ADCS fears return of schools interference

The schools white paper published last autumn, had promised to give schools and councils freedom to set their own school improvement priorities.

But Education Secretary Michael Gove wrote to local authorities earlier this month, giving them six weeks to draw up detailed plans on raising standards at underperforming schools.

Nick Hudson, chair of the ADCS educational achievement policy committee, said that the government now risks recreating a top-down system for school improvement.

"These improvement plans will be submitted to the Department for Education (DfE) and then new centrally recruited school improvement advisers will come out and talk to us," he explained. "The issue for the ADCS is that the advisers will feel like the resurrection of a field force and the plan feels like an added burden.

"The new administration said in broad policy terms that it would reduce field forces and remove bureaucratic burdens so there appears to be a contradiction."

He added that the schools white paper had suggested that school improvement would be organised through locally-based advisers.

The paper stated: "We will work with and fund local authorities to identify an experienced and effective education professional — typically a serving or recent head teacher - to act as lead adviser."

But Gove's recent intervention suggests this proposal has been dropped. "There has been a change of approach that we are still struggling to understand," Hudson said.

A DfE spokeswoman said that funding would be available to councils where extra cash is "crucial" to their school improvement plans and could be used to employ local advisers.

"This is not a return to field forces — heads and local authorities will be the driving force in making improvements," she said. "Lead advisers will work with local authorities to identify ways to make improvements."