UK

Labour wants local authorities to have power to shut undersubscribed academy schools

Academy schools could be shut under Labour plans - Owen Humphreys/PA

Labour is planning a major reversal of Michael Gove’s education reforms by giving councils powers to close down undersubscribed academy schools, The Telegraph can reveal.

Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, wants to give local authorities a beefed-up role to help manage a demographic bust of primary aged children which will require closing schools across the country.

However, the move will raise concerns among academy supporters that Labour is rolling back parental choice and competition between schools which can help to drive up standards. (THIS IS THE NORTH AMERICAN SCHOOL MODEL DOES NOT IMPROVE STANDARDS)

According to figures published by the Department for Education (DfE) last month, the number of children attending state nurseries and primary schools is projected to fall by more than 400,000 from 4,593,497 this year to 4,180,930 in 2028.

Reduction in birth numbers since 2013

The DfE said the trend is “primarily due” to “continued reductions in the birth numbers since 2013”, although “there was a larger drop in the population in 2021 which may have been connected to the pandemic”.

The demographic trend will mean that some schools will have to close because the decline in their pupil numbers will make them unviable.

The situation is not currently as acute in secondary schools, where numbers are expected to peak in 2024 or 2025 before beginning their decline.

In London, the contraction in primary numbers is already under way, with Hackney council planning to close four of its own schools at the end of this academic year.

However, academies are outside local authority control, meaning councils have no powers to compel them to reduce their pupil rolls or close.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson meets pupils

 - Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Labour thinks the Conservatives’ education reforms have made the schools system too fragmented, with the party intending to hand local authorities a crucial role overseeing place planning and managing the decline in numbers.

Under Ms Phillipson’s plans, councils would be responsible for coordinating how many places should be provided across different schools and which should remain open.

A Labour spokesman said: “Labour’s priority is the same priority as parents’: for every child, a good local school where children are happy and get the first-class education they all deserve.

“That’s why Labour’s focus will be on ensuring that academies, multi-academy trusts, maintained schools and local authorities work together to deliver high and rising standards for every child.

“Labour will require all schools to cooperate with their local authority on admissions, special educational needs and disabilities inclusion and place planning, making all branches of the education system work together more effectively so that we drive high and rising standards in our schools despite the challenging fiscal environment.”

The approach was hinted at by a set of amendments which Labour put forward for the Schools Bill last year - a piece of legislation to rationalise the schools system which the Government has since abandoned.

Labour sought to strip away some of the freedoms currently afforded to academies, with control over their admissions handed to local authorities.

The party’s latest plans are likely to be welcomed by councils.

Fears of dilution of education market

Earlier this year, London Councils, a cross-party group representing the capital’s boroughs, said that the Government needed to “give local authorities the power to manage an academy’s reduction of published admission numbers or closure, where there is clear evidence of a significant drop in demand and a need to act to ensure a school remains viable”.

However, supporters of Mr Gove’s reforms will see it as the dilution of an education market in which schools sink or swim based on whether they can attract parents by demonstrating high standards.

A Conservative source said: “Everything we’ve done as a Conservative government has driven up the standards in schools - with 88 per cent now rated good or outstanding up from just 68 per cent under Labour. A big part of that has been the expansion of multi-academy trusts and moving away from local authority control.”

The source claimed that Labour was motivated by “ideology” and a wish to restore power to local authorities, rather than what is best for children’s futures.