Lib Dem peer moves amendment to Academies Bill (South Suffolk Liberal Democrats)

South Suffolk Liberal Democrats <southsuffolklibdems@googlemail.com>

Lib Dem peer moves amendment to Academies Bill

June 28, 2010 12:00 AM

Lord Phillips of Sudbury moved an amendment to the Academies Bill to protect successful local schools. The text below gives a summary of the amendment and his speech:

"If the Academy arrangements are entered into other than in relation to a maintained school converted into an Academy, the Secretary of State must be satisfied that the new Academy meets a public need in the area concerned and will not cause undue detriment to any neighbouring school."

We must surely ensure that the Bill does not inadvertently undermine its avowed purpose, "to raise school standards for all".

Michael Gove in the other place and the noble Lord, Lord Hill, in his accomplished Second Reading speech here emphasised that primary focus of helping the educationally underprivileged.

Mr Gove put it this way:

"We believe that the function of the state is to promote equity ... the power of the state should be deployed vigorously to help the vulnerable and the voiceless, those who lack resources and connections, and those who are poor materially and excluded socially"

My amendment is to ensure just that-that the coalition walks that talk and exemplifies its values. It addresses the risk that the free schools-the brand new academies-do not cause undue detriment to existing neighbouring schools. I accept that that would never be the purpose of any group promoting such a new school. However, sometimes any of us-indeed, all of us at times-can so concentrate on our own children and our own back yard that we overlook the needs of others. That is a particular danger when social considerations intrude, as they too often do in this country, vis-à-vis education.

At Second Reading I gave an example from my own part of Suffolk of the proposal to convert a feeder middle school into a secondary academy school. That would devastatingly undermine the really good school into which it feeds by the consequent impact on its entry numbers and all that that would mean for finances, staffing, social balance and, ultimately, morale.

Britain is still a sorely disfigured country-disfigured by acute inequalities of life chances. That underlines, among other things, our social and law and order problems, and leads to huge financial and moral setbacks. It is against this backdrop that I very much hope that the Government will accept this constructive amendment, which will provide an essential but practical safeguard against the unintended consequences of the Bill as it stands.

In summary the reply of Lord Hill was:

"I understand the point that my noble friend Lord Phillips makes. As I said, we have discussed it. It is in no one's interests to come up with proposals that would damage education overall in an area. That is not the intention or purpose.

The decision whether to go ahead with a free school will not be taken in isolation. The Secretary of State has the discretion to take all relevant considerations into account as part of the approval process. Those considerations would, I am sure, include the kind of issues that the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, raises. I go back to my earlier point: it seems inconceivable that concerns of the kind that he has raised with me and the views that I know are held by the people concerned with this case would not be made known, not least by my noble friend. The Secretary of State would have to reflect on those in making his decision."