THE Government’s plans for greater business involvement in schools have been attacked by a local authority that has been leading the way on privatisation.

Surrey County Council says ministers’ proposals risk creating an “adversarial” climate in which companies will struggle to succeed when running failing schools.

The reaction of the Conservative-controlled council is just one of a host of negative responses to the White Paper, launched last month and out for consultation.

In a document to go to council members next month, Surrey contrasts the White Paper proposals - which would give ministers the power to force an authority to bring in firms to turn around a failing school - with its own model.

The council has won plaudits from the Government and others for bringing in a non-profit-making firm, 3Es, which has made strong progress in turning around the previously failing and undersubscribed comprehensive, Kings College, Guildford.

But Surrey said this had happened in an atmosphere of co-operation, as it had chosen to bring in 3Es, rather than being forced. The White Paper, it says, makes the private sector a rival for local authorities.“This would create a highly adversarial climate and one in which the private sector will find it harder to succeed if there is strong local opposition,” says the council document.

The White Paper is facing criticism on many fronts: the unions are hostile and a governor organisation this week launched a devastating attack on its proposals for more faith and specialist schools. The move would only worsen cultural, religious and economic divisions in society, said the National Association of Governors and Managers.

The Local Government Association’s head of education said there was a danger of creating an “apartheid system” where children of different faiths were educated separately. “The message we are picking up from 150 local authorities in England is one of deep concern about expanding faith schools in this way,” he said.

The National Union of Teachers said the White Paper’s concept of “autonomy” and “diversity” for secondary schools was remarkably similar to the old Tory idea of “diversity and choice” - a policy discredited by the Audit Commission as long ago as 1996.

The National Association of Head Teachers claimed the proposal to give successful schools more freedom to offer recruitment and retention incentives risked worsening the teacher shortage. It said the policy would disadvantage less successful schools, many of which were already struggling with recruitment, and risked concentrating vacancies in struggling schools.

The association dismissed the idea that the Government would decide which schools had “earned” extra autonomy as “bureaucratic and patronising”.