Hard hitting MPs' report criticises lack of accountability in '˜confused' school system

His strong criticism comes as the committee publishes a new report into the Government’s creation of regional school commissioners, who are responsible for decision making over academies.

The committee warns that the role of RSCs is “unclear to many”, and that there is a lack of transparency in how they operate.

RSCs were appointed in 2014, and have responsibility for overseeing academies, as well as approving new free schools and the conversion of under-performing council-run schools into academies.

A rapidly growing number of schools are becoming academies, which are free from council control – there are now over 5,000. RSCs – eight in total – were introduced as a means to oversee these schools, with each responsible for a different English region. However, the regions themselves are a source of controversy in the North as Yorkshire has been divided into three separate areas. There are regional school commissioners for the North – an area which comprises North Yorkshire, the North East and Cumbria; for Lancashire and West Yorkshire and the East Midlands and Humber, which includes South Yorkshire, York, Hull and the East Riding.

In its report, the committee says that there is a clear need for a structure between Whitehall and individual schools responsible for oversight and holding schools to account and that the Commissioners are beginning to provide this. But it adds: “The RSCs now form part of an increasingly complicated system of oversight, accountability and inspection. A more fundamental reassessment of accountability and oversight for all schools will be required in the future.”

The relationships between RSCs and other parts of the school system, including local councils, Ofsted, schools, parents and communities, are crucial to improving schools, the cross-party group of MPs says, but their role remains unclear to many and this needs to be addressed.

Committee chairman Neil Carmichael said: “Regional Schools Commissioners were introduced as a pragmatic response to a problem– the growing number of academies and the need for oversight of them. They’re doing a necessary job, but the oversight system is now confused, fragmented, and lacking in transparency... It’s hardly surprising that most people have never heard of RSCs, and even those who have are unclear about their role.

“RSCs are a product of the Department’s ‘acting first, thinking later’ approach when it comes to big changes in the schools landscape.”

Kevin Courtney, the deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “It is decidedly worrying that the committee has raised such fundamental concerns about the role and effectiveness of RSCs and is quite right to insist there is more transparency and accountability.

“This situation has arisen from the ill-thought out nature of Government policy, which has created a fragmented and confusing school landscape where roles and responsibilities are unclear. Parents in particular lose out.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Regional Schools Commissioners are using their local knowledge to hold schools to account and thanks to that expertise, and the support of headteacher boards, they are able to take swift and targeted action to tackle underperformance rather than schools being left to stagnate under local authority control.”