West Sussex’s Conservative-led county council has joined the chorus of opposition to the government’s plan to turn all state schools into academies, saying it could hurt provision for vulnerable children and undermine the local economy.
In a letter to the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, West Sussex county council leader, Louise Goldsmith, said the council was united in opposing the proposals in Morgan’s education white paper, with no evidence that the county’s schools would be improved.
“I have reservations that the ‘one size fits all’ academies approach that ministers are proposing does not seem to promote any benefits to pupils and parents in West Sussex,” Goldsmith wrote. “We have very specific concerns about how vulnerable children will fare under the proposals – a statutory responsibility that will rightly remain with the council but with very few powers to help us to fulfil that duty.”
West Sussex is the latest council – alongside Oxfordshire, Hampshire and others – to express scepticism about the proposals, under which local authorities would cease to have direct involvement in schools after 2022, when maintained schools would be pushed to join multi-academy trusts.
West Sussex is a Conservative stronghold, with 46 out of the 71 county council seats held by the Tory party. Ukip is the second largest party with 10 seats, while Labour has just six.
Goldsmith told constituents she had misgivings about the white paper, saying: “You might think that odd coming from a Conservative councillor about a Conservative government, but I think in an open democracy it is right to exercise free speech and speak out on an issue of such importance.”
Goldsmith said she was also concerned the white paper would make it harder for councils to provide enough school places. “While we will still have legal responsibility to make sure all children have a school place we will not have any powers to force academies or free schools to expand should they choose not to. This will make it incredibly difficult for us to carry out our school places planning role,” she said.
Four out of five schools in West Sussex are rated as good or outstanding by Ofsted, with little evidence to suggest that forcing multi-academy trusts upon them would improve results, according to Goldsmith. “There was a sense that good outcomes for children and young people were not driving the proposed reforms – especially for the most vulnerable children,” Goldsmith wrote to Morgan.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education responded: “Our white paper reforms are the next step in ensuring every child has access to an excellent education by putting control in the hands of the teachers and school leaders who know their pupils best.”
On Wednesday, David Cameron told the House of Commons that academies have brought “massive improvements in our schools”. But a No 10 aide later said: “This is not something that’s going to happen in the coming weeks or months.
“Six years is a fairly long time. Many more schools would have converted to academies [by then] anyway,” the aide told the Financial Times.
Morgan, who at Easter told the teaching unions she had “no reverse gear”, also signalled a climbdown earlier this week when she said village schools could be given extra help, after complaints from Conservative MPs.
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