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Mr. Andrew Rowe (Mid-Kent): My right hon. Friend will be aware that before our reforms no school was required to produce an annual report. My experience in Kent is that schools found that as they had to prepare an annual report, they questioned the basis of their teaching, co-operation among departments and their principal selling points. The result has been a marked improvement in quality.

Mrs. Shephard: As my hon. Friend rightly says, the accountability of schools and of the system has been one of the keystones on which we have built all our policies. The Bill encourages and helps schools to respond to parental demand in several ways.

First, the Bill sets thresholds for the percentage of pupils whom school admission authorities may select by ability or aptitude without having to seek central approval.

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They are 50 per cent. for grant-maintained secondary schools, 30 per cent. for LEA specialist schools in their specialist subjects, and 20 per cent. for other schools.

Secondly, the Bill requires the governing bodies of secondary schools to review annually whether to introduce or extend selection as part of their plan for raising standards and improving service to local parents. No school will be obliged to introduce selection, but every school should consider the issue and report its conclusions to parents.

Thirdly, the Bill gives governors of LEA secondary schools that wish to become fully selective the right to publish their own statutory proposals for central approval if they are blocked by the LEA. Similarly, LEA technology colleges and language colleges, and in future sports and arts colleges, will have a right of appeal against a hostile LEA if they want to use their new freedom to select.

Fourthly, the Funding Agency for Schools will be able to propose setting up new grant-maintained schools in any LEA area and it will be able to pay grant to the promoters of new grant-maintained schools to help them prepare development plans.

Fifthly, the Bill extends the scope of the assisted places scheme as a further enhancement of choice for parents. In future, the scheme will cover independent schools that provide only primary education.

Henry Ford offered customers any colour of car they wanted--as long as it was black. Labour offers parents any type of school they want--as long as it is the local comprehensive. The selection and diversity measures in the Bill will help schools to develop their own special strengths and provide what parents want, which is a good education that suits the individual talents, interests and needs of their children.

As I said, we are committed to the principle of choice and diversity. But we are also committed to the principles of holding schools accountable for what they do, while at the same time giving them maximum freedom and independence in making their own decisions. It is no coincidence that some of the highest standards are to be found where those principles have been taken furthest--that is, in grant-maintained schools.

The grant-maintained programme has been a great success. There are now more than 1,100 grant-maintained schools and they are achieving good results. Fourteen out of the top 32 schools identified by Ofsted are grant-maintained. That is because grant-maintained status gives schools the sense that they, and they alone, are responsible for what they do. They sense that it is now their show and that they have the power to determine their own future. That is central to raising standards, because it unlocks energy, initiative and commitment.

Mr. Gerry Sutcliffe (Bradford, South): Grant-maintained schools got a financial incentive. How can schools compete, such as those in Bradford that were not grant-maintained and which need capital to raise standards, when the Government will not give Bradford and other such cities the money to repair schools that are falling down and which have crumbling roofs? Why are the Government not prepared to raise standards by supporting those schools?

Mrs. Shephard: Grant-maintained schools have the funds that they need to run themselves and are

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independent of their local councils. Of course, it is open to any school in the land to apply for grant-maintained status and the advantages that that brings.

Grant-maintained schools have earned our trust. They know their pupils, their parents and their communities. Unlike Opposition Members, we are prepared to trust them to make their own decisions about how they should develop in response to local needs. In addition to granting the power to select more of their pupils, the Bill enables grant-maintained schools to add nursery classes, sixth forms and boarding facilities and to expand by up to 50 per cent. without central approval.

Mr. Jack Thompson (Wansbeck): How does the Secretary of State square that argument with what has happened in Northumberland, where one school has gone grant-maintained--it was conned into doing that--and where one primary school is apparently now going grant-maintained because there is a threat of closure? That is the only reason why parents accepted the move to the school becoming grant-maintained. The people of Northumberland have more sense than the Secretary of State gives them credit for.

Mrs. Shephard: I am delighted that there are some successful applications for grant-maintained status in Northumberland. I wish them well, apparently unlike the hon. Gentleman.

The Bill requires grant-maintained schools to consult locally and to notify those concerned. It contains safeguards to ensure that, should any problems arise, they can be tackled. Overall, the Bill aims to make grant-maintained schools feel that they have the freedom to get on and make the changes that they want to make in the interests of their pupils and their communities.

Ms Margaret Hodge (Barking): If the Secretary of State is so keen for schools to have increased control over their own affairs, why did she drop the proposal to increase the delegation of budgets to all schools?

Mrs. Shephard: As I have explained several times in the House--it is a matter of public record--I did that mostly because it would have been unfair to local education authorities that were planning their budgets to introduce the changes without sufficient consultation. That is why we are limiting ourselves to the Bill's provisions. Work on the White Paper proposals is being carried forward.

Opposition hostility to grant-maintained schools is clear. It is extraordinary that they complain that the system is unfair when it is open to any school to apply. All can and many more would but for Labour's hostility. Happily, grant-maintained schools have their champions among Opposition Members, not the least of whom is the Leader of the Opposition. It is curious that he has so little influence on the stated policy of his party. No school, whatever its status, can achieve high standards of education unless it can first achieve high standards of pupil behaviour and discipline.

Sir Donald Thompson (Calder Valley): My right hon. Friend was asked to apologise for one school and fully

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answered that request. She will know, as I do, that the new headmaster and his deputy will pull that school out of the fire and restore it, phoenix-like. Other schools under that LEA are local authority, grant-maintained and Church-aided, both by the Church of England and by the Roman Catholic Church, and they have remarkably good records. My right hon. Friend should take credit for some of that, for allowing those schools to go their own way and to plough their own furrow, despite being in the same surroundings as the other unfortunate school.

Mrs. Shephard: I thank my hon. Friend. I firmly believe that accountability and independence help to raise standards in schools, but an orderly environment is also vital if teachers are to teach and if children are to learn. It is not acceptable for children's education to be undermined by an undisciplined and disruptive minority.

We have the chief inspector's word for the fact that most schools are orderly and purposeful. Well-run schools are a tribute to the professionalism of heads and teachers. Most pupils are well behaved and keen to learn. In his last annual report, the chief inspector said:

"Nine out of ten secondary schools are orderly places and in most relationships are good".

Sadly, however, there are exceptions. More can and should be done to protect schools from pupil disruption and, sometimes, from violence. That is why the Bill contains measures to strengthen schools' ability to promote good behaviour and to take effective action against bad.

First, the Bill requires that all school governing bodies should state their policy on behaviour and discipline. Many already do. It is good practice, which needs to be spread more widely. Head teachers will continue to be responsible for devising, publicising and operating their schools' discipline codes, but they should do so with clearer backing from governing bodies.

Secondly, detention will be more readily available as a sanction. For the first time, schools will be given clear legal authority to detain badly behaved pupils without parental consent. That will remove the absurd risk of prosecution for false imprisonment.

Thirdly, the Bill recognises that fixed-period exclusions give an opportunity to take effective action to tackle a pupil's problems before he or she returns to school. The more flexible use of the 45 days a year for such exclusions will provide that opportunity.

Few would challenge parents' need to have the right to appeal when their child is permanently excluded from school. Clearly, permanent exclusion is a serious step, but the Bill will ensure that the appeals process gives schools the opportunity to present their case, and that the interests of staff and of other pupils are taken properly into account.

School admission authorities should no longer be obliged to admit pupils who have been repeatedly excluded from other schools. The Bill will remove the right to choose a school from parents of children who have been permanently excluded more than once.

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