HC Deb 23 July 1991 vol 195 c1016
2. Mr. Adley

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what consideration he is giving to the structure and size of education authorities concomitant on their proposed reorganisation.

The Secretary of State for Education and Science (Mr. Kenneth Clarke)

The Government are currently considering responses to their consultation paper on the structure of local government, and will be drawing up in due course guidelines for the proposed local government commission, which will cover aspects of education.

Mr. Adley

I thank my right hon. and learned Friend for that answer. Will he tell the House whether he has in mind any minimum size for a local education authority as a result of the changes? Does he agree that, wherever possible, the smaller the authority the better?

Mr. Clarke

I agree with my hon. Friend that democratic accountability is improved if services are delivered on the smallest scale practicable consistent with good service. We are proposing a consultation process locally and that will not necessarily lead to a uniform national position. The Government will be issuing guidelines in due course on the impact on the education service of particular structures of local government and we shall be pointing out that a great deal has happened recently since local authorities were last reorganised. In particular, polytechnics have been taken out of local education authority control and sixth-form colleges and further education colleges are about to be taken out of local education authority control. We have moved over to a system of local management of schools so the duties of an education authority are very different from those that existed when the present authorities were set up.

Mr. Harry Greenway

Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that schools will be at their best if they are self-governing in every respect? It would be better for the schools, the teachers and particularly for the children. If that were to happen, would not the role of local education authorities virtually disappear?

Mr. Clarke

I share with my hon. Friend the expectation and hope that there will be a rapid change beyond the local management of schools to grant-maintained status for most secondary schools and many primary schools. I agree that that has considerable implications for the changed role of local education authorities in the future. They will be moving over to what is known in the jargon as an enabling role because their direct management duties will have been devolved to a much more sensible local level.