Charles Clarke has announced that he wants teachers to have more freedom from central government.

The education secretary told a conference of head teachers: "I think our job is to support you in your professionalism, not to tell you how to do it."

He added: "So there will be less bureaucracy, a new freedom to lead, lighter-touch inspections, a less rigid national curriculum and an opportunity to use your funding more flexibly."

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

A spokesman for ATL told ePolitix.com: "ATL wrote to the then secretary of state, Estelle Morris, back in October calling on her to send out the message that the teaching profession has the trust of the government. Charles Clarke's speech inches a little way along that route".

"The freedom to innovate is one which many schools will relish, although experience suggests that it is in the area of curriculum and assessment that schools will be most effective in raising standards.

"Innovation in pay and conditions is frankly much more dangerous ground for heads and our advice is that schools should exercise immense caution lest they fall foul, not of the education legislation from which Charles Clarke has it in his power to exempt schools, but from the wider issues of employment legislation.

"We also hope that heads will now concentrate their efforts using their new freedom to enhance classroom learning rather than trying to deal with the sufficient."

Forum Response: National Union of Teachers

A spokeswoman for the National Union of Teachers told ePolitix.com: "Teachers' professionalism has been undermined for decades, not just by this government but by previous governments.

"They have ignored teachers' desire to get it right for their pupils. This shift in the government attitude, if it is real, will be welcome across the country.

"Teachers know their pupils in their classroom far better than any education minister in Whitehall."