Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

At 3.20, I received a letter from the chair of the Independent Academies Association, Mr. Mike Butler, who explained that he was deeply disturbed by, in particular, the role of the Young People's Learning Agency in performance assessments and by other ways of extending greater powers to local authorities. That was surprising to us because we consulted Ark, Harris, Oasis and the United Learning Trust and many academy sponsors, and in my briefing, I have a quote from Ros McMullen, the outgoing chair of the Independent Academies Association, saying that the IAA welcomed"““the plans to establish the YPLA and its proposed role in the administration and support of open academies…We are especially pleased that this proposition will allow Academies to continue to receive all their funding directly from a single national agency. We have been discussing these issues with ministers for some time, and fully support these proposals.””" So the IAA fully supports the proposals, or it does not—