Memorandum submitted by the Association
of Professionals in Education and Children's Trusts (Aspect)
INTRODUCTION
1. The Association of Professionals in Education
and Children's Trusts (Aspect), previously known as the National
Association of Educational Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants,
offers the following comments to the House of Commons Education
and Skills Committee on the White Paper "Higher Standards,
Better Schools for all: More choice for parents and pupils".
Aspect enjoys regular contact and dialogue with the DfES and relevant
national agencies on a wide range of educational issues of concern
to local authorities, schools and colleges and is actively involved
in associated national-level consultative processes.
2. Aspect regards the stated intentions
of the White Paper as laudable, but is concerned that certain
of its proposals may place practical difficulties in the way of
achieving these aims and may yet induce systemic fragmentation
in a period when important nationwide school reforms are self-evidently
required, for example in relation to modernising the 14-19 curriculum,
further school workforce remodelling, and the highly significant
"Every Child Matters" agenda. Aspect therefore requests
the Select Committee to urge the government to conduct carefully-designed,
evaluative piloting of the key, previously untried, initiatives
outlined in this White Paper, prior to implementation of these
proposals. Our Association contends that there is an insufficient
evidence base to underpin several of the main policies involved.
Detailed research is necessary so that new developments can be
clearly evidence-led.
3. Aspect recognises the influential role
played here by the thinking and writing of Professor Julian LeGrand
who argues for "internal market" reforms to raise educational
standards and transform schools into centres for lifelong learning.
The Association endorses these objectives but believes that some
of these proposals are framed in ways that could lead to necessary
whole-system leadership across a given local area being eroded,
making these aims harder to achieve across the board. School autonomy,
as a general principle, is welcomed but essential checks and balances
are required, for example in relation to ensuring fair admissions
and effective school governance, to protect the broader public
interest.
THE "EVERY
CHILD MATTERS"
AGENDA
4. There are disappointingly few cross-references
from the White Paper to the 2004 Children Act and Aspect would
prefer specific encouragement for schools to take due cognisance
of the Every Child Matters agenda, in the form of a statutory
duty to work with other key children's agencies and services.
Aspect considers that key elements of the Every Child Matters
project and the practical implementation of the Children Act are
potentially weakened by the priority given to certain facets of
school structural reform in this White Paper. We find it difficult
to believe that a sufficient number of schools will seek to protect
the interests of all children and young people, and give due emphasis
to redressing the balance for those most vulnerable, in a more
competitive, market-based, environment.
CHOICE AND
ACCESS
5. Aspect fully endorses the need to take
action to address the present pupil attainment gap identified
in England and agrees that disparities between levels of educational
achievement are still too strongly linked to parents' social and
economic backgrounds. The results, as the White Paper states,
include high and low achieving schools. However, the Association
does not believe that these issues are ones that will be solved
solely by facilitating new providers of schools. There are key
issues of practical school improvement, centred on longer-term
and sustainable capacity-building within local institutions, which
are under-emphasised in this White Paper. Equally, Aspect retains
concerns as to whether or not parents in general can be given
a genuinely broader choice of schools, even with improved access
to transport facilities and advice over local options, as there
can be other barriers to the implementation of choice-based policies.
6. In practice, most schools are likely
to, and probably should, serve the needs of their immediate communities
first, and it is impractical to expect that many schools in more
affluent, higher-achieving areas will ultimately limit admissions
to promote enhanced social mobility. However, should this prove
to be the case, Aspect questions whether the "displaced"
parents involved would then choose to send their children to another
school in a more socially deprived area, in order to better equalise
intakes across the local system. The alternative private sector
option is a more likely choice for some of these parents, potentially
leaving state schools in deprived areas to shrink or close. If
they are then replaced by a new, unproven Academy it is still
unclear whether this would prove more attractive to those parents
from socially affluent areas.
7. Some of the current evidence does reflect
improved performance by Academies and Aspect acknowledges the
increased flexibility that they could bring to learning opportunities.
However, the improved performance to date does not appear to match
the investment level required and the opportunity cost of what
else could have been achieved, if the same resources were to be
more evenly spread across local schools, also deserves consideration.
8. The Association would therefore ask the
Select Committee to urge the government to undertake carefully-designed
pilots, with proper evaluative and submission arrangements, before
the majority of these far-reaching reforms are put into effect.
A full exposition of "trust status", its tested impact
on local pupil admissions, and the precise nature and extent of
the new Schools Commissioner role, need to be identified at an
early stage.
TACKLING FAILURE
AND UNDERPERFORMANCE
9. Our Association retains concerns over
the practical implications of introducing "fast-track"
measures to improve schools already in special measures. It is
generally recognised that, in order to embed sustainable improvement,
more time than one year is needed and "quick fixes"
are rarely permanent ones. With regard to the projected parallel
implementation of an even "lighter touch" Ofsted inspection
system for those schools which perform well, it is important that
the overall system incorporates appropriate differentiated post-inspection
follow-up in order to promote sustained development, as is found
within the current HMIE regime in Scotland. This requires highly
trained and professional school improvement staffs, to ensure
consistent, high-quality support.
10. In respect of school place planning
and admissions, as well as school performance issues, Aspect considers
that there is insufficient evidence-based and linked-up policy
analysis regarding the deeper causes of pupil disaffection and
disengagement. The Association regrets, for example, the absence
of linkages at all levels of government between education and
housing policy planning and suggests that ability banding in schools
can only realistically operate in areas of socially mixed communities.
PERSONALISED LEARNING
11. Aspect also considers that there are
strong separate links between individual pupil failure and underperformance
and learning and teaching strategies and setting, in addition
to these matters of school admissions and establishment. In this
context, we warmly applaud the heightened emphasis on personalised
learning and small group tuition revealed in this White Paper.
However, we maintain concerns that the White Paper proposals,
although commendable in themselves, do not go far enough in terms
of promoting greater flexibility in the provision of learning
opportunities, particularly at Key Stage 4.
THE ROLE
OF THE
LOCAL AUTHORITY
12. Aspect would argue that a "middle
tier", such as a local authority, is the most appropriately
placed level to promote equality, choice, diversity and fair access
through exercising open and transparent planning and admission
responsibilities across defined localities. We note that the retention
of local authority responsibility for the management of Building
Schools for the Future and Targeted Capital Funds does not seem
to fit easily with the White paper's stated intention of removing
school planning from core local authority functions as extra linkages
will clearly be required in order to exercise these functions.
13. The Association can accept the change from
"Local Education Authority" to "Local Authority"
if this is an indicator of more coherent cross-service planning
as demanded by the Children Act. However, this notion may be at
least partially undermined by the White Paper proposals concerning
school autonomy, as indicated above. The concept of commissioning,
as described in the White Paper within a context of locally organised
services, needs greater and detailed exploration and discussion.
Indeed, authorities are already under pressure to meet "Gershon"
savings targets whilst carrying through the major change programme
associated with Every Child Matters. The White Paper does
not appear to recognise the capacity problems now facing local
authorities and the uncertainties surrounding future financial
provision. However, the expectation that local authorities and
local Learning and Skills Councils will work more closely together
to ensure real choice and higher standards in the provision of
education for 14-19 year-olds is welcomed, if this leads to more
coherent planning.
NATIONAL LEADERSHIP
14. Aspect certainly questions the appropriateness
of asking the National College for School Leadership to identify
headteachers to form a new group of "national leaders of
education" within a notion of a developed career stage. It
is not the case that the skills of individual school leadership
are easily transferable, either between local institutions or
from this particular local role to the general setting of future
education policy. "Best practice" in school leadership
is effectively transferred via other means, including objective
and highly professional support and challenge to schools. The
objectivity of "trust" school leaders, given their organisational
linkages as envisaged in this White Paper, may well require careful
consideration in this connection.
15. The Association also considers that
the White Paper may have missed an important opportunity to encourage
a broader and more purposeful focus on teachers' continuing professional
development (CPD), building on the current strategies of the General
Teaching Council (England) and the plans now emerging from the
Teacher Development Agency. Reliable and well-resourced classroom
teachers' CPD is one of the key elements in sustainable whole-school
development. CPD for all teachers ought to be a key priority as,
in our modern rapidly changing world, teacher skills and knowledge
development need to be continuously enhanced in order to carry
out the job effectively.
SCHOOL GOVERNANCE
16. Aspect is concerned that much of the
existing strength of local school governance, in terms of carefully
reflecting balanced interests, may be disturbed by allowing Trusts
to appoint the majority of governors. Equally, it may prove detrimental
to allow a governing body to determine its own optimum size, especially
with encouragement of smallness, as it is important to guard against
the possibility of dominance by minority interests.
FURTHER INFORMATION
17. Aspect trusts that the above points
will be of interest to the Education and Skills Select Committee,
and would be willing to respond to any requests for further information
which may assist the Committee's deliberations on the White Paper.
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