Clegg on Schools - LDEA Concerns

7.52.00pm GMT Sun 13th Jan 2008

LDEA Expressed surprise at the focus of the education aspect of Nick Clegg's speech at the Manifesto Conference on 12th January.

Peter Downes reported the text as follows:

"There is no liberal reason why those who deliver public services must always work directly for the government, central or local - so long as we are absolutely clear about the principles under which those services operate.

"Government funding mechanisms must work to deliver social justice. That is why I will make it an absolute priority to find the money for a Pupil Premium that will raise school funding for the poorest children up to the level of private schools. This already happens in the Netherlands. Schools have a financial incentive to take on disadvantaged children - and the extra resources needed to support those children. And it works.

"All new schools must also be open to all. So we must end selection. Pupils and parents should pick schools - not the other way round. If new schools only improve results by selecting the cleverest pupils, one form of educational segregation will merely be replaced by another. That is why the Liberal Democrats would remove the powers to select from Academies, Specialist Schools, Trust and Foundation Schools.

"With these sound principles of social justice and opportunity for all governing our public services, government, including local government, can move to become a purchaser, not simply a provider.

"Let's look at Academies. There is plenty wrong with the government's Academies programme - from the selection rules to the absurdity of trying to run schools all over the country at the behest of one Minister in the House of Lords.

"But there is nothing wrong at all with allowing schools the freedom to innovate. Nothing wrong with bringing committed people and organisations into our education system. And nothing wrong with allowing schools to exist outside direct daily local government management - as long as they are under local government oversight.

"And it makes me angry when I hear people attacking new schools which have replaced old, failing, local authority schools many of which consigned generations of children who could have done much better to the educational scrapheap.

"So, with these principles in mind, I want us to look at establishing a new liberal model of schools that are non-selective, under local government strategic oversight but not run by the council, and free to innovate to drive up standards for all our children. They could be established by any suitable sponsor, including parents, educational charities, voluntary and private organisations with the right credentials. Sponsors should be independently assessed for their expertise, with no ministerial involvement.

"This new generation of schools - let us call them Free Schools - will have the funding to help those children who need the most support; the obligation to be accessible to all; and the freedom from unnecessary political and bureaucratic interference to innovate in the best interests of their pupils."