Gove's plans need spur of profit

The Tories know what they want to do about state schools, but will they have the nerve to make it work?

By Anna Fazackerley

There are two new types of bore who seem always to end up sitting next to me at dinner parties. The first is the slightly smug middle-class male who imagines that watching 32 episodes of The Wire back-to-back makes him both socially aware and really rather fascinating. The second is the guest who wants to proclaim at length that although they look likely to win the election, The Tories Have No Ideas.

With politicians everywhere declaring that Britain and Baltimore are now one of a kind, Bore Number One can feel utterly vindicated. But to Bore Number Two I simply say – education. For this is one area in which the Conservatives really do seem to have a plan.

They plan to build hundreds of good new ‘independent’ schools within the state system. The message coming loud and clear from Whitehall in the last decade has been that officials and ministers know better than parents what their children want and need, and that they know better than those in the classroom how teaching should be done. Instead, the Tories plan to give teachers the freedom to try out new ideas and to shape education based upon their experience of what really works in classrooms. And they plan to give parents the power to choose schools that actually deliver what they want. In fact, parents and teachers can even test this freedom more literally by setting up their own schools.

Nonetheless, having a grand vision is of course only the start. And there are many things that could seriously wobble the plan if not tackled properly. 

The notion of ‘school choice’ has been debated endlessly in policy circles. Indeed, one of the first things the Tories will probably seek to do is distance themselves from this phrase altogether because it has become so loaded with emotion. Instead, they will need to talk about allowing parents to make decisions, or giving parents what they want.

Yet to date, the practicalities of school choice have been largely ignored. Any government wanting to encourage new schools and introduce freedom within the state sector must face those practicalities. They will need to untangle layers of bureaucracy, and remove legislative and political barriers. Even rather small issues could prove to be seriously damaging. For instance, will exciting proposals for new schools be unseated by angry local people complaining to planning committees that traffic will be a nightmare when hundreds of parents arrive to drop off their kids at the start and end of the day?

It will not be sufficient to make it possible to set up a new school. That is supposedly achievable now – though the process is shrouded in secrecy and impenetrable red tape. If it is not relatively painless to set up a new school, only the experienced big players will have the know-how or the gumption to do so. Of course, groups of parents will need some handholding (which is part of the raison d’etre behind the New Schools Network that is about to come into being). But the bottom line is – the process must be straightforward or we will be stuck with the status quo.

A knottier issue, which the Conservatives are choosing to ignore for now, is that of profit. The Swedish ‘free schools’ system, which they are using as a partial model, has been driven by profit-making chains of schools.  These chains use their returns to invest in new schools (rather than building up huge waiting lists) and to improve on their success. It remains to be seen whether in this country we will be able to set up large numbers of new schools without bringing in the private sector. 

Worryingly, there are currently only five federations with five or more academies open or planned, and some of these are already close to capacity. And a significant number of potential multi-academy sponsors say they have been put off by the inability to make a profit. This is critical. The Tories can ignore this issue for now, but at some point they will need to bite the bullet and explain to the public why profit will drive standards up and not down.

When it comes to schools, the naysayers should be in no doubt.  The Tories do have a plan. Yet the next eight months will be crucial. This is where the detail must come in.

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3 October 2009

Anna Fazackerley. Head of Education , Policy Exchange