Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Baroness Fleet Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Fleet (Con)]

My Lords, it is an honour to speak in this debate. I declare my interest as a governor of the Shoreditch Park academy in Hackney. I will focus on the proposed measures that I think threaten academies. Many noble Lords have already made brilliant, passionate speeches based on deep knowledge and expertise, not least our academy hero, my noble friend Lord Harris of Peckham.

What is the problem that the Government are trying to solve? Academies have been one of the most successful education reforms of our generation. Why are the Government intent on sabotaging that success, other than to please militant trade unionists? Significant parts of the Bill are inspired by ideologues in hock to the unions, putting the interests of the allies of the Marxist Jeremy Corbyn ahead of children—yes, the very working-class children who would benefit from an excellent academy education.

As a governor of a secondary school in Hackney—a pretty tough area—that is part of CoLAT, the City of London Academies Trust, I have seen the power that an academy has to change lives. Shoreditch Park was set up in 2017 in a portakabin with just 180 pupils and 20 staff. We now have 870 pupils in a brilliant new building and a thriving sixth form, with pupils from more than a dozen ethnic backgrounds—54% pupil premium and 14% special needs but with very good attendance, achieving fantastic grades at GCSE and A-level, with 100% of the 2024 sixth form going to university. That is astonishing, given that some pupils arrive at the school barely able to write a sentence, let alone with correct spelling and punctuation. Earlier this year, Ofsted rated Shoreditch Park outstanding in every category.

How has that been achieved? By being part of a very successful trust that has the experience and freedom to make decisions. Why do the Government want to change a policy that is working and helps the most disadvantaged to succeed? I have visited hundreds of schools—I am sure many others have too—and I have seen what works. Academies work because they are in charge, not the unions.

The Bill undermines academies. I will mention three areas of particular concern. The first is the curriculum. Trusts know how to produce a rigorous, broad-based curriculum that include music, drama and sport. At Shoreditch Park there are choirs, orchestras, drama productions, football, netball, basketball, debating, chess club and so it goes on, as well as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award—incredibly important and life-changing for many pupils, with its focus on outdoor activities and community service all essential to keep these children engaged, to find something special and to build resilience.

Secondly, teacher recruitment has been mentioned before, but I am going to say it again: trusts currently have the freedom to hire who is best in certain circumstances, even if that person has not trained at an institute of education. Why change that? Pressure from the unions? Do I detect the closed-shop mentality, so familiar in the 1970s, that destroyed industry?

The third issue is school uniforms. A strict school uniform policy is essential, with branding and badges, so that children do not come to school representing street culture or gang culture, or as a fashion statement. Uniform is a social leveller, an objective authority. Why change that? The three-item proposal is hopeless.

Academies have strong behaviour programmes, routines, systems and structures that liberate pupils. They are taught to understand that schools are communities with rules and about the consequences of bad behaviour. Just like society, they bring out the best in pupils, with no phones and certainly no knives. Exclusion is the last resort but is absolutely necessary when a pupil aggressively and repeatedly defies the rules.

I want to make one more point. The changes proposed by the Government would reverse that improvement. As for failing schools, ask any trust CEO their view of RISE, the local authority school improvement programme, and they will say it is “drag and drain”. It is a drag on school improvement and a drain on resources. Trusts such as COLAT know how to turn round a failing school. Academies are a great cross-party success, envied by parents and politicians across the world. Just why have the Government allowed themselves to be captured by the self-interest of union leaders, putting those interests ahead of the needs of children? Will the Government at least listen to the wisdom of their own noble Lord, Lord Blunkett?