By Richard Johnstone in Bournemouth | 9 July 2014
The Local Government Association has called on the next government to create local education trusts to drive school improvement across England and end the confusion over accountability following the coalition’s controversial reforms.
Setting out its priorities ahead of the next general election, the LGA said today local trusts should replace the current two-tier structure, which sees around 3,500 academies and free schools accountable to the Department for Education and its Education Funding Agency, with the remainder the responsibility of local government.
David Simmonds, chair of the LGA’s children and young people board, said the oversight system for free schools and academies lacked the necessary capacity and local knowledge.
Councils are still responsible for the 84% of schools that are not academies or free schools, but they lack adequate powers to hold all schools to account and work together, he said.
‘Education trusts would strip away this bureaucracy and provide an easily identifiable place which parents can turn to,’ Simmonds added.
‘Someone has to take responsibility for the accountability of schools and with local knowledge and links to the community councils are ideally placed to take this role on.
‘Additionally, education trusts would bring a shift away from the tick box culture of Ofsted inspections by fostering peer support and reviews which will drive school improvement. Councils will be in a position to intervene should there be a problem but otherwise, through mutual support, we see no reason why there cannot be a shift away from Ofsted inspections to peer support and enabling the profession to deliver for children and mums and dads.’
Under the LGA’s plans, education trusts could be set up in every area by the next government. The proposal is one of the recommendations in its Investing in our nation’s future – the first 100 days of the next government report, setting out policy ideas ahead of next May’s general election.
The local education trusts would be put on a statutory footing and every school, regardless of type, would have a legal duty to work together.
Local areas would be free to use a model that best suited their needs, but ultimate accountability for every school would rest with the local authority.
The National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers said the proposal was a welcome addition to the debate about addressing the democratic deficit in the school system.
General secretary Chris Keates said: ‘Recent education policy reforms have weakened democratic accountability as more and more power has been handed to unelected education providers at the expense of parents and local communities.
‘Serious fault lines have now appeared across the education landscape which means that children’s entitlement to a local school place, fair admissions, a broad and balanced curriculum and to be taught by qualified teachers are at the mercy of individual education providers.’
