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Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): You represent a Suffolk constituency, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and you share with the county of Essex the birthplace and home of the country's greatest landscape painter, John Constable. He, of course, is famous for his broad canvasses, but within them there is a great attention to detail, and later on I shall turn to that point. Government Ministers will be pleased to know that every Constable painting had a dash of red to attract attention- [ Interruption. ] And it has just worked.
"My Government will work to build trust in democratic institutions...Legislation will be brought forward to introduce guarantees for pupils and parents to raise educational standards."
"My Government will legislate to protect communities... My Government is committed to ensuring everyone has a fair chance in life and will continue to take forward legislation to promote equality, narrow the gap between rich and poor and tackle discrimination,"
and that efforts will be made to
"abolish child poverty by 2020."
We are now in the 13th year of a Labour Government. In 1997, the number of children in child poverty was estimated to be 4.5 million, and after 12 years of a Labour Government-a new Labour Government-there are approximately 4 million children in child poverty. What a damning indictment of any Government that so many children live in child poverty. One only has to look at the efforts of Shelter to focus attention on the Government's failure to provide decent housing for all our people, despite having the world's fifth richest economy. After 12 years of a new Labour Government, they should hang their head in shame. Ministers are completely ignoring this speech, as they have ignored the plight of the homeless and of children for the past 12 to 13 years. What an indictment of any Government that they cannot even house their own people and can tolerate 4 million children living in poverty.
In responding to the Loyal Address, the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition said:
"A real Queen's Speech would not tinker with the education system, but would break open the state monopoly, allowing new schools to be set up and giving parents more choice."-[ Official Report, 18 November 2009; Vol. 501, c. 19.]
Clearly, more choice must include the status quo in instances where the parents wish the status quo to remain. This is where I come to the detail in the broad John Constable landscape painting. Last May, in Children, Schools and Families questions, the Secretary of State said, in response to a question from me, that in respect of secondary school reorganisation in Colchester, Essex county council's preferred way forward was for Alderman Blaxill school and Thomas Lord Audley school to remain and operate as a trust. The following day, I had a meeting with the then Schools Minister and officials, in which we were given assurances that by September last year a federation of those two schools and Stanway school could be in place, under the executive headship of the inspirational head teacher, Mr. Jonathan Tippett.
I regret to inform the House that within weeks Essex county council went back on that promise-the pledge that it gave to the Government and which was repeated here-and announced that it was going to close Alderman Blaxill and Thomas Lord Audley schools. Bearing in mind that Colchester is the fastest growing borough in the country, it said it would transfer the children to other schools, one of which, as we now know-it was never put in the public domain, but the leader of Essex county council has confirmed it to the leadership of Colchester borough council-would have to expand to 2,500 pupils. To the best of my knowledge, Conservative Front Benchers do not wish to have secondary schools of up to 2,500 pupils. Members may recall that I raised this issue two weeks ago at Prime Minister's Question
Time. I should like to put on record my appreciation to the Prime Minister and to the Department, which is considering what I have said.
The Government have referred, although not today, to the concept of super-heads, and I am grateful to the shadow Secretary of State for welcoming that proposal. I urge Ministers to reiterate the fact that it is Government policy to encourage the concept of super-heads. I was not too enthusiastic when I first heard about it, but one particular head, Mr. Tippett, has transformed Stanway school into arguably the best secondary school in Colchester-I have to say "arguably" because other schools may disagree. He has transformed Thomas Lord Audley from a failing school to one that last year produced the best exam results in its history, sailing past the Government's artificial target of a 30 per cent. pass rate. In September this year, the number of pupils joining at year 7 was the highest for many years; and this at an allegedly failing school in a town of falling rolls. The numbers simply do not add up.
I will turn to Building Schools for the Future and Partnerships for Schools in a moment. I am not in the business of wasting public money- [ Interruption. ] If those on the Government Front Bench will give us the courtesy of listening to the debate, I would like to ask a question. This is rudest display I have witnessed in 12 years in this place-Ministers are simply not listening to the debate. That is discourteous to the House, to me and to my constituents. I am grateful that one Minister is now listening.
My question is this: where is the capital funding for the further education sector? For more than 100 colleges around the country-although not 13 or 14 in Labour-held seats-money has been stopped. Building works were promised and were under way, but the guillotine fell. I have a further education college in my constituency that is a building site. We need an explanation for that.
Why, after 12 years of a new Labour Government, is funding per student in sixth-form colleges less than the funding per head in a school sixth form? There are two selective schools in my constituency. Funding for their students is greater than the funding per head for students attending the successful Colchester sixth-form college, which is arguably the most successful sixth-form college in the country. We need an upward equalisation so that students at all sixth-form colleges, of which there are more than 100 across the country, are treated on the same basis as students attending school sixth forms.
The Chairman of the Children, Schools and Families Committee, the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman), referred to the Education Act 1944. I encourage Ministers, their advisers, researchers and experts, to look at that Act, because in the midst of war, politicians from all parties realised that something better for the young people of this nation was called for. The Act was about more than just teaching in the classroom. It was a passport for young people for future generations. It was for education, but it also dealt with social matters, through the school meals service, and, linking with the health aspect of the debate, it introduced medical, eye and dental checks. If this Government, or any Government, could get back to the ethos and principles of the 1944 Act, many aspects of the health problems in this country would be addressed. I urge the Minister to look at the thinking behind the Act and the cross-party consensus that brought it about.
By happy coincidence, today is the seventh anniversary of my presenting to the House the First Aid Training in Schools Bill under the ten-minute rule. I urge this Government, or any Government, to think about that measure. If our young people, from the age five upwards, were given first aid training in schools, they would automatically learn every aspect about themselves-good eating and healthy lifestyles as well as the dangers of excess smoking, taking illegal drugs and substances, obesity and so on. That would bring together health and education and dramatically reduce the number of people who end up at accident and emergency departments who, frankly, should not be there.
I referred to the extraordinary behaviour of Essex county council and intervened on the shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove). When the Essex county council consultation went out to the good people of Colchester, 96 per cent. said no to the proposals. We had the extraordinary situation about 18 months ago that education officials-the professionals-were putting forward a case for closing two schools and amalgamating them on one site as an academy. However, they were told by their political master-the person who took over the education portfolio after he had dispensed with the previous post holder's services-that both would shut. The schools would not be amalgamated, and the children were to be shipped away. The Tory leader of the county council said to me, "I've got to get those children off those estates so that they can be taught with the children of more aspirational families."
What a gross insult to the people on the Berechurch, Shrub End, and Greenstead estates! The leader of the county council was saying that it was all right for children to live there, but that they would have to be removed for teaching between the hours of nine and four, or whatever, when they could be shipped back. That is not on. I am not having any part of my constituency treated in that way. I am looking to the Government to deliver that part of the Queen's Speech which is about not being a party to discrimination.
However, we know that the county council's figures do not add up. As I said, Colchester is the fastest growing borough in the country, and I am grateful to a parent, Mr. Joe Slatter, who is the father of twins at a local primary school. He has done his own research, based on the county's figures, and he told me this morning that Essex county council will run out of secondary school places because the number of primary school places required is soaring.
There are 600 extra primary school pupils in Colchester today than Essex county council originally planned for-the equivalent of an entire primary school, and a bit. One new primary school opened in September, and two more are planned. The town is growing-booming-but the county council proposes to shut the two secondary schools in the south of the town, with the children to be shipped elsewhere. That is all part of a £130 million expansion programme for existing schools.
Where is the parental choice when 96 per cent. of those who respond to a consultation say, "We don't want these two schools shut"? I know that I am having a pop at the county council, but I am looking to the Labour Government-the Government of the day-to ensure that my constituents get fairness and justice.
There is a nice little aside to this: because of the Conservative party's absurd policies in my town, Colchester is one of the few places in the country where the Tories have lost ground in the borough and county elections held over the past two years. They lost five seats and control of the council last year, and they just managed to hold one of their county council seats this year, although their majority was slashed by more than 1,000 to just 19. We nearly had a clean sweep, so in political terms I am grateful to Essex county council Conservatives for all that they are doing.
According to my constituent Mr. Joe Slatter, it is forecast that by 2014 there will be an additional 1,561 primary school pupils. My experience is that primary school children usually tend to become secondary school children, but that figure is based on the children who we know are already born and breathing and does not take account of the massive new house building programme. I accept that that is temporarily in abeyance, but at my advice surgery on Friday I had my very first parent from the new housing being built on the old garrison. That person cannot get a child into either of the two nearest schools because they are both full up. We already know the numbers that will be involved, and the Government must intervene.
I welcome investment in education in my town. We all do, but that is the broad picture and I want to explore the detail. I do not support wasteful public expenditure. In the current economic climate, there is no guarantee that the £130 million that the county council has talked about will materialise. Members of the Conservative administration in the county council want to rush the closure project through, and the irony is that they are doing so because they fear that there will be cuts if their party forms the next Government.
I find that ironic. There is no guarantee that the £130 million will materialise, and in any event it would be much cheaper to the public purse, in both capital and revenue terms, if the two threatened schools remained open and serving their local communities, because several hundred thousand pounds a year will be needed to transport youngsters. The journeys will be 2 to 3 miles in the case of my constituents, but in the case of those in the neighbouring constituency, they will be tortuous 14-mile journeys across country from West Mersea on the island of Mersea across to Tiptree. They are not my constituents, so I cannot speak for them, but I can speak for my constituents, who do not want their schools shut.
There is now clear evidence that the Office of the Schools Adjudicator should investigate the situation. Unfortunately, getting the matter before it is virtually impossible. A Member of Parliament cannot do so, nor can Colchester borough council, but I hope that the Government can say to the OSA, "Please investigate these figures, because they do not add up." We know that there will be a shortage of secondary school places in Colchester. The capital sum required for the secondary schools reorganisation under Building Schools for the Future could be dramatically reduced by retaining the Alderman Blaxill and Thomas Lord Audley schools. It is agreed that the Sir Charles Lucas secondary school in the north of the town needs to be replaced. I do not agree that it should be replaced with an academy, but I
can park that argument for today. I urge the Government to refer the whole Colchester secondary school reorganisation proposal to independent review by the OSA.
Incidentally, I understand that the county council is not so sure of its case anyway. In a letter that I have with me from the leader of Essex county council to the leader of Colchester borough council, he tries to explain what would happen if a new access road were not provided to one of the secondary schools. I find it hard to believe that the whole future of a £130 million Building Schools for the Future project depends on an access road being put across a piece of public open space.
Earlier this month, the Minister for Schools and Learners wrote to the leader of Colchester borough council, stating:
"Partnerships for Schools...has not yet had any formal discussions with Essex County Council about its plans for the Colchester schools".
Interesting. In a letter to me dated three days later, 12 November, Partnerships for Schools stated that
"to the best of our knowledge there has been no communication between Essex County Council and Partnerships for Schools with regard to the new access road...Partnerships for Schools has yet to engage formally with Essex County Council on the development of these proposals."
There was then confirmation from the leadership of Colchester borough council that the leader of Essex county council had told them that the Philip Morant school would need to expand to up to 2,500 pupils.
In an open and democratic society, we cannot have Essex county council or any council proceeding on figures that have been massaged or claims that do not stand up to examination. For example, it has put forward the case for the BSF expenditure on educational grounds, yet I am told that Colchester has the sixth highest GCSE results of all the parliamentary constituencies in Essex and is above the Essex average.
What is going on? I believe that what is going on is that Colchester is the only local authority area in the whole county of Essex that is not run by the Conservatives. The inspirational leadership of Mr. Jonathan Tippett has turned around not one, not two but three secondary schools. He is exactly the sort of executive head or super-head that the Government say they want. There is already a guy there doing it, so let him do it.
If necessary, why can the Government not remove those three schools from Essex country council? That is what the population wants. It has no confidence or trust in the council or its officers, who, 18 months ago, made a case to justify amalgamating two schools, but who were then obliged, because of a direction from the political leadership, to do away with two schools. They then came forward with arguments that are now rapidly unravelling. I urge the Government to consider the details of the situation, because it is not acceptable.
In conclusion, I point out that the leader of Essex county council is also a shadow Minister in Her Majesty's Opposition in the other place.
Mr. Andrew Lansley (South Cambridgeshire) (Con): I am grateful to have the opportunity to respond to this interesting and, in many respects, good debate.
My right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition, and the Prime Minister, at the start of their responses to the Gracious Speech, talked about the recent losses in Afghanistan. Last Sunday, Rifleman Andrew Fentiman, from my constituency, died in Helmand province, so is now among those whom we have lost. His lieutenant, Lieutenant Heap from 7th Battalion the Rifles, said of him:
"He died alongside his friends doing a job he loved".
That says something powerful about the nature of the young people serving in Afghanistan. It should also further reinforce our determination to ensure that they have every support they need-by support, I mean not just equipment and other physical support, but moral and political support for their job in Afghanistan. I want to express our deepest sympathies to Andrew Fentiman's family in my constituency.
It has been an interesting debate. The hon. Member for Colchester (Bob Russell) told us about education in Colchester. He was right to instance Rab Butler in the 1944 Education Act, and in doing so he struck a note in harmony with that of the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman), who was one of only two Members to speak from the Government Back Benches, but who, in talking at the outset about the history of education policy, and the consensus, in many respects, on it, struck a powerful contrast with the Secretary of State, who sought not a consensus, but only to create his own absurd self-styled dividing lines, the purpose of which clearly is to manipulate educational policy for party political advantage. As far as I can tell, it comes to nothing.
Indeed, much of the Queen's Speech seems to have been constructed around party political opportunism, rather than public interest. That is a great pity, because we have talked today about two subjects-education and health-in which often, in the midst of debating, we find that we have shared objectives. We might have differences of opinion about the means by which those objectives can be met, but so often we have shared objectives and sometimes, as it turns out when we get into the debate, a great deal of commonality on what some of the underlying mechanisms should be.
My hon. Friend the Member for Worthing, West (Peter Bottomley) echoed what he had previously said we should see in the speech from the hon. Member for Thurrock (Andrew Mackinlay). He touched on a range of subjects, but in all respects was interesting, brief and to the point. In particular, I was struck by what he and-in an interesting speech-my hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Mr. Evennett) said about education. They highlighted the importance of the quality of teaching. My hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) said from the Front Bench that the quality and status of teachers is central to the improvement of education.
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