School Accountability and Intervention

Baroness Berridge Excerpts

Thursday 6th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

Given the noble Lord’s background as a teacher, I am sure that Ofsted will listen to his response to the consultation, which I hope he will make. While I have some sympathy with the concerns of teachers about the arrival of Ofsted—having experienced it myself, as I have already said—I am not wholly convinced that students can afford to wait nine months between the preparatory conversation and the point at which some judgment is made. Frankly, if things are going wrong, it is important for students and parents that those are identified at the appropriate time, and, if things are going right, it is important that those are shared as widely as possible.

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, on the move from the duty to intervene to the power to intervene when a school is inadequate, the schools the Minister outlined that have taken a long time often have complicated land or financial issues, as I am sure she is aware. Trusts already go in before the legal status has changed, and for schools that go through the process relatively quickly, there are occasions when the fact that everybody knows there is a duty to academise speeds things up. The Minister will be aware that, by virtue of these contracts, the Department for Education is now a regulator; it regulates schools. Is there another example of a regulator, such as the Charity Commission or the FCA, that does not have a duty to intervene and merely relies on these powers?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Baroness will know from her experience that the ability to academise a school does not depend on a duty in every case, and nor did it do so under the last Government. The 2RI policy was a power for academisation to happen in those cases, not a duty. I am not sure I would characterise the department in quite the way she did; nevertheless, it comes back to this point: what is the most appropriate range of interventions that can be used to ensure that the improvement we see in the schools that need it is as speedy, well supported and appropriate as possible? For example, the distinction between schools that have the leadership capacity to improve themselves, and those that do not, is an important one. The RISE teams, with their targeted interventions for schools that need it, and their broader universal offer to direct schools looking to improve in the right areas, are an important addition to ensure that all our schools are improving quickly.

Free Schools and Academies

Baroness Berridge Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, I too am grateful to my noble friend Lady Evans for securing today’s debate and getting an opportunity to talk about the good news of English schools in the midst of such bad global news. I was one of the Schools Ministers in DfE in the midst of the terrible global news of the pandemic. I hope the Minister will bring forward further changes to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, building on the changes announced by the Prime Minister today.

I think it is a sign of good government and putting children first that you change your mind, and it was that spirit and focus on children that led Michael Gove to take on the idea from Andrew Adonis—the noble Lord, Lord Adonis—and others and turbocharge the academies programme. By the time I joined in February 2020, that turbocharged programme had created more than 2,400 charitable trusts running schools in a contractual relationship with the Secretary of State, and most children in England by that time were in an academy or free school. By statute, failed schools were no longer allowed to languish in local authorities, which were at best reluctant to admit failure, at the expense of the children. It was not a conspiracy—just human nature and local authorities having other priorities.

The academies’ freedom to work across local authority boundaries enabled the creation of different faith schools within the free school system. There are now numerous Sikh, Hindu and Muslim schools with wider catchment areas. Sir Hamid Patel of Star Academies served Muslim and other communities with excellence and integrity, and there were new Church of England secondary schools such as Fulham Boys School. It was a sadness, though, that no black-led Church denomination managed to establish a successful school, despite these denominations having a long history of Saturday schools. That freedom to work across local authority boundaries also assisted the creation of the specialist schools, the UTCs and the specialist maths sixth-form colleges.

No one promised that there would not be failed trusts, but school and trust failure is revealed swiftly, and that is a much-needed achievement. Children do not have another chance. Getting in quickly is imperative, so I join with other noble Lords: I am concerned about the discretion being added to an academy order when a school has failed.

Sorting out DAOs remained a priority even in a pandemic: those disadvantaged children, already in a failed school, were then faced with a pandemic, so it had to be. Of course the system still has weaknesses. I think I used to describe single-academy trusts as often in splendid, outstanding isolation: they were often some of the best academic schools but with woeful levels of free school meal pupils, and many were grammar schools. I really had hoped that, instead of focusing on the academies, this new Government would sort this. It is possible to sort the low admission of free school meal pupils.

Just over a month into my service, the Prime Minister closed all schools, except for vulnerable children and children of key workers. For someone for whom school was a place of safety, I knew what this could and did mean. Local authority priorities became children’s social care, public health, refuse collection, children’s social care, adult social care and children’s social care—I hope noble Lords get my drift. Inadvertently, the academy system came into its own. In the pandemic there were areas where the local authority encouraged trusts to “do schools”—hubs were set up, best practice was shared across the schools and the local authority got on with children’s social care. The best MATs did all the back-office functions and schools just did discipline, safeguarding and education. That was invaluable in a pandemic.

What of the Department for Education? Due to that contract with the Secretary of State, there were teams of civil servants called, I think, regional directors. The DfE was operational. It was not just policy and delivery. Those teams knew English schools, the leaders, the local authority and the trust that in one instance had lost its finance director, who had died in the February before the pandemic. They knew how to plug that gap. Without REACT teams, I cannot imagine how schools and local authorities would have coped.

It may seem a strange time to send this postcard from DfE sanctuary buildings, but I wish to encourage His Majesty’s Government to utilise, embolden and encourage these academy trusts. When you are planning the biggest local government reorganisation for decades, why is the mood music for the local authority now more on schools? Even if that is your overall direction of travel, why not wait? The eye of many a local authority will be off the ball during such a reorganisation —it has to be. The people running local authorities are only human. I hope that some will be humble enough to call on their academy trust to “do schools” and focus, in the midst of reorganisation, on children’s social care.

Primary Schools: Swimming Lessons

Baroness Berridge Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I strongly agree with the noble Lord. As he says, there are 500 fewer public-access swimming pools operational in England now than there were in 2010. Alongside that, there has been a 7% increase in the pay-per-swim cost in the last year. Whether in schools, where we need to make sure that teachers are supported with the skills to develop children’s basic swimming skills, or in the provision across our communities more widely, there is more we need to do to support swimming.

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, the Minister has spoken about the correlation between ethnicity and poverty. We often talk about the cost of a school uniform, but there is no need for swimwear or anything of that nature to be branded. Are His Majesty’s Government looking at whether the cost of additional items such as swimwear is part of the barrier to kids, who grow so quickly, accessing swimming lessons, as well as the lack of facilities?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Baroness identifies probably one of the many barriers that prevent parents and their children being able to swim if they are living in poverty. I am not aware of whether expecting branded swimming items is a barrier to children being able to swim, but if it is that is clearly wrong. I suspect that would be covered by the provisions in the Bill that we will receive in the near future to ensure that school uniform is not a barrier to children being able to learn, in this case, a very important skill.

Children’s Social Care

Baroness Berridge Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

First, I congratulate my noble friend on her new role, to which I know she will bring an enormous amount of experience. She is exactly right: this issue goes wider than children who come within the ambit of children’s social care; we need to ensure that we are supporting parenting, children and maternal health, and that we are intervening and providing preventive measures at the very earliest stages of children’s lives. As I suggested in my first response, that is some of the important work that family hubs are doing, but it is certainly very much part of the principles that this Government have set down. We need to continue that investment, as my noble friend says, in evidence-based practice at the very earliest stage for children and families.

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, while I welcome the focus on trying to regulate private placements, that is also going to depend on the capacity within the given local authority. I was disappointed that there was not much focus on a strategy or solution, given that just under half of local authorities, when inspected by Ofsted, were rated not good; we need them all to be outstanding. I also welcome the focus across government and beyond, and, as the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, outlined, on 18 to 25 year-olds. Is the Minister speaking to the Deputy Prime Minister about this? If you are going to build social housing, how you design those houses can help create the support networks for vulnerable young people. As someone who skirted the children’s social care system and ended up in a privately financed, self-financed placement, I know that it is just happenstance —you happen to walk past someone’s window, you happen to be seen by people, who then may take an interest in you. You cannot compel them to, but how you build properties, how architects construct them, can make that more likely. Buildings shape people and can shape the support for some of our most vulnerable children.

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes an important point about the relationship between this work and the work of MHCLG. Just a week or so ago, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education and the MHCLG Secretary met with the Care Leavers’ Association. We are working with MHCLG on planning provision for additional children’s placements, in order to ensure that high-quality placements can be developed more quickly. I take her broader point about the way in which we literally build our communities in order to protect our children, and I am sure that good planners and good local authorities will be thinking about that.

Education: Early Years Attainment Gap

Baroness Berridge Excerpts

Tuesday 5th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, this is a workforce with a large number of 18 to 21 year-olds. Following my noble friend’s question, will the department consider whether those increased costs are going to be absorbed? If the department decides to do that, what will be the implications for, for instance, hospices, which are charities delivering NHS services? Once one moves to support one sector to absorb the national insurance and minimum wage increases, is there not an issue of principle that other sectors should be supported too?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

With respect to services delivering healthcare, my noble and honourable friends in the Department of Health and Social Care are considering the implications and will bring them forward. I point out to noble Lords opposite that there is no point demanding improved provision and arguing for, for example, a childcare entitlement that will involve considerable additional spending—which this Government have found in last week’s Budget—while being unwilling to find the money necessary to fill the £22 billion black hole that we inherited from them.

Government’s Childcare Expansion

Baroness Berridge Excerpts

Monday 21st October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

Absolutely. The name of our recruitment campaign to encourage more people to come and work in this area is “Do Something Big”. Our argument is that there is little that you can do that is more important for changing somebody’s life than working with them in their very earliest years, whether through caring or through early years education and development. That is why the investment that this Government are putting in is so important and why we will celebrate the people who carry out that really important role.

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, is it not also the case with the staffing of early years that there may be a staff surplus in some parts of the country? One has seen the statistical collapse in the number of young children in the inner London area, yet places such as Oxfordshire have apparently double the number of children than childcare places. Is part of the strategy to enable people already in this sector to relocate?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes a very important point. I am not sure that it is for the Government forcibly to relocate staff in this area, but let me take that back to those working on the childcare strategy as we think about how to reform this as a place to work and ensure that it is a positive place to work. We seek to meet demand where it is needed, because not only are there shortages of staff in some areas but there are shortages of provision. We will certainly make sure that we are focusing support on those areas that most need both the staff and the provision.

King’s Speech

Baroness Berridge Excerpts

Friday 19th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, before I offer congratulations, I am sure that I speak for all noble Lords in wishing Lady Knight a swift recovery from her treatment.

I wish to congratulate the noble Baronesses on their appointments to their ministerial roles and to recognise the amazing contribution of my noble friend Lady Barran —if you are going to get reshuffled, you should get reshuffled to a friend who does a wonderful job.

I am pleased to note that the noble Baroness, Lady Merron, has within her specific responsibilities mental health reform. As a member of the Joint Committee on the Draft Mental Health Bill in the last Parliament, I was pleased to see the Bill in the King’s Speech.

In 1983, the Act was probably envisaged to apply only to children within the criminal justice system, but it is needed more and more to detain children to treat them for mental health illnesses. Many families with children with eating disorders, mainly girls, are actually desperate to have them detained—it is a lifesaver. In 2022-23, according to NHS Digital, there were 997 detentions of children and young people.

As the report of the Joint Committee advised, it is vital that the interplay between any reformed mental health legislation and parental responsibility under the Children Act is fully understood. While I had the pleasure of working with excellent officials at the DfE, it seemed that the implications for the Children Act of immigration changes and mental health reform had not been grasped. I am not sure that we got to the bottom of who had parental responsibility for young people accommodated by the Home Office.

In addition to a report, being on a committee gives you a sense of the relative strengths and weaknesses of civil society groups regarding the issues before you. This reform was instituted by the former Prime Minister, the right honourable Theresa May, because of racial disproportionality in the use of the Mental Health Act. The bold recommendation of the committee to abolish community treatment orders—the right reverend Prelate related the statistics on those—hardly registered. I know that the noble Baroness is an experienced Minister, but I would be grateful if she would not only meet with the members of the Joint Committee but ensure that those whose resources do not match the wonderful work of the National Autistic Society are also heard. Realising who is not in the room is as important as those who are before you.

I also note the return of the register of children not in school. I hope that the doughty campaigner on this issue, the noble Lord, Lord Soley, who retired from your Lordships’ House last year, has seen this. I wonder whether it will be successful even with a thumping majority in the other place, as it has been a Private Member’s Bill in the Commons, a Private Member’s Bill more than once in your Lordships’ House and government legislation—but I do wish it well. With many parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities resorting to home education not out of choice, a light-touch approach to the requirements for such families will be essential. I hope that the Bill will mean there is a standard offering of tutoring hours, regardless of your postcode in England, to children who have fallen outside mainstream schooling—hopefully only for a period of time—due to their special educational needs and disabilities not being accommodated in the mainstream system.

I conclude—on time, according to the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy—with the excellent work that Ofsted does in ensuring that children are educated or accommodated in places such as children’s homes with proper safeguarding processes and cultures in place. The enormous number of institutions that Ofsted inspects for safeguarding purposes means that it is the expert. Yes, I am saying an unfashionable thing. Inappropriate people seeking to gain access to children is not historic. Evil is wily and hard to spot. People do not come to an interview in a Halloween costume. More than 80,000 adults are currently on the DBS barred from working with children list. While the unions, quite properly, in their role represent teachers, Ofsted is there for parents and children.

Last week saw a report issued—seven years late—by the Charity Commission into a prestigious public school, Ampleforth. Despite the Charity Commission taking over safeguarding functions, despite a lengthy report by the child sex abuse inquiry into the school, and despite numerous ISI inspections, they now have a safe school where the board of governors is acting appropriately. Ofsted inspectors’ safeguarding expertise, sent in on a no-notice basis by former Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson, means that it is now a safe school—I recognise that this is another unfashionable commendation.

I am not immune to Ofsted’s problems since the sad death of head teacher Ruth Perry and the training that has needed to take place, but we need to ensure that the professional accountability of Ofsted remains rigorous with regard to safeguarding. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, for her positive tone in relation to the expansion of its powers. I have no vested interest, save that when I was a Minister, knowing that we had in our pocket the ability to inspect a school at no notice was vital to keeping our children safe in school.