Education Bill

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Monday 12th September 2011 Grand Committee

Debate on whether Clause 42 should stand part of the Bill.

[Baroness Brinton]

My Lords, my noble friend Lady Walmsley and I have tabled this stand part debate in order to explore the many issues associated with the Government’s intention to extend the inspection of independent schools, which is done by the Independent Schools Inspectorate and other independent inspectorates, from inspecting only educational provision to inspecting welfare provision as well. My noble friend is unable to be in her place today so I speak for both of us.

I thank the Minister for his letter to my noble friend of 19 July, in which he refers to Clause 42. He points out that the ISI already inspects the standard of education of Independent Schools Council member schools. When these education inspections were handed over to the ISI, he reminds us in his letter, safeguards were put in place. Ofsted was required to monitor the work of the independent inspectorates and publish an annual report. Clause 42 provides for Ofsted to monitor welfare inspections as it already does for education inspections. The Minister points out in his letter that the ISI has put in a consistently strong performance in those reports to date. Clause 42 also sets out the matters that the Secretary of State will take into account when approving or withdrawing approval from independent inspectorates.

My questions about this are many, and perhaps we can address them one by one. First, there is a matter of principle. The ISI was originally set up to inspect the ISC’s own members. There is nothing wrong with that. Any organisation may legitimately self-inspect in order to achieve higher quality. A public inspection role is something else altogether, though, and to allow the ISI to move from that to the far more rigorous public role of child welfare inspecting and producing reports on which the public are to place reliance is very dubious unless the safeguards are far greater than those that I have heard so far. I remind the Committee that in this context the public have absolutely nothing else upon which to rely.

It is true that Ofsted monitors the work of the independent inspectorates, but the 2009-10 report consisted of nothing more than a letter from Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector to a civil servant in the department in which only one paragraph covered safety and welfare, and even that paragraph makes claims that are totally inadequate.

I turn to the independence of these inspectorates from the schools that they are inspecting, and the undertakings and terms and conditions under which they take over this new responsibility from Ofsted. The Minister explains in his letter that since 2007 the ISI has been a subsidiary company of the Independent Schools Council, with an independent board. However, a quick look at the accounts of the company shows that the finances of the two organisations are completely intertwined. The words used in the accounts to 31 December 2010 are that the “ultimate controlling party” is the ISC. That does not make the ISI independent in any shape or form.

I am encouraged by the Minister's statement in his letter of 19 July that the ISI will become fully independent of the ISC from January 2012. However, I understand that the inspectors carrying out these inspections will still all have to be members of the ISC. They are all, indeed, teachers or former teachers or heads of ISC schools, so exactly the same board will remain in place. Therefore, how the organisation can, in practice, possibly be considered independent, even under these new arrangements, is something that I struggle with.

What then become even more important are the undertakings and terms under which the ISI takes over this duty from Ofsted. When Ofsted took over the inspection of welfare and safeguarding from CSCI, we were assured that it was under the very same conditions under which CSCI operated. Can the Minister assure me that, when the ISI and the other inspectorates take over from Ofsted, they will again operate under the very same conditions and to the same standards? This is very important for the simple reason that none of these organisations is subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and it can be very hard to get out of them any information that they do not wish to give. In earlier years the CSCI inspection reports and, before that, those of county councils, did a good and thorough job—reliable, conscientious and carried out by those with the right skill set and experience. They were good precisely because they contained no element whatever of educational inspection. Welfare was not bolted on to the end of an education report; the two matters are totally different.

I turn now to the stability of the ISI. During the Recess there was considerable reporting of the fact that the Headmasters’ Conference voted to leave the ISC. It takes with it most of the larger and more influential independent schools, and about £600,000 of the ISC’s annual £1.4 million income. The reason given was that some head teachers are unhappy because the ISC has lost its focus on defending the interests of the independent sector. It is perfectly appropriate for a group to have an organisation to protect its interests, but it is not appropriate for the same organisation to be totally in control of the organisation that inspects child welfare in its schools on behalf of the public. However, the exodus from the ISC creates an organisation the stability and financial viability of which are in question. Taking away the subscriptions of the larger schools leaves it with a large number of smaller schools to support and inspect, and a smaller pool of inspectors from which to draw. Let us recall that all ISI inspectors must be from ISC schools under the current rules. Will the Minister assure us that this aspect of its operation, at least, will change if Clause 42 is implemented?

Another matter that the Government are currently considering impinges on this issue. Clause 39 exempts outstanding schools in the maintained sector from educational inspections. Consequently, there is an impending separation of the child welfare school inspection role from the education inspection role. Clearly, welfare inspections will have to continue in those schools that do not have inspections for their education standards. There will be an unavoidable divergence of inspection cycles, which will have the effect of making integrated inspections impossible in the maintained sector. One of the reasons given for Clause 42 in my noble friend’s letter is that it would give independent schools the benefit of a single inspection event. Leaving aside the fact that welfare inspection is not for the benefit of any school but for the safety and protection of vulnerable children, it will be impossible to do a single inspection anyway. Also, there will to be pressure to relieve independent schools of the burden of inspection at all. Are we seriously to entertain the notion that the best of our maintained schools are to be relieved of the burden of the usual inspection cycle but Winchester, Eton, Harrow and Westminster, with their unarguable high education standards, are still to be inspected? It is obvious that they will want to be relieved of the burden as well. Where will this end? You would have the ISC arguing strongly for its schools to be relieved of the very inspection regime that its own inspection arm is charged with carrying out. This has not been thought through.

Finally, although most independent schools care for and protect their pupils very well, as parents would expect, there have been some appalling cases of abuse, which, when they eventually see the light of day, we discover have been going on for a very long time. I have had conversations with some victims of such long-term abuse. That is why my noble friend Lord Phillips of Sudbury, the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, and others are very sceptical about the measures in Clause 13 to restrict the reporting of allegations against teachers. It has been far too easy in the past for people to close their eyes to abuse or make it easy for the perpetrator to resign quietly and go somewhere else. I am anxious to ensure that welfare inspections are done rigorously and that vested interests do not get in the way. We must always bear in mind that independent schools are commercial organisations. Even those run by charities make surpluses, which the charities can use for legitimate purposes. Therefore, there is the potential to lose a lot of money if the school is found wanting in the safeguarding department.

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[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

My Lords, I will need to write to the noble Earl on that point, because I do not have the figures for the exact mix between announced and unannounced inspections and how they are carried out.

[Baroness Brinton]

My Lords, I am pleased to hear that the HTC will remain, but the point remains valid that the ISC could be in a state of flux and the financial inspection capability could be affected in future.

I am very grateful to my noble friend for saying that she will come back on detailed points, because there are probably too many to go through this afternoon, but the key things that have come up are the issue of announced and unannounced inspections, which remain a cause for me, and the principle of joining together education and welfare inspections. That remains a difficulty, and I should be grateful if the Minister would look at that again. The other key point that has not been covered is access to information. Having bits of a report somewhere is not the same as freedom of information on the detail of a report. As I mentioned in my speech, many schools in the independent sector would not be happy to have details such as that published and it might be pushed to the back. I am very grateful for the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Lucas. I am sure that the Good Schools Guide would be interested in ensuring that parents have access to information for all the reasons I explained.

[Lord Elton]

My Lords, will the noble Baroness press the Minister a little more on the necessity of having two different sorts of people doing that kind of inspection?

[Baroness Brinton]

I am grateful for the intervention of my noble friend Lord Elton. The key point that I was trying to make earlier is that inspections under CSCI were clearly about welfare, as opposed those of the old-style Ofsted—if I can call it that—which were clearly about education. They require different professionals with different attitudes. It might be possible in some circumstances to run the inspections side by side, as has happened in local government, where there has been a plethora of inspections. However, the inspections are not the same, because they look at different things with different people. I should be grateful if the Minister would write to me on that point as well. I shall not continue my opposition to Clause 42 standing part at this stage, but will look forward to the Minister’s responses before Report.

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote]

My Lords, access to information is crucial. I should like to be assured that all of us sitting around this table will have access to the reply to the noble Baroness.

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Moved by

[Baroness Brinton]

122G: Clause 49, page 41, line 29, at end insert—
“( ) After subsection (3) insert—
“(3A) Notwithstanding subsections (1) to (3), if a pupil registered at a pupil referral unit is also registered at an Academy, the Academy shall pay the local authority which maintains the pupil referral unit the cost of educating the pupil for days when the pupil attends the unit.”.”

[Baroness Brinton]

The amendment has one simple aim in the extremely complex world of schools funding: to ensure that there is a level playing field concerning exclusions from academies to PRUs. I thank my noble friend Lord Hill for his helpful letter to the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, who, as I mentioned earlier, cannot be in her place today. I and my colleagues are concerned that in the bifurcated schools funding system that academies and free schools are now part, they should not be at any advantage over a community or maintained school, nor should the funding mechanism make it more beneficial for an academy or a free school to exclude a pupil long-term, which would necessitate a move to a PRU. My noble friend's letter is partially helpful, and I am grateful for that. It states:

“PRUs are centrally funded within a local authority's Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). When a maintained school converts to Academy status, no funding for local authority places is deducted from the local authorities DSG and the Academy receives no additional funding for this function. So Academies and maintained schools are in the same position in this respect”.

One reason that we have concerns is that academies have consistently had a higher exclusion rate of pupils than community schools. The figures for 2008-09, published under the Freedom of Information Act earlier this year show that on average academies permanently excluded 82 per cent more students— 3.1 per 1,000 compared to 1.7 per 1,000 for non-academy schools. I know that that figure is beginning to reduce, but there is still more than 50 per cent disparity between academies and the community schools.

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[Baroness Brinton]

I thank the Minister for his response on the very varied amendments that we have in front of us for PRUs today. I am sorry to say that, with the noise of the helicopters overhead, I was not quite sure whether he had answered the very specific question I raised in my amendment, about the disparity of funding for PRUs in a local authority area where there is a larger number of academies. I accept that he may not have the details to hand, but I would be grateful if he could let me know whether that is something that could be considered. I believe that the figures demonstrate that there is a serious issue there.

I also understand the points he has raised about limiting the time for which a pupil could stay within a PRU. I certainly take the point that there are some times where it needs to be more than just six months, to maintain continuity. I do not know if noble Lords opposite would take the point as well; however, I believe they said that that was as much a probing amendment as anything else, so I hope that will be acceptable. I remain concerned as well about the Henry VIII provision, and hope that some of the detail can be sorted out before this Bill proceeds into an Act. It is important that the Secretary of State—especially as we are talking so much about localism these days—does not reserve a large number of powers to himself or herself.

On that basis, waiting for the response from the Minister on the very specific point that I made, and knowing that the Report stage is coming, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 122G withdrawn.