Schools and academies

One of the most interesting and important policy shifts of 2012 was made almost sotto voce, with very few people picking up the key message. First, Sir Michael Wilshaw published his annual report accompanied by league tables of local authorities. Councils were ranked by the percentage of their primary children attending good or outstanding schools.

This is an interesting metric, and while it could be criticised, it has some validity and will cause some refocusing of minds. The overt message was that many councils could do better. But the important, underlying, message was that councils actually do have accountability for school standards in all state-funded schools in their area, including academies.

The following week, and in the same vein, the new schools minister, David Laws, delivered what the Telegraph called a "stinging attack" on local authorities, accusing them of "only championing their own schools" and by implication ignoring poor academies, and saying that councils "must act when schools in their areas need to improve". This from a minister whose government's big idea was setting schools free from the shackles of local bureaucracy! You really could not blame councils for under-emphasising education after the rhetoric surrounding the Academies Act, passed in indecent haste by the then-new coalition government.