Union: Parent power plan is 'spin'

A teaching union has dismissed Gordon Brown's proposals to force local councils to improve schools if parents were unhappy, as "populist spin".

Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaks at Prendergast Hilly Fields School Lewisham Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaks at Prendergast Hilly Fields School, Lewisham

In a speech to school leaders in south London the Prime Minister offered to extend "parent power" as he sought to divert attention back to the policy agenda and away from questions about his leadership.

But his efforts were derided by the National Union of Teachers, which said schools were already working with parents and governors.

Mr Brown outlined a range of measures which he said would give parents greater power to influence and shape the education offered their children, and allow teachers greater freedom and flexibility in the way schools were run.

The changes - to be detailed in an education white paper by Children's Secretary Ed Balls next month - include a new obligation for councils to respond to parents' concerns. Under the plan, this could involve good schools being expanded or federating with under-performing ones, or entirely new schools being opened.

Mr Brown said Conservative proposals to allow parents, faith groups and companies to set up independent schools within the state sector would lead to a "free market free-for-all" which would fail a generation of children left behind in weaker schools.

Mr Brown said: "We will look at how local authorities can improve their knowledge of what parents want and how satisfied they are with their local schools and where there is significant dissatisfaction with the pattern of secondary school provision, and where standards across an area are too low - then the local authority will be required to act.

"This could mean either the creation of a federation of schools, an expansion of good school places or, in some cases, the establishment of entirely new schools."

But NUT acting general secretary Christine Blower said: "Parents can look at, and analyse, Ofsted reports and they can of course visit schools. Secondary schools are already subject to enough myth about how good or bad they are."

She added: "This initiative for parents is simply another piece of populist spin."

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