News

Local government leaders have expressed dismay at the government's resistance to renewed attempts to make schools more accountable for the well-being of children.

Their criticism follows the withdrawal in the House of Lords last week of an amendment to the Education Bill. It would have put a duty on school inspectors to examine how well schools were working with children's services authorities, set up under the Children Act 2004, to improve pupils' well-being.

Similar moves to extend responsibility to schools under the Children Act, backed by the Local Government Association, police, children's charities and school governors, were blocked as the bill went through parliament last year after opposition from schools and teaching unions.

Commenting on the latest set-back, chair of the LGA's children and young people board Alison King insisted that schools should be forced to co-operate with other agencies. "There is a dislocation between schools, which are becoming more autonomous, and local authorities, which will be judged on their ability to provide for children's well-being." This would be exacerbated by plans in the Education Bill to ring-fence schools' budgets, further distancing them from local authorities, she said.

But education minister Lord Filkin told the House of Lords that the amendment represented "a substantial loss of focus away from the school and the work it does for its own pupils".

But he added that the government was in "full agreement" with the principle that schools must play an active role within the wider community and could not work in isolation from one another or from agencies providing services for children and young people and their families.

Government plans to spell out the need for schools to co-operate with partner agencies are expected to be included in forthcoming guidance.