Championing Children and Championing Excellence

Cornwall’s Policy Position

Bodmin 21st May 2011

The government white paper as the next stage of school reform

• Centralisation vs localism• Changed role for LA – and different

relationship with government• Greater devolution of resource and

responsibility to schools• Roll back of local planning• Opening to the market to expand VCS

and private sectors• Improvement driven by market forces

A Less Forgiving Landscape

• Freedom in the market • A potential new funding formula

managed nationally, not locally• Schools and headteachers allowed to fail• LA intervention in below floor standard

schools • Central government control over

academy intervention and future organisation

Academies: the opportunities

• Greater autonomy and freedom• Additional resources at a time of

economic downturn• Ability to invest directly in support

services for pupils• Ability to draw on a wider range of

providers to achieve efficiency and value for money

• Potential advantage in the market through government endorsement

The question for governors:

• How is the quality of local provision best protected?

• Through adopting Academy status, or through retaining Local Authority designation?

• The answer is far from clear at this point…

•

Cornwall Council advice to governors:

• Creation of local collaborative trusts/ academy trusts

• The trusts themselves choose to be LA or Academy

• Small single schools, including small academies, not seen as viable long term

• Trusts shape local community offer in partnership with LA

• Economies of scale, efficiencies and local service modelling achieved through these local trusts

The Local Authority role for all schools

• Champion for parents and educational excellence

• Safeguarding and child protection• Protecting and supporting those who do

not prosper in mainstream provision• Special Educational Needs• Co-ordination of admissions/ fair access,

including transport

For LA schools:

• Providing the local support and working relationship as it has previously existed -and to build on that foundation

• Developing further “academy” freedoms in purchasing services within or beyond the Council

• Supporting local school collaboration to develop the sustainability of school places close to the home

• Providing the checks and balances which keep school futures under local control

Current Risks

• Creating the winners and the losers • Communities in Cornwall not ready for

change on this scale especially potential loss of village schools

• The impact of deregulation on the quality of provision in a less certain future

• Loss of responsiveness to parents on local issues

• Loss of community control to the Secretary of State

The question for governors:

• How is the quality of local provision best protected?

• Through adopting Academy status, or through retaining Local Authority designation?

• The answer is far from clear at this point…

•