Liberal Democrat Input to Conference
Annette Brooke, who was unable to attend the conference due to illness, has asked us to make this statement available to all conference delegates. Putting in on the web site ensure that not only delegates but others who access the web site will be able to read the statement.
The Liberal Democrats are currently in the process of reviewing our schools' policies and I am very excited about the conclusions so far. Education has always been so important to Liberal Democrats but somehow in recent years the public have not been so aware of our total commitment in this area. People always knew we were the Party prepared to put up income tax to properly fund our schools but with the Government making large scale investment it is now an issue of making sure that funds are used in the best possible way, targeting extra funding to those who are most disadvantaged, and cutting back on bureaucracy and central government interference.
I have just selected 2 issues to comment upon briefly below
One of our new policies which is firmly established and costed is the pupil premium.
Pupil Premium
Our society is hopelessly unequal - life chances and income at age 30 are more influenced by your parents' background and income than in almost every other developed country in the world. The Liberal Democrats' key priority is to address this unfairness so that every child can fulfil his or her potential, regardless of their background.
The Liberal Democrat Pupil Premium would invest £2.5bn in the most disadvantaged pupils increasing their per pupil funding to private school levels. Schools would be able to use this extra cash to provide extra support for those pupils who need it most and offer more one to one tuition and catch-up classes in the evenings and weekends. The Pupil Premium will also follow individual pupils to any school that they attend giving greater incentives for schools to take “hard to help” pupils as they can be certain that they will receive the extra cash they need. As it currently stands there can be differences of up to £1,000 between per pupil funding for children with very similar levels of need depending on where they are in the country. There is also polarisation in the school catchment areas; the top 100 state secondary schools have only 1.7% of pupils on free school meals, compared to the national average of 14.7%. If the underachievement of children from deprived backgrounds is to be reversed, schools with higher numbers of disadvantaged pupils need more resources to offer the extra support that is needed.
Another is to make sure that teachers are given more freedoms - are we not a professional body capable of making our own decisions about our day to day work?
More freedom for teachers
Too much of what goes on in schools is determined by Government micro-management and there does now seem to be a growing consensus that the power of central government should be reduced.
The present approach stifles innovation, imposes a stultifying uniformity in areas such as the curriculum, and distorts priorities in ways that can actually be counterproductive through aspects of a testing and accountability framework which has grown out of control.
The Liberal Democrats are committed to giving extra freedoms to all schools in order to help them to drive up standards.. We would pass an Education Freedom Act limiting the degree to which ministers can muddle in the education system and setting up a fully independent Educational Standards Authority (ESA) which would report to Parliament. The ESA would act as the true guardian of standards with real powers to stand up to ministers and speak out when it believes things are going wrong.
We want to encourage school leaders to develop their own local solutions to the challenges which they face. Greater freedom to innovate will help to encourage more high quality school leadership, new sources of school governance, and more excellent teachers.
The Pupil Premium and the extra cash which could be devolved to schools by axing many of the Government's centrally driven schemes, schools would make a huge difference for teachers wishing to do the best for their pupils. Under the Liberal Democrats, schools would be free to use the extra funding as they wished, according to their individual needs. For different schools, that might mean smaller class sizes, extra one-to-one tuition, more after school, quality educational activities. They would be held accountable by Governors, parents, the Local Authority and OFSTED for using resources in sensible and innovative ways.
Currently, this level of freedom in teaching is near on impossible - especially for teachers in deprived areas. Where resources and funding are overstretched and teachers find themselves in positions for which they are not qualified.
More freedom to innovate, a less restrictive national curriculum, and a less cumbersome testing regime - are all part of a Liberal Democrat approach to education.
Annette Brooke
8 January 2009
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