Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Baroness Morgan of Huyton Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Morgan of Huyton (Lab)]

My Lords, I draw attention to my interests as set out in the register. I just want to talk very briefly about schools today. I say clearly that I have seen at first hand the transformative power of academies to deliver excellent education where there has been failure. When academies were introduced—and I was involved enthusiast—they were a tool for the urgent improvement of schools, not an ideological symbol. The idea was simple but radical: open up to new energy and expertise, allow great leaders the freedoms to create enthusiastic teams and raise standards and, crucially, to make sure there was accountability so that schools that were failing children, particularly from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, could not carry on failing the next cohort. It worked, and many of us around this House were involved in that mission.

I fear that we have lost sight of the original purpose. The debate in recent times has shifted from standards to structures, outcomes to ideology. Today, over 80% of secondary schools are academies—the landscape has fundamentally changed. Academisation alone cannot be the answer when it is already the dominant model. In some cases it has delivered hugely, but it is not a panacea. What we need now, again, is to refocus relentlessly on standards and outcomes for every child in every school, whatever its structure and whatever the badge on the school gate. We should remember what has worked and replicate that, including earned freedoms.

We should be totally and utterly impatient and relentless about poor quality in any school, whether academy, maintained, free school or faith. Any school that is failing its pupils should be given a short, focused period to improve dramatically. If it cannot, leadership must change. Handing over a school to a poorly performing provider of whatever label is not acceptable, ever. Quality and rigour are what matters. Every year a child spends in a failing school is a year of potential lost, and the disadvantage gap and regional disparities persist.

What frustrates all of us is that we know we have the tools to address this, but sometimes we lack the will to use them consistently. The current rebrokering process for academies can take years, during which children continue to be failed, and that has to change. We need to recapture the original spirit of academy reform: clear standards, strong accountability and swift intervention when those standards are not met for all schools.

Accountability is more than data measurements and inspection regimes; it is also about nous. It is about having the courage to act decisively when children are being let down. I used to say when I was there that Ofsted had to be an agent for improvement. Its reports have to lead to change. I remember talking to pupils in some of the very first academies we created. They were so excited about the tangible evidence of investment in their future, the ambition embodied in every aspect of a school. We must not lose that sense of possibility and drive for excellence.

The evidence from strong academy chains and networks shows what works: strong leadership, great teachers, curriculum expertise, behaviour policies that create calm learning environments and, crucially, the willingness to share what works across schools. The goal remains what it always was: to ensure that every child, regardless of background, has access to excellent education. Academies can and do play a crucial role in this mission, but they are a means to an end, not an end in themselves.

The Bill has clauses that I know will lead to heated debate, and I believe we will improve it as we go along. I will not go there on these details today. Today, my plea to all of us around this House is simple: please let us return to first principles, high standards, strong accountability and swift action where these standards are not met. Let us avoid excuses, justifications, compromises. Let us judge schools by their outcomes and let us act with the urgency that our children deserve.