What does the scrapping of the education bill mean for schools and LAs?

Tuesday 1st November 2016

The Secretary of State for Education, Justine Greening's, written statement to the House of Commons on 27 October stated:
The Schools that Work for Everyone consultation, which I announced in an oral statement to the House on 12 September, remains ongoing. This consultation asks how we can create more great school places in more parts of the country - including selective places for local areas that want them - and asks our independent schools, universities and faith schools to play their part in improving the quality of our state-funded schools. In addition, my department has renewed its focus on ensuring everything we do drives towards improving social mobility with an emphasis on not just the most disadvantaged families but also on those that are just about managing. Our ambition remains that all schools should benefit from the freedom and autonomy that academy status brings. Our focus, however, is on building capacity in the system and encouraging schools to convert voluntarily. No changes to legislation are required for these purposes and therefore we do not require wider education legislation in this session to make progress on our ambitious education agenda.

The Guardian has published a useful article (extracts below) setting out its take on what the impact of the demise of the education bill will mean for schools and Local Authorities.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/29/what-does-dropping-of-education-bill-mean

The government has announced it is dropping its planned education bill in England, despite it being included in the Queen’s speech. How did that happen?

Five months is a long time in education policy. The “education for all” bill, whose provisions were unveiled by the then chancellor George Osborne in his March budget, was quietly ditched on Thursday after some oblique remarks in a written statement by education secretary Justine Greening. It was a miserable end for Nicky Morgan’s legacy as Greening’s predecessor, and the termination of the David Cameron-Michael Gove era of educational policy-making.

Has this got anything to do with grammar schools?

Not directly. In fact, Greening’s statement, ostensibly announcing a new technical and further education bill, was blunt on that point: the current “Schools that work for everyone” consultation remains on track, “including selective places for local areas that want them”. But Labour detects signs that the government is having second thoughts about grammar schools, and in reality the consultation on selection is open until later in November, with a white paper to come early next year – and presumably another education bill will appear after that. Greening’s move is a clearing of the decks: getting rid of the leftovers from the Morgan regime in order to press on with grammar schools and other higher priorities.

What has been lost with the demise of the bill?

Morgan’s signature measure – that all state schools would be forced to become academies by 2022 – had already been rowed back upon. But Greening’s non-announcement does kill off the government’s stated determination to convert all schools into academies, even without a time frame. Greening’s position is that “our focus … is on encouraging schools to convert voluntarily”. Among the provisions to go is one that required all schools in “underperforming” local authorities to become academies. Another is the abolition of statutory places for parent-governors on the boards of maintained schools.

Where does this leave local authorities and the schools they will still be overseeing?

The old bill would effectively have ended the role of local authorities in schools (other than running admissions), placing school improvement in the hands of regional schools commissioners. The government has already budgeted cuts of £600m for local authority schools services next year. Now local authorities have been left in limbo: they still have school-improvement responsibilities, a large number of mainly primary schools to oversee, and no money to do it with. Naturally they are hoping the government will reverse the cuts and allow them to fund school improvement and other educational functions.

Pam Langmead