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Education is always going to be a subject which generates strong emotions. At a political level, it has turned out to be one of the most contentious policy areas under the coalition government: new Members will remember debates on the Academies Bill and the statement on the decision to halt the Building Schools for the Future programme as some of the first set-piece ideological confrontations of the Parliament.

Happily, the new education committee – with ten members new to the House and a rookie chair – shows every sign of taking a measured, evidence-based approach, and I am confident that we will earn the respect of people inside and outside the House for our work.

The name of the department may have changed but the breadth of its responsibilities has not. It appears that most of the department’s energy is being concentrated on schools policy – for instance, 123 officials in the department are engaged directly in work on Academy schools. So we will be alert to any signs that non-school policy areas, such as looked-after children, safeguarding and children’s social work, are being neglected.

Like many other select committees, we started by holding informal seminars with voluntary sector representatives, academics, journalists and others, to tease out the issues where the committee may become involved. We soon found that if you ask eight people for ideas for inquiries you will receive at least 80 suggestions; and our job in prioritising subjects for inquiry became trickier than ever.

One subject which stood out, however, was Ofsted. Confidence in Ofsted is clearly at a low ebb, and there is uncertainty about the part it should play in the improvement of standards in schools. Should it inspect, deliver a verdict and leave it to others to effect improvement, or should it also be an agent in that improvement? The inquiry has a lot of ground to cover and will run into the New Year. Meanwhile, we are looking at behaviour and discipline in schools and plan to publish a report in time for second reading of the forthcoming education bill.

I have a particular concern about how poorly children are prepared for being independent adults. We seem to fail children just as they reach the age of 18: support services fall away, leaving large numbers of young people poorly qualified and ill-prepared for work and the responsibilities which go with adulthood. I will be strongly encouraging the committee to address this through a series of linked inquiries, the first of which will look at the relationship between universal and targeted services for young people and at the roles of the voluntary, private, community and statutory sectors in providing those services. The spending review will cast its shadow, with local authorities set to make budget cuts of 50 per cent or more to youth services.

The recent changes to the way that select committee chairs and members are selected give us all, I think, a clearer responsibility to the House, and I very much hope that attendance rates will be higher as a result. I also welcome the reduction in size of most departmentally related select committees: I would far prefer to work as part of a unit of 11 committed members rather than as part of a group of 14, some of whom attend sporadically, if at all.

My guess is that levels of relevant expertise among committee members are higher than they have ever been, and I shall be looking for ways to make the best use of that both for the committee’s benefit and to enhance individual members’ public profiles.

Graham Stuart MP, chairman of the education committee

Throughout recess, ePolitix.com will be focusing on a different policy theme each week. This week we are featuring MP articles with a focus on education.

This article was first featured in The House Magazine in January 2011.

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