My Lords, in moving my first amendment in this group, I must say that I agreed with the analysis of the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, of some of the problems we are having in laying amendments to the Bill because of the lack of coherence. In a sense, we could sometimes be accused of being inconsistent, because we are concerned about the Secretary of State having these overweening powers but none the less there are areas in which we think there should be central direction. If only we had a structure that enabled us to put down proper amendments, we would know what the standards were and be able to see whether our ideas would be better in guidance or in a standard.
My series of amendments is about parental involvement; I argue that it ought to be one of the foundations on which all schools operate. I see it as part of a governance structure; you need requirements on all schools to operate in a certain way. I do not think this can just be left to multi-academy trusts to decide. I have no doubt whatever that the more parents who are involved in a school’s life, the better it is for the school and the outcomes for the children taught there.
The great organisation Parentkind, which is very much involved in encouraging parental involvement, feels that too often parents are left at the school gate and really not invited by schools to meaningfully participate in their children’s education. It has produced a wonderful blueprint for how parents can be more involved in their child’s school—attending consultation evenings, responding to surveys, volunteering their time and talents, including on the PTA, and helping in the classroom or becoming a governor or trustee. My amendments seek to introduce some of these elements to see whether I can get a positive response from the Government.
The first, Amendment 23, would ensure that in each academy trust and multi-academy trust there is a minimum of two parent trustees. They clearly play a vital role, and the governing body of every maintained school must be constituted with at least two parent governors. For academies—except those designated as religious—the position is more fluid. The department’s model articles of association give academy trusts almost complete flexibility to design the constitution of their board of trustees as they see fit. It has specified that the board must include at least two elected parent trustees. However, a MAT may alternatively include two elected parents on each local governing body. I fail to see why MATs should have that choice. Surely it should be a minimum requirement for parent trustees to be on the board of both the MAT and the local governing body, where there is one.
My Amendment 24 is more strategic. It aims to ensure that
“each Academy Trust, Multi Academy Trust, and each Academy within a Multi Academy Trust, prepares and revises a strategic policy on parental and community engagement at least once every three years.”
The importance of effective communication with parents and staff cannot be overestimated. Asking each trust and each academy within a MAT to prepare and revise
“a strategic policy on parental and community engagement at least once every three years”
would be very useful. As a starting point, Parentkind’s blueprint would be a very effective template.
My Amendment 25 puts forward the important principle that there should be a local governing body for every school within a MAT, on which at least two elected parents must sit, and with a clear scheme of delegation to ensure the local governing body is in the driving seat. At the moment, the MAT board can choose to delegate governance functions to LGBs or other committees that may relate to one or more than one academy.
Work published by the National Governance Association last September showed that only 87% of MAT trustees overall report having a local tier of governance for schools within the MAT. An LSE research paper points out that academies within MATs have no legal identity of their own. It is interesting to reflect on the situation that we now have with those academies within a MAT, when, in the original concept of academies, the stress was all on the freedom of that individual academy. It is almost as if we have moved the whole philosophy without there being any real parliamentary debate or scrutiny, and certainly no legislation.
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I believe that the more power there is within a school itself, the more effective that school is likely to be. It is the same argument that we used for foundation trusts a long time ago, which I believe was absolutely the right argument, although not all my friends did. I think it should be the local governing body that is responsible for ensuring that there is a clear vision for the strategic direction of a school. I pray in aid a report on academies published in February this year by the Institute for Government, which I thought was very balanced. It called for greater clarity about what happens at the centre, and it wanted there to be one system not two, but it also said that there would be real benefit in introducing bottom-up pressure on the system by giving limited legal status back to individual schools. Amendment 39 follows on from that, suggesting that there should be an independent disputes arbitration scheme to
“resolve disputes between a Multi Academy Trust and the local governing bodies of individual Academies within the Multi Academy Trust”.
My final amendment, Amendment 26, would further enhance parent involvement by establishing a parent council for each school. Certain local authority-maintained foundation schools already have to establish a parent council, and the board must consult the parent council about its conduct and the carrying out of its powers. The arrangements for the composition, role and support of those parent councils are set out in regulations. In fact, those regulations are perfectly formed, because they were signed off by the then Minister of State in 2007—none other than my noble friend Lord Knight—and very fine regulations they were too.
Setting up a parents council could play a key role in bringing home and school together, ensuring that parents’ voices are heard. We know that, when parents are engaged in their child’s education, the outcomes for children are better. I think that every school should have one, and restoring power to individual schools, better parental participation and effective parental consultation in local, regional and national decision-making would improve educational outcomes for our children. I beg to move.