Academies Bill [HL]

I am very happy of course to write further and set out what the noble Baroness seeks, because it is absolutely our intention that the two forms of funding should be on a completely equal footing. I recognise that many Members of this Committee want as much reassurance as they can have on that. If I can help in making it clearer, I will be delighted to do so. Amendment 13, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Low, seeks to ensure that the SEN annex of an academy agreement, which sets out the school’s detailed obligations in relation to pupils with SEN, would apply also to the arrangements for academy financial assistance. In a way, that is a variant of the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan. The amendment is unnecessary, because academies whose arrangements take the form of an academy agreement and those whose arrangements are for financial assistance will both be under the same obligations in relation to special educational needs. I shall pick up again on special educational needs in connection with Amendment 76, although I know that a later group of amendments has been tabled on SEN. We have had a long and interesting discussion about the role of governors, with a wide range of views expressed. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Lincoln talked about concerns that governors would be the Government’s narks. The noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, approached concerns about the number and role of governors from one point of view, and my noble friend Lady Perry approached it from the other. She made it clear that, in thinking of all these issues, we need to strike a sensible balance. We can perhaps all think of our own examples of charities which may initially have been set up by someone who had a personal interest in an issue—one might have said, ““Well, that person has a personal interest in this charitable issue, so I am not sure that he or she should have too much influence””—but which, over time, became completely self-sustaining. In principle, there is no reason to think that that should be any different in the case of the schools. The noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, said that, from his experience of independent schools, that model has developed over a long period. I turn to Amendment 24. We will require through the model funding agreement with academies that the governing bodies have at least one parent governor. I know that there are those in the Chamber who feel strongly that that number is not enough. A number of later amendments will allow us to discuss that at greater length.