Tag Archives: Schooling in England

Schools: the end of local authority involvement?

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When I first started studying the governance of education, way back in 1979, there at that time two popular saying about the school system in England. One was that it was, ‘a partnership between local and national governments’ and the other that it was ‘a national system locally administered.’ A typical examination question was to ask how valid either of these statements were?

That was half a century ago; difficult for me to believe, but true nevertheless. I have witnessed a lot of changes during in the intervening years. Indeed, one of my few academic articles I have published was entitled ‘Variations in local authority provision of education’ and appeared in the Oxford Review of Education way back in the early 1980s. Interestingly, during the Labour government of the period between 1974-79, closing the gap in funding between the best and worst local authorities was a matter of academic interest. Anyone wanting to know more could do worse than read’ Depriving the Deprived’, written by Tunley, Travers and Platt, published in 1979, as it is about the funding of schooling across one London borough over one year.

For a comparison over a longer time period, my review of 50 years of pupil teacher ratios, published last summer and available for download on researchgate at (PDF) PTRS OVER TIME: A REVIEW OF PUPIL TEACHER RATIOS BETWEEN 1974 AND 2024 AND TWO PERIODS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT RE-ORGANISATION PTRS OVER TIME: A REVIEW OF PUPIL TEACHER RATIOS

During the 50 years between local government reorganisation in 1974 and 2024, school funding decisions have been removed from local authorities, and nationalised; Education Committees have been abolished, in favour of cabinet government; teacher training and new schemes to prepare teachers have been taken over by Westminster; schools have been persuaded to become academies outwith local authority control, but still under church control if faith schools – if the white Paper leaks are correct all schools will now have to become an academy or free school; further and higher education were liberated from local authority oversight and funding in the early 1990s; ultimate control over place planning has remained with the DfE as only the DfE can sanction new schools being built.

What’s left for local authorities? SEND for a couple more years; admissions- including in-year admissions once the current Bill becomes law – and transport. Frankly, I cannot see local authorities, especially newly reorgnised upper tier authorities, wanting either of these functions in the future. And why would they, as these services can often be poisoned chalices.

So, are we moving to an NHS style system for schooling in England, with little local democratic oversight, and few routes for parents to complain about the education their child is receiving. I fear so.

Does it matter? That’s a matter of opinion. The world of 2026 is vastly different to that of sixty years ago, and it should be easier to produce a more level playing field with all the levers of funding and control being exercise from Westminster.

But I remain sceptical. Westminster has been unable to control issues such as MAT chief executive’s pay and the level of school reserves. At present it isn’t equipped to be a fully functioning operational department along the lines of the NHS of MoD.  It will be interesting to see what, if anything, the White Paper has to say about governance when it is published tomorrow.

150th Anniversary 1870 Elementary Education Act

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Although the Elementary Education Act didn’t receive the Royal Assent and become law until the 9th August 1870, it is fair to treat the whole of 2020 as the 150th anniversary year of this key piece of education legislation in England.

The 1870 Elementary Education Act stands as the very first piece of legislation to deal specifically with the provision of education in Britain. Most importantly, it demonstrated a commitment to provision of schooling on a national scale rather than the piecemeal provision that had existed before this date.

The 1870 Act allowed existing voluntary schools to carry on unchanged, but established a system of ‘school boards’ to build and manage schools in areas where they were needed. The boards were locally elected bodies which drew their funding from the local rates. Unlike the voluntary schools, religious teaching in the board schools was to be ‘non-denominational’.

This compromise saved the government a great deal of money, as it didn’t have to deal with either buying or replacing the existing schools, many of which were run by the various churches and especially the Church of England. The legacy of that decision is still obvious in the governance of schools in England in 2020.

Although the 1870 Education Act was a start, like many pieces of legislation it didn’t fully achieve the aims of its supporters, and further Acts of Parliament were necessary to ensure that all young children were attending school and not working. However, right up until the 1970s, some children were identified as medically ineducable and not required to attend school, even though the concept of ‘special schools’ had been introduced in 1893.

How will we celebrate this key anniversary in education? Not I suspect in the same way that the government will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the ending of World War 2 in 1945. How many local libraries and museums will arrange exhibitions to record the value of education to Society across the generations since 1870?

Many of the board Schools built as a result of the 1870 Act still exist, and their recognisable brick built outlines, often three stories in height under a pitched roof, can still be seen across the urban areas of England, built where schools in sufficient numbers had not existed in 1870. Some have been converted into flats, but many that survived the bombings of the two world wars still serve their original purpose of providing a building for schooling. Today they are often primary schools and not all-through elementary schools.

According to English Heritage, there are over 5,000 listed school buildings in England https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/planning/local-heritage/historic-school-buildings/ Their search mechanism doesn’t make it easy to identify whether there are Board Schools built as a result of the 1870 Act that have been listed. Certainly, many listed school buildings either pre-date the 1870 Act or are of a much more recent construction.

I look forward to hearing of celebrations to mark this important piece of legislation as 2020 unfolds.