Consultation with stake-holders
24. Mr Brian Oakley-Smith of Cambridge Education
Associates, part of the consortium chosen to run Islington education
service, told us that during the negotiation process for the contract
with Islington authority they had met representatives of the education
committee and with headteachers of Islington schools, but it was
not considered to be "a proper part of the tendering process
for us to do public presentations".[21]
The Audit Commission expressed the view that given the considerable
significance of the education service to the local community,
LEAs should ensure that service users and the wider community
were fully consulted over proposals to externalise services.[22]
25. We were told that consultation with elected members
of local authorities had been an important part of the process
in authorities which had signed contracts with private sector
organisations (see paragraphs 48-49). The Minister told us that
prior to any decision and announcement about possible intervention
in a local authority, the DfEE would have established a relationship
with the authority to discuss how to address its weaknesses. This
had been the case for "every local authority where we have
intervened".[23]
The Minister also told us that the DfEE's Standards and Effectiveness
Unit had met both the elected members and the officers of the
authority, and that the Minister had met elected members and headteachers
in the authority in all the cases where intervention was seen
as necessary.[24]
26. We note that in the local education authorities
which have already signed contracts with private sector organisations,
elected members were closely involved with the selection of contractor
and contract negotiation. Nevertheless, we are concerned that
this process did not included significant opportunities for potential
bidders and the selected contractor to seek the views of parents
and others with a direct interest in local education. We recommend
that potential contractors should make a serious attempt to consult
local parents and others with an interest in education.
Monitoring the effects of intervention
27. In the examples noted above, private sector
approaches to management and service provision have been introduced
to raise standards of achievement in historically under-performing
areas. This approach can act as a spur to action in the local
authority or school in which intervention is deemed necessary.
Intervention can also have an effect on neighbouring schools and
authorities as a result of old orthodoxies being challenged and
new forms of competition being promoted. Mr Stanley Goodchild
of 3E's Enterprises argued that, although 3E's had only recently
been awarded the contract for the King's Manor School in Guildford,
it was not only benefiting that school but it was benefiting education
in the whole area.[25]
The DfEE acknowledged that improving a weak school is "bound
to have an impact" on other schools, including "influencing
parental choice" but that this was no argument for "allowing
a school to carry on failing".[26]
28. The involvement of the private sector in the
management of public education services can have major effects
on neighbouring schools and authorities. We therefore recommend
that the effects of such involvement on the LEA's or school's
immediate neighbours should be monitored. This monitoring
should include a wide range of performance indicators, including,
but not limited to, examination data, school improvement measures,
pupil exclusion rates, the impact on applications and acceptances
at individual schools. The results of this monitoring should be
included in annual reports by the local authority or individual
school on the progress of the contract (see paragraph 52).
19 Appendix 2, para 7. Back
20 Ev.
pp. 75-76. Back
21 Q.
282. Back
22 Appendix
5, para 12. Back
23 Q.
164. Back
24 Q.
164. Back
25 Q.
3. Back
26 Appendix
2, para 29. Back
