Bills to double the amount of government funded early education and improve the adoptions process offer the potential to improve the chances of vulnerable children (see analysis, p8). However, the government's plans to cut welfare support for the most disadvantaged families and force some schools deemed underperforming to become academies are more problematic.
Taking the latter first, the Education and Adoption Bill enables, among other things, academy chains to take failing maintained schools out of the state system without consulting local communities first (see analysis, p11). Children's services leaders say such a move is undemocratic and implies genuine scrutiny and debate by the parents of pupils attending such schools is an ideological obstacle to brush aside. As advocates for getting the best education for their children, there are few such passionate voices as parents, so for the government to dismiss this as an inconvenience is an own goal.
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