Ivan Lewis: Manchester does not need or want forced academy status for its schools

George Osborne’s Budget announcement that all primary and secondary schools will be forced to become academies by 2022, is yet another right wing, ideologically-driven, costly and top down reorganisation which no one wants. It will do nothing to break the pernicious link between educational attainment and social class – one of the biggest drivers of inequality.

A month on and the opposition it has garnered from parents, teachers, support staff, head teachers, school governors, local authorities and even Cameron’s own backbench MPs has only served to reinforce that view.

That is why I have launched the #HandsOffOurSchools campaign in Greater Manchester where forced academisation runs contrary to our devolution settlement with Government. It is a policy which takes the power to improve the life chances and opportunities of our children away from local people and politicians and gives it back to Whitehall.      

We intend to deliver a strong message to this government to keep their hands off our schools, halt the forced academy programme and plans to remove parent and community governors and, if they are serious about devolution, give us the funding and powers to improve our own schools and deliver high quality education to every single child across Greater Manchester.

At a cost of over £1.5bn nationally, forcing academy status on schools takes scarce resources away from improving standards and recruiting new teachers. Ultimately, it will be pupils who pay the price.

Where is the logic in forcing schools into academies against their will? Or in shutting out parents – who have the biggest interest in helping schools succeed – by scrapping parent governors?

Forced academisation will lead to a broken, fragmented system where the expert support of many good local authorities will be replaced by chains run by private companies. This is not about raising standards or making necessary changes to support schools with the greatest challenges. It is about a Government which believes private is good, public bad.

As part of Greater Manchester’s existing devolution agreement, our conurbation has taken responsibility for skills policy. This is the right thing to do and crucial if we are to ensure that local people are to benefit from the high-tech and green jobs of the future.

But the current devolution deal is flawed as the Government has limited Greater Manchester’s control to 19years-plus funding and policy. This will not allow us to up-skill our population and is setting us up to fail.

Greater Manchester does not need or want forced academy status for its schools. What Greater Manchester needs, if we are to reduce inequality and fulfil our potential  – and what I would fight for as Mayor – is for all schools to be good schools. This requires the full devolution of education powers to local councils, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and elected mayor, including responsibility for school improvement, sixth form colleges and apprenticeships as part of a new, high quality 14-19 curriculum.

We also need along extra funding for a Greater Manchester Schools Challenge on a par with the successful London challenge. I would seek an additional commitment from all partners to prioritise investment in early childhood development.

With this kind of devolution, Labour can replace mainly empty Tory rhetoric on the Northern Powerhouse with a real commitment that will enable schools and their partners to tackle the inequality which is leaving too many young people behind.

It is for all these reasons that I have launched the #HandsOffOurSchools campaign, along with senior Labour councillors, education leads for some of the area’s ten councils and Liz McInnes MP for Heywood and Middleton.

I am urging everyone to sign the www.handsoffourschools.co.uk petition. And I will be writing to Nicky Morgan and George Osborne requesting a meeting with a delegation of Greater Manchester MPs and councillors to discuss the devolution of school improvement and accountability as an alternative to an unwanted, unwelcome top-down reorganisation that jeopardises all the hard work that our school heads, teachers and staff do to boost school improvement and tackle inequality among pupils.

This campaign really matters. Because for us, Labour – the party of social justice – education is everything; it is what Nelson Mandela called ‘the biggest weapon you can use to change the world’.

For most kids a good education is the difference between having the opportunity to get on in life or the frustration of their potential going unfulfilled and so we owe it to every child to ensure they get the best possible start in life, through the best education possible. This will never happen if we don’t oppose forced academisation and create a new, locally-based, properly funded system for school improvement. So I hope the Labour family will support the campaign and join with me in sending a message to this government : Hands Off Our Schools.  

Ivan Lewis is MP for Bury South and is standing to be Labour’s candidate in the Greater Manchester mayoral election. Find our more at www.ivanlewisformayor.co.uk. Sign the Hands Off Our Schools petition here: www.handsoffourschools.co.uk.