Archived decisions

County Council - 8 December 2005

NOTICE OF MOTION

HIGHER STANDARDS, BETTER SCHOOLS FOR ALL WHITE PAPER

Councillor Brian Dash to move:

This Council believes that:

The over-riding objective of schooling must be to help every child achieve the best and most appropriate education and preparation for life.

Schools should continue to be free to manage their own teaching, staffing and budgets

Collaboration among schools helps to deliver improved outcomes and the Local Authority has an essential role to play in achieving this

Local schools should be funded locally, with decisions by elected bodies accountable to local people, rather than by funding formulae dictated by central government

All young people have a right to be treated equally in the school admission process.

An admissions policy based around schools being encouraged to "poach" pupils from each other will only work in the interests of some schools, not in the interests of all young people

In recent years too much effort has been wasted on tinkering with structures rather than focussing directly on improving teaching & learning

Involvement of parents in their child's education is a major determining factor in successful outcomes for children

This Council is concerned that implementing the White Paper will lead to:

· An admissions "free for all" where schools which are their own admissions authority could choose the pupils they want so that parents risk not getting the school places they want for their children;

· Undermining of the work Hampshire County Council has done to create a fair admissions system and which ensures places are available for `hard to place' pupils;

· A surplus of expensive and unnecessary additional school places when secondary school rolls are falling nationally;

· School closures in deprived areas, contrary to the government's own policies on neighbourhood regeneration;

· Pressure on schools to expand at the expense of neighbouring schools thereby even further reducing parental choice.

· An even greater centralisation of power in the hands of unelected Whitehall bureaucrats through measures like the proposal for a new DfES Schools Commissioner and insisting that all new schools are trust schools or academies;

· Barriers to delivering the Every Child Matters agenda which sees schools as a key part of integrated children's services.

This Council calls for:

· Local authorities to continue to lead and co-ordinate local admissions to ensure fair access for all - including hard to place children. A fair admissions policy cannot be delivered on a school by school basis;

· The status of community school to remain for both existing and new schools.

· Local schools to co-operate with us in delivering the Every Child Matters agenda recognising that education does not stop at the school gates. This should be backed up by Government placing on all schools the same clear duty of co-operation placed on other partners;

· The restoration of financial and planning powers to Local Authorities for 16-19 education to enable a coherent 14-19 education policy to be developed;

· For all members of this authority to lobby local MPs to actively campaign for education services to remain accountable to local people through local democracy, and to vote for this principle when the measures contained in the White Paper are debated in Parliament;

· These concerns to be put to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills.