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School plans 'boost parent power' Parents to trigger school changes
(about 1 hour later)
Some schools, like city academies, are not controlled by councils Parents in England might be able to trigger council intervention in unsatisfactory local schools under new plans announced by Gordon Brown.
Parents in England could get the power to force councils to improve the quality of local schools under new plans to be announced by Gordon Brown. Details have yet to be worked out but might involve local authorities surveying parental opinion.
The proposals would allow parents to demand action at a school even if their children were not pupils. If it were negative, councils would then have to get good schools to help out the weaker ones in federations.
Currently, worried parents can trigger an inquiry by the schools inspector Ofsted, but only the government can compel councils to act. The idea, after a tough week for the prime minister, is a response to Tory plans to let parents set up schools.
The Lib Dems dismissed the prime minister's ideas as "desperate stuff". Speaking in south London at a federation of two schools under an executive head, Mr Brown said the drive for world class schools in Britain required a more strategic role for government.
Mr Brown is expected to outline the plans in a speech on Tuesday. Response
The proposals are expected to be part of the Schools White Paper being published in June. "So we will look at how local authorities can improve their knowledge of what parents want and how satisfied they are with their local schools and where there is significant dissatisfaction with the pattern of secondary school provision, and where standards across an area are too low - then the local authority will be required to act.
1245: Gordon Brown on Education (UK only) "This could mean either the creation of a federation of schools, an expansion of good school places or, in some cases, the establishment of entirely new schools."
If agreed, they would give parents of primary age pupils the right to complain about a secondary school that their children might attend in the future. As usual Mr Brown talked about Britain but in the UK's devolved education systems his proposals would apply only to England.
The local authority would then be compelled to take steps to raise standards there. And the idea is still in the planning stage. The Department for Children, Schools and Families was not able to say how it would operate in practice.
Actions could include replacing the head teacher or forcing the struggling school to work in partnership with a successful one to effect change. Parents can already invite Ofsted inspections - but only in schools where they have children.
City academies The new idea is that they could require an intervention in other local schools too.
The details of the proposals are still to be finalised. Details will be in a white paper due to be published next month which will also include proposals for school "report cards".
For example, it is not clear yet exactly how parent dissatisfaction would be measured, although one option could be to use so-called school report cards, proposed by Schools Secretary Ed Balls in March. These would assign an overall score based on a range of factors such as test results and an assessment of pupils' well-being as well as the views of parents and children.
The education department is fast running out of money David Laws, Lib Dems Mr Brown said: "A good education for every child is no longer just desirable it is indispensable.
These would give schools an overall grade and would take into account the progress of every child, not just the average. "If we don't invest in the future we have no future."
It is also not clear whether greater parental power would apply to every state school. Mr Brown's initiative follows a difficult week politically in which he had to abandon a proposal for MPs' expenses reform and suffered a surprise defeat in the Commons on the issue of Gurkhas' settlement rights.
Some, like city academies, are publicly funded, but are not controlled by councils. However, local authorities do still have a strategic role in the overall quality of all schools in their area. Some cabinet ministers have been coming to his defence after speculation about his leadership in newspaper articles over the weekend.
Responding to the proposals, Lib Dem education spokesman David Laws said they did "nothing to challenge the impression of a government which has little to offer either parents or pupils". The general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, John Dunford, said the parent power proposal was "completely unnecessary".
"This sounds like pretty desperate stuff from the prime minister," Mr Laws added.
"The vast majority of this speech isn't new, and what is new is unlikely to be delivered by a government which increasingly looks like it is in its final death throes.
"The education department is fast running out of money and has also clearly run out of ideas and direction."