Blunkett calls for standards tsars to improve school performance

Former education secretary David Blunkett made the recommendation after reviewing the accountability and oversight in schools in response to concerns that Education Secretary Michael Gove is neglecting his duty to improve standards.

In his report, Blunkett claims that 4,000 schools are being run directly from Whitehall in a “centralised and inefficient” system that allows underperformance to go unchecked.

He also criticises Gove for leaving schools to “sink or swim” by having no effective system for improvement.

As a result, Blunkett has outlined 40 recommendations designed to improve standards.

The most radical proposal calls for the introduction of school standards "tsars" – or directors of school standards – in every area with powers to intervene in all underperforming state, academy and free schools.

They would be appointed by local authorities from a list of candidates approved by the Education Secretary.

In addition, Blunkett wants the decisions for creating new schools and new school places to be devolved to the new directors, who he said would commission services on the basis of effectiveness rather than political agenda.

The Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough MP said all schools must be held to the highest standards.

He said: “Michael Gove has damaged the drive for school standards by allowing underperformance in our schools to go unchecked.

“The government’s ideology of running thousands of schools directly from a desk in Whitehall means that underperformance is not spotted until it is too late, as we have seen with the Al-Madinah Free School, the now closed Discovery Free School and the substandard performance of many AET academies.

“New local directors of school standards will monitor, support and challenge schools to improve, driving up standards in underperforming and ‘fragile’ schools – irrespective of the status of school.”

Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt has welcomed the report and said the introduction of schools standards tsars would bring a “new and robust local oversight of all schools to root out underperformance”.

Chris Keates, general secretary of teachers’ union Naswut, has also welcomed the report.

She said: “The coalition government’s structural reforms have weakened democratic accountability and handed more power to remote education providers at the expense of parents and local communities.

“Serious fault lines have now appeared across the education landscape which means that children’s entitlement to a school place, fair admissions, a national curriculum and to be taught by qualified teachers are at the mercy of individual education providers.

“The Blunkett review indicates that whilst there is waste and inefficiency in the system, it can be tackled through regulation, effective accountability and better local strategic co-ordination of education.”