Main benefits
- Families aware of, and crucially receiving, what they are entitled to expect from the schools and the wider school system.
- Children and young people better equipped to meet the opportunities, demands and challenges of adult life through an updated school curriculum covering the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.
- Recognition for teachers through a new licensing scheme that recognises their professionalism and boosts their public spending.
Main elements
- Guarantees – through new pupil and parent guarantees the government is committing for the first time a series of specific entitlements for all and providing a means of redress if expectations are not met.
- 21st century schools – building on over a decade of increasing school standards, the Bill would deliver the building blocks for a world class 21st century schooling system that meets the needs of every pupil so they can achieve their full potential. In future schools will work more in partnership and have greater flexibility in how they spend their budgets. The Bill would also allow for the introduction of our new School Report Card.
- Curriculum reforms – learning from wide ranging consultation and international evidence, the Bill would introduce reforms to the school curriculum so children and young people are equipped with the knowledge and skills they, and future employers, want and need. The Bill would reform the Primary curriculum following Sir Jim Rose's review to provide greater flexibility for schools to tailor teaching to the needs and interests of their children while also focusing on the basics of literacy, numeracy and Information Communications Technology (ICT). The Bill would also put Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) on a statutory footing and ensure for the first time that all young people receive at least one year of sex and relationships education.
- Licence to practise – improving teaching underpins every effort to deliver the best possible education for all pupils, and through a new licensing system this Bill would professionalise the workforce and provide teachers the status they deserve. This would create a new learning and culture in every school's teaching staff which puts professional development at the forefront and so improve teaching quality across the board. This will also clearly demonstrate to parents that high-quality teaching standards are being maintained.
- Safeguarding the vulnerable – strengthening the powers of local authorities and others with regards to registration, inspection and intervention will mean effective systems are in place to protect those that most need it. The Bill will introduce a new home educators' registration system and take new powers for Secretaries of State to intervene in youth offending teams that are failing and potentially putting young people and their communities at risk.
- Increasing public confidence in family courts - providing a commitment to review the publication of information relating to family proceedings that report to Parliament.
Dods commentary
The Bill was introduced by the prime minister in June 2009 in the Draft Legislative Programme as the Improving Schools and Safeguarding Children Bill.
The Bill takes forward the proposals set out in the education white paper 'Your child, your schools, our future: building a 21st century schools system'.
In an article in The Telegraph on November 18 Conservative shadow minister for schools Nick Gibb was quoted as saying: "Ed Balls' plan to see head teachers in court defending themselves against parents is expensive, time-consuming and completely misses the point about giving parents more control over their child's education.
"Far from a system of legal guarantees which would allow mainly wealthier parents to take schools to court, what we need is to give parents a genuine choice by opening up the system."
The Telegraph also quoted the Liberal Democrat shadow children's spokesperson David Laws: "Only an arch centraliser like Ed Balls could believe that the only way to empower parents and pupils would be to create a vast bureaucratic structure of 'rights' without the means to deliver them.
"Instead of giving real freedom and rights to pupils, parents and schools, Ed Balls' proposals are likely to prove a license for litigation and will raise expectations without creating a mechanism to raise standards."
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has spoken out against the Bill, which it feels would introduce a litigious aspect to school governance.
ASCL general secretary, Dr John Dunford, said: "School leaders are extremely concerned that these ‘guarantees' will turn into a whingers' charter for the more litigious parents to complain, first to the head, then to the governors, then to the Local Government Ombudsman service, which has just been created by last week's new education act."
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) has come out in favour of some aspects of the Bill, particularly PSHE education.
Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL, said: "ATL welcomes the long overdue step of making Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education compulsory for all pupils".
Family Justice in View, the December 2008 government response to the public consultation into openness in the family court system, allowed media into these previously closed sessions for the first time. The Bill will expand on this to allow a review of the guidelines for publication of the information.
Justice groups have welcomed this move. Among them Families need Fathers, whose chief executive Jon Davies said: "Albeit late, we welcome this move to open up the courts, which is a vital step towards a family justice system which serves the needs of its users, and call upon all parties to support its swift passage through parliament."
Progress
House of Commons
1st reading: 19 November 2009 [HC Bill 8]
2nd reading: 11 January 2010
Committee:
- 1st sitting: 19 January 2010 (am)
- 2nd sitting: 19 January 2010 (pm)
- 3rd sitting: 21 January 2010 (am)
- 4th sitting: 21 January 2010 (pm)
- 5th sitting: 26 January 2010 (am)
- 6th sitting: 26 January 2010 (pm)
- 7th sitting: 28 January 2010 (am)
- 8th sitting: 28 January 2010 (pm)
- 9th sitting: 2 February 2010 (am)
- 10th sitting: 2 February 2010 (pm)
- 11th sitting: 4 February 2010 (am)
- 12 sitting: 4 February 2010 (pm)
Report stage: 23 February 2010
3rd reading: 23 February 2010
House of Lords
1st reading: 24 February 2010
2nd reading: 8 March 2010
Committee stage: 7 April 2010
Report stage: 7 April 2010
3rd reading: 7 April 2010
Ping Pong: 8 April 2010
Royal Assent: 8 April 2010
