Cut red tape for all schools, councils group urges

All schools should be freed from Whitehall bureaucracy – not just those that choose to become academies, the Local Government Association (LGA) said yesterday.

State schools had been weighed down by more than 1,300 pages of central Government legislation in the past decade, the LGA warned.

It argues that schools which choose not to take Education Secretary Michael Gove up on his offer of academy status should also benefit from a reduction in central control.

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The comments come as the Academies Bill gets it second reading in Parliament.

Under the Bill, all primary, secondary and special schools can apply to the Education Secretary to opt out of local authority control and be granted academy status.

Academies are semi-independent state schools that have more freedom over areas like their curriculum and welfare, with the aim of boosting standards.

They were originally introduced under former prime minister Tony Blair's Labour government.

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The LGA said a reduction in bureaucracy would allow all schools more time to focus on educating their pupils.

In the past few years, schools have been affected by several education Bills, the LGA said, including, among others, the Education and Inspections Act (2006), which it claims ran to 273 pages, the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act (2009) at 265 pages and the Education and Skills Act (2008) at 144 pages.

The chairman of the LGA's Children and Young People Board, Shireen Ritchie, said: "Councils' key priority is that the same high quality of education can be offered to all students, whether they are being taught in a community school or in an academy, and that will mean making sure funding is fairly distributed and that the same benefits are available to all."

Mr Gove wrote to every state school in the country last week inviting them to become academies as part of his plans to grant schools more independence.

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Schools rated "outstanding" by Ofsted will be pre-approved, meaning those who apply now can reopen as academies in September.

Updating MPs last week, Mr Gove revealed that 1,114 schools have expressed an interest in becoming academies.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: "We agree that for far too long, all schools have struggled under red tape and bureaucracy.

"The Government will remove as much of this interference as possible."