Ann John challenged on free schools

 I hear that there was a right old ding dong at Labour's Brent Local Government Committee last night when they debated the Brent officers' recommendation that the Council should get involved in setting up a free school.

Nationally Stephen Twigg has failed to issue a clear policy and this has left local Labour parties in a quandary. When a new secondary school was required under the last Labour administration it was argued by Brent officers that there was no alternative to an academy because of the Labour government's policy that all new school should be academies. This opened the way for the ARK Academy and the subsequent conversion of other former local authority schools in Brent to academy status.

This  argument is now being repeated on free schools and the Coalition government policy. Andy Donald, Director of Regeneration, who seems to be directing education policy rather than Krutika Pau who is Director of Children and Families, told Brent Labour Group a week ago that in order to address the shortage of school places that there was no alternative to the Council setting up a free school in partnership with an outside body. I have argued before that the 'numbers' approach to school place shortage was leading to school expansions and bulge classes which paid little heed to the quality of education on offer. Putting builders rather than educationalists in charge is likely to have major repercussions in the future.

In my previous post on this issue I remarked that Brent officers' wouldn't have put forward a free schools strategy without the tacit agreement of Labour leader Ann John. This proved to be the case last night at an emergency meeting.  Ann John and Mary Arnold (lead member for children and families) supported by half a dozen others argued that although they didn't like free schools there was no alternative to supporting them because otherwise children would be denied a right to be educated.

Former Brent South MP Dawn Butler was joined by Cllr Moher (not a Trot as far as I know!)  and veteran Brent Labour activist Colin Adams in opposing the principle of free schools and only agreeing if further work by external consultants established that there was no alternative. Their motion was narrowly carried.

Ann John was not happy as she is used to being 'She who must be obeyed' and suddenly the cavalry arrived in the person of several more councillors who appeared to have been mysteriously summoned and a new motion was put. This opposed free schools in theory but stating that Brent Council should choose a free school partner to work with.

This motion was also carried so Labour now has two policies both opposed to free schools in principle with one seeking delay for further research and the other advocating an immediate partnership.

This debate need to move outside the Labour Party so that Brent teachers and parents have a say in the future of educational provision in the borough. Free schools do not have the democratic accountability of local authority schools, take a disproportionate amount of funding and open the way to experimental teaching and curricula with a potentially damaging impact on children. As with the ARK Academy the first free school in Brent will open the way for others to follow, producing an ad hoc competitive system where working class children may well lose out.

All Souls give Kensal Rise campaigners hope

The Friends of Kensal Rise Library have received good news from the Bursar of All Souls College.

 I am writing to confirm that All Souls College has contacted the council via its solicitors to inform them that the College would be happy to consider the library being kept open as proposed in the Business Plan prepared by the 'Friends of Kensal Rise Library, Ltd.

This puts the ball firmly into Brent Council's court. I await developments with interest.

Audacious Lib Dems attack Labour on cuts in near anonymous leaflet

Alison Hopkins hidden in the fold

My Green Party comrade Pete Murry, our candidate for the Dollis Hill by-election has posted an interesting piece on the Brent Greens blog LINK

What at first appeared to be an anti-cuts leaflet with no obvious party identification lambasted Labour over cuts and included quotes from trades unionists Bob Crow and Dave Prentice criticising Labour cuts. The leaflet is headlined: Who Can You Trust to STOP THE CUTS.  It was only after a meticulous search that Pete found, printed in a tiny font along the leaflet's fold, that it was printed on behalf of Alison Hopkins the Liberal Democrat candidate.

Pete Murry comments:

 This verges on a 'dirty trick'  Lib Dem bid for disillusioned Labour voters, whilst totally omitting any mention of Lib Dem involvement in coalition government cuts. I can at least say, as Green Party candidate in the Dollis Hill by-election, and Secretary of the Green Party Trade Union Group that the Green Party nationally opposes cuts and supports Trade Union opposition to them through its affiliation to the Coalition of Resistance and its support for the creation of at least one million jobs to build the infrastructure that the country needs for a low carbon economy that can help to combat climate change. What can the Lib Dem’s say?

That they are part of a coalition imposing swingeing cuts to public services and initiating privatisation programs that are making ordinary people pay for a crisis of international finance? That is the truth. So, no wonder they don’t wish to acknowledge it by pushing leaflets through voters’ doors that seem almost ashamed to ask people to vote Lib Dem

Will Brent Labour sell-out on free schools?

In January it appeared that Brent Labour was ready to gear up to defend community schools when they held an Education Conference for members and Labour governors on academies and free schools.  They decided to be more proactive in making the argument for schools to remain within the Brent 'family of schools' working with the local authority, rather than to convert to academy status. LINK

I welcomed this move but it appears that Brent Council officers have stepped in quickly to thwart any attempt at independent thinking. On Monday in a presentation to the Labour Group Brent Council officers recommended that Brent Council should collaborate with the Coalition's free school policy and actively seek partners to set up free schools.  It is unlikely that they would have been such a move without at least the tacit support of Ann John, Labour leader.  John was late for the Education Conference as she and Muhammed Butt were at an Area Consultative Forum making their presentation on the budget.

The suggestion provoked a lot of discussion at the Labour Group but no decisions were taken.  It will now go to the LGC on Thursday as an emergency item.  It will be interesting to see if Labour members let Brent Council officers dictate policy, or whether they take a stand on Michael Gove's  policy that undermines local authority school provision and commandeers  a disproportionate slice of the education budget.

Meanwhile Brent Council's provision of school improvement services will be discussed with governors at two meetings (Wednesday March 14th 10am-Noon, Thursday 22nd March 2012 7pm-9pm). Unfortunately the latter coincides with the Dollis Hill by-election which will rule attendance out for quite a few people.

The two issues are connected because one of the arguments for academy conversion or free schools is that local education authorities are now so weak that they cannot provide adequate services and they they do not represent good value.

Brent Council is proposing that in 2013-14 it only offers a core statutory service which will be provided free to schools. Everything else will be subject to 'self-funded trading arrangements' which means that schools will have to make their own arrangements and pay for them themselves.  Apart from amounting to an actual cut in the schools' budgets this also removes a major part of the argument for staying with the local authority.

Brent Council seems to be in the process of opting out of its education authority role unless urgent action is taken by those who support community schools and democratic accountability.