UK council leaders call for more power over academies and free schools
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Version 0 of 1. UK councils should be given more influence over academies and free schools in their area in the wake of the 'Trojan horse' investigations, council leaders are arguing. The Local Government Association (LGA) wants councils to be have the power to trigger Ofsted inspections, challenge governors, scrutinise budgets and intervene at an early stage in all schools in a region, including free schools and academies. Free schools and academies were originally set up to be free of council control in the belief that they would be able to innovate and provide novel and better forms of schooling. But the LGA wants to reverse some of those reforms. It comes as the government and opposition are debating how to better manage the new schools system without an intermediary level of management between the thousands of academies and national government. "The current two-tier system of accountability is extremely confusing for parents with many not knowing if they should report an issue to their council or the Department for Education," said David Simmonds, chair of the LGA's education board. "It is simply not acceptable that poor exam results or an Ofsted inspection should be the only trigger to identify how a school is performing. At present, there is a real risk of serious issues falling through the gaps and it will not be tolerated by parents or local government. "We shouldn't have to wait until somebody blows the whistle to find out that something could have gone wrong. We need to be continually keeping a close eye on school performance." Four of the five schools in Birmingham placed in special measures last week were academies, which can only be inspected by the DfE or Ofsted. The DfE fiercely opposes attempts to hand back any authority over academies to councils. |