New bill has merit

I would like to welcome many of the positive provisions of the Education and Inspections Bill. Despite additional investment, too many parents are still not able to make informed and genuine choices, and still too many young people leave school without any formal qualifi cations and the necessary skills. This bill addresses these issues.

Ensuring that advice is available to parents to make the right choice is an important development, as is the widening of the 14-19 curriculum and partnership with FE colleges. It is great that trust schools must now have regard to the local children and young people plans, but we would prefer that they were required to act “in accordance” with them.

Finally we welcome the role of councils as the champions for all children and for all families. We all need to redouble efforts to ensure that parents can make informed choices, that learning is truly personalised, and children are equipped for the future.

LAURENCE BLACKHALL,
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CONTINYOU