| SPOTLIGHT |
As the General Election nears, Graham Burns analyses what the main political parties are proposing in relation to education.
The closest general election in living memory is just too close to call. All the pundits predict some form of alliance between the parties to form the necessary majority to govern. This brings into sharp focus the key manifesto commitments of all the main parties who will gain seats.
As ever, in the field of education, the parties display a broad range of different approaches and policies. Whilst education has not taken the prominence it has enjoyed in recent elections, it is still a major policy area for all the parties. The school system has been undergoing major changes over the lifetime of the last Parliament, and the indications are that there could be further major changes ahead. Whilst a majority of headteachers are unconvinced by the competing education policies being offered by any of the political parties, the politicians are unlikely to be swayed by such scepticism, and no matter which party wins, more change is on the way.
At the heart of the debate about the future of the school system lies the role of the local authority – this is the key political battleground between the parties. The role and power of the local authorities has been in decline for some time – most noticeably by the impact of the rapid growth of the academy sector.
The most radical changes would come about under a Conservative administration. The prospect ahead for any “coasting" school is a move out of the maintained sector into the academy world. Free schools will become more established and we can expect to see a greater role for the Regional School Commissioners, and a permanent and dramatic switch away from local authority provision and funding of schools.
Labour, whose last Government did so much to champion the cause of academy trusts taking on failing schools, are seemingly more neutral about academies. It seems that they will be tolerated and perhaps subject to greater regulation, but the Labour manifesto is coy as to whether the voluntary conversions will be allowed to continue – and no specific academy policy is set out. Free schools in their current guise will not continue, although a similar incarnation (with more local authority involvement) may be expected to replace them, as the next Parliament will see a significant increase in pupil numbers so more new schools will be needed no matter which party takes the reins. Under Labour, the Regional School Commissioners will be replaced by a larger number of Directors of School Standards – but details are not clear on their democratic accountability – again we might expect greater local authority involvement under Labour.
The Liberal Democrats policy is more closely aligned to Labour – they favour a middle tier, and less intervention from the Secretary of State. The Lib Dems are not supportive of free schools – and we can expect a much greater role for local authorities in approving new schools. Similar to Labour, no policy is set out on conversion of maintained schools to academies – but tellingly neither party has committed to bring academies back into the maintained sector.
There are many similarities in the approaches taken, and in terms of the proposed funding for schools there is no marked difference in commitment, with the parties offering similar (and somewhat vague) commitments to protect education budgets. The three main parties share a similar commitment to rule out profit-making schools, and all appear to envisage greater regulation in some form or other. There are some instances where the parties do divide – and the proposed policy from Labour to change the rules on rate relief for independent schools promises to re-ignite the old debate on the charitable status of independent schools. This policy will force independent schools to forge greater links with local state schools if they wish to claim the rate relief, and this will put local authorities in the powerful position of making decisions which could affect the financial viability of local charitable independent schools. There are many successful partnerships between independent and state schools – and this policy is likely to encourage more.
We can all look forward to what promises to be a fascinating election – and local authorities and school leaders can expect more change on the way. It is just so unclear as to what that change is going to be.
Graham Burns is a partner at Stone King. He can be contacted on 020 7324 1760 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
