A Labour government will want academies to cooperate with their local authority on admissions and place planning to help “smooth the differences” between academy and maintained schools, trust chiefs have been told.
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson told the Schools North East Academies Conference that a future Labour government would inherit a “mix and match landscape of maintained and academy schools”.
She said she was not interested in introducing wholesale structural reform to resolve this but wanted to smooth differences in the system.
Ms Phillipson also told school leaders that Labour would “end the needless micromanagement from Westminster”.
The government had set the goal of all schools being in or moving towards multi-academy trusts by 2030.
Ms Phillipson said that the distinction between maintained and academy schools, “while often shaping educational debate over recent years, mostly means nothing to parents”.
She added: “I know our school system is fragmented, opaque and over-complex. Instead of one system, we are running several. I’m not interested in wholesale structural reform. But I do want to smooth the differences.
“Labour believes, as I know many of you do, that place is crucial. That while collaboration across the country is to be encouraged, schools should also be working together for the benefit of the local communities they serve.”
She claimed that, too often, schools are incentivised to compete against one another and “to operate admissions and exclusions policies that serve the interests of some children at the expense of others”.
“That’s not to criticise any school, or school trust, but to say that we must look again if we are to truly put children and their outcomes at the heart of this system.
“With Labour, we want all schools to cooperate with their local authority on admissions and place planning. We want to see a consistent role for governors and parent voice in the direction of local schools.
“We will not be imposing top-down structures, but we will demand collaboration and cooperation in the best interests of our children.”
Labour previously tabled an amendment to the now defunct Schools Bill calling on academies to be given a duty to cooperate with the local authority on school admissions and school place planning.
In today’s speech, Ms Phillipson also repeated Labour’s policy plan to end the VAT exemption on private schools.
She said: ”We have a teacher recruitment and retention crisis created by this government.
“Labour has said we would use money raised from ending private schools’ tax breaks to support our teachers.
“We would invest in recruiting thousands of new teaching staff. Filling these vacancies and plugging skills gaps. Making sure teachers are not burned out because they’re covering their own job and someone else’s.”
