The manner in which Michael Gove and his apparatchiks operate is clearly beginning to unravel – the attention paid to his pet free school programme is clearly distracting the machine of state from the twin problems of a looming buildings crisis and of a real risk of councils being unable to find places for children.
In this context the last-minute decision on a wet bank holiday to pull the plug within eight days of the expected opening of the Bradford City football ground-based One in A Million free school is perhaps of minor note. After all, its 50 pupils a year are hardly going to make a big impact upon Bradford’s six per cent annual pupil growth, with 1,200 more one-year-olds than 12-year-olds.
With the money spent on the building, a headteacher and staff in place, around 30 children are believed to have been ready to attend rather than the expected 50 and, as is the practice with such private providers, the not-for-profit free school was ready with the private provider of services behind them.
The charity had made what they said was strong case. We as a council are known to have rising numbers and have been denuded of capital. Bradford was at the mercy of the Education Funding Agency for whom local need and views are almost immaterial.
The upshot is that we have a range of upset and confused parents, and we have seen a huge amount of time effort and public money spent on small scheme, with some ideas and passion, but that in no way tackles the scale of the challenges facing urban and other authorities.
But this debacle has a human face too: it’s about parents who took the idea up, whose children have uniform that is now wasted cash in a deep recession, and who now have to look to the very people Gove demonises to help and support them – the local authority.
The parents and children have been given eight days before school starts to find places in a pressured system. If we as council treated people like this and ran projects in this way Eric Pickles would be sending the commissioners in.
The anger is palpable as local community schools who lost their Building Schools for the Future funding then agree to take bulge classes in temporary huts, and watch as hordes of Department for Education officials pore over a few free schools.
It’s a real mess and we have to state clearly: this will have to end and a locally accountable system will have to be restored.
I feel for the parents and the proposers. They were led to believe a lot of things. As for the truth, well getting an FOI out of the Department for education on free schools is like asking for hen’s teeth.
—————————————————————————————
Ralph Berry is portfolio holder for children and young people at Bradford council. He tweets @CllrRalphBerry
————————————————————————————
These free schools are a free-for-all. A group is trying to set up one in a nearby town, but can’t get the premises sorted out in time. (A former school which was closed and re-located because it was unsuitable). They have suddenly turned up in our village, planning to stay for a year or two or until the other premises becomes available. No consultation, no detailed research, and no input from our local education authority. Our County Councillor only found out because a neighbour approached her about the planning application. They are kicking up a fuss because they didn’t get their planning application nodded through in time for the end of August, due to very real issues with highways. Their leader is saying that the government should put aside a ‘land bank’ of sites all round the country to be given to free schools whenever they decide they want to set up one. In the meantime, we have just had a successful campaign by parents, governors and councillors to get an additional classroom built in the infant school in time for September to cope with a bulge of 5 year olds. If this school, advertising for 4-6 year olds, sets up in the village, we could lose funding for that extra class. How can a Government put forward such an ill-thought out policy? We need an education authority to look at demographics, consult with the community and decide on new schools, not allow any old vanity project to go ahead. The free school is now saying that parents are distraught because they might have to take up places at local state schools. The main cause of all the parental distress and confusion around the country is Michael Gove. Why is the Labour party at national level not attacking him for ruining our education system? He is worse than Andrew Lansley!
Everything that Michael Gove has done during his time as Education Secretary, is not only a bad idea for education, but a complete and utter shambles: tax payers’ money being wasted on schools that don’t materialise, land given away to those schools who convert to academy status (and as these are often privately run, who is to say they won’t sell that land off in a few years’ time for a profit?), whilst at the same time taking money away from Councils who are trying to cope with an increased demand for school places. And that is not to mention the fragmentation of society that will result from this higgledy-piggledy education system where national standards are no more. will someone please stop the man before he has dismantled the whole system? The man doesn’t know the first thing about how to educate children and needs to go before he has made some irreparable damage!