special measures.
David Simmonds, chair of the LGA's children and young people board, said that in particular, local authorities should have the power to trigger Ofsted inspections as well as challenging governors and scrutinising budgets.
Currently, schools that convert to academies, as well as free schools established by parents and other groups, are free from local authority control.
Councils support school choice and have worked with both their primary and secondary schools to convert to academy status if required, Simmonds said. However, far too many schools remain under notice to improve and councils want to be able help schools improve without negotiating bureaucratic hurdles and obtaining permission from Whitehall.
‘Whitehall acknowledges that it lacks the capacity and local knowledge to oversee the more than 3,500 academies and free schools in England and parents deserve a local organisation to act as a first port of call if they are not satisfied with the response from their child's school or its governing body,’ he added.
‘Mums and dads concerned about their children's education will always turn to their local council for help. But they are rightly becoming increasingly frustrated when their council is unable to intervene.
‘What they do know is that they want their child educated within a safe environment and to the highest level possible. Councils are best placed to ensure that happens.’
It was ‘simply not acceptable’ that poor exam results or an Ofsted inspection should be the only trigger to identify how a school is performing. Allowing councils to trigger inspections themselves would allow for a close eye to be kept on performance, he added.
‘Councils are held to account by local people and would provide children and parents with a streamlined system that allows high education standards and improvement across the board.’
