Queen’s Speech

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, I will concentrate my comments this evening on the Government’s proposals for education, an issue referred to in the gracious Speech in terms I can best summarise as “more of the same”.

This approach shows a deeply worrying level of complacency, given the problems which are causing discontent among parents, teachers and educationalists. The Trojan horse scandal in Birmingham, which we were debating this afternoon, has highlighted the failures of government policies, but it is not the only one. Only last month, a damning Public Accounts Committee report accused the Department for Education of spending £240 million on free schools in areas which do not need them, and of then being unable to give a consistent explanation of how it approved or rejected free school applications. Take the case of Steiner Academy Five Valleys free school in Stroud, which is seeking to open in an area which already has a surplus of places and is therefore threatening the existence of some excellent village schools in the area. This is not unusual.

All this is taking place against a backdrop of a crisis in school places which has led to a doubling in the number of infant class sizes of more than 30 pupils since 2010, amid persistent reports that parents are struggling to find places in local schools. Meanwhile, sadly, the Government have no effective system for school improvement. Michael Gove’s strategy is to let schools sink or swim and, to be frank, many of them are sinking. According to Ofsted, nearly 1.5 million children are being taught in schools that require improvement, and nearly 250,000 pupils are languishing in inadequate schools. Goole High School, recently converted to an academy, is a good case in point. Having been judged inadequate in all categories, its recent plan to get out of special measures was judged “not fit for purpose” by Ofsted. Meanwhile, the children at the school continue to suffer. Of course, Michael Gove famously and repeatedly denigrated the very people he needed on side to turn the situation round, describing teachers as “the enemies of promise”, and introducing reforms at a pace that has frequently caused administrative chaos in the classroom. I would therefore describe the Queen’s Speech as a missed opportunity to drive up standards in all schools and to deliver excellence for all young people.

In contrast to the abrasive, singular ideology with which Michael Gove has approached reform, our party is developing a different approach. Our education agenda is centred on a “what works” policy that draws on the best of best practice, takes account of evidence, works with the practitioners and prepares the country for the future, not the past. This is why we are committed to introducing local directors of school standards to ensure oversight and accountability at community level. This will allow us to address underperformance up front and decisively, rather than waiting for whistleblowers or Ofsted reports to ring alarm bells in the department.

Secondly, we will build on the concept of school autonomy first developed by David Blunkett in 1997, extending the freedoms of academies and free schools to all schools. Importantly, however, we will differentiate between autonomy and isolation. The lesson from the highly successful London Challenge programme, introduced by the previous Government, is that the schools which are most effective are those which collaborate and work in partnership. This will be a clear expectation.

Thirdly, we will address the skills gap, a frequent concern of business leaders, by creating genuine parity between vocational and academic education. This will be built on a national baccalaureate framework for all pupils aged 14 to 19. In addition to A-level or high-quality vocational qualifications, all learners would study maths and English to 18, undertake an extended study or collaborative project and develop their character and resilience through individual programmes of work or community service.

Finally, and crucially, we will reverse the Government’s hostility to the teaching profession by recognising that the most effective way of improving children’s attainment is by raising standards of teaching to deliver a world-class teacher in every classroom. We will begin by ending the wrong-headed policy of encouraging unqualified teachers. Instead, qualified teacher status will be the bare minimum. In addition, we would expect all teachers to undertake regular professional development.

Unlike this Government, our approach would be a collaborative one, which learns from the best and delivers the best for every child. This coming legislative programme was an opportunity for the Government to learn from their mistakes and put their education programme back on course. Sadly, they have chosen not to take up this opportunity, so we on these Benches stand ready to take up that challenge.