Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Tomlinson Excerpts

Monday 4th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Progress this afternoon is very slow. I will take a couple of supplementaries, but they must be very brief and so must the replies.

[Michael Tomlinson (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (Con)]

20. Will the Secretary of State, in reaffirming her commitment to fairer funding, set out the timetable for the consultation process and say when it will eventually be implemented?

[Nicky Morgan]

I hope to be able to consult extremely shortly. This is complicated and I want to give local authorities time, but my hon. Friend is right that we need to make progress.

--- Later in debate ---

[Nicky Morgan]

I refute the first part of the right hon. Gentleman’s question. I do not know of any academies or schools that ignore parents’ concerns. As for the second part, we will make that clear when we have published the Bill. I very much hope that the right hon. Gentleman will be part of the Committee that scrutinises the “education for all” Bill.

[Michael Tomlinson (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (Con)]

T4. Some schools and headteachers are nervous about becoming academies. I believe they need not be, but what reassurance and guidance can the Minister give them on the path to academisation?

[Mr Gibb]

The process of conversion to academies will be assisted by the Department and once a school notifies the Department it wants to convert to academy status, with all the professional freedoms that that brings, there will be a named official who will help it through the process.