16 critical functions of our education system - if not delivered by the local authority then who?

Later today, the Chancellor will announce the largest shift in education since the creation of local authorities early in the last century, before the First World War. The wholesale privatisation of the schools system will be encouraged, if that is the right word, by some significant ‘smoke and mirrors’ funding which will be less than the already-planned cuts to education. And of course the process of academisation itself has already proved catastrophically expensive.

If you then add to the mix that, as predicted widely in 2010 when Michael Gove started the process, academisation does not result in the massive, or even significant, improvements in standards that were promised, the whole business seems like a red herring.

If you then add to the mix that the DfE has failed to come up with any stable school system for the future, the whole process is in disarray. We have had academy chains – some of which have failed, or gone out of business – academy trusts of many sorts, academy converters, and the most recent jargon is ‘MATisation’.  

If you then add in to the mix that over the next few years the process of academisation will itself absorb time and energy – and huge amounts of money, at a time of continued government-imposed austerity – the  whole exercise seems beyond pointless.

The evidence seems to be that professionals agree – teacher recruitment is at an all time low, and headteacher recruitment is little better. And we have the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development saying that our maths curriculum is an inch deep and a mile wide … so the whole education edifice set up by the Coalition government is failing.

How, in all this chaos, do we protect services to the public and to the most vulnerable?

There are a number of functions that need to be carried out above the level of the school or the MAT to make sure that every child gets a decent education. They could be (have been) carried out by local authorities and national independent agencies such as Ofsted. But in a fully MATised system, the need is greater than ever.

I have identified the following functions that operate above the level of the school to be sure that they are operated fairly and well. I would argue that most are in the proper realm of the local authority, as a democratically accountable body, but whether the government agree or not, these functions are required, and if it is not the local authority, then we all need to know who has those functions. (And we need rather more clarity than at present, with the Education Funding Agency, Ofsted, regional schools commissioners, and local authorities all having overlapping roles.)