Grant-maintained Schools (Hansard, 23 July 1991)

§ 6. Mr. Brandon-Bravo
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will bring forward proposals to limit the amount of money an individual local education authority can spend in a campaign against a particular school seeking grant-maintained status.

§ Mr. Kenneth Clarke
As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced on 3 July, we intend to legislate to limit the amount of taxpayers' money an education authority can spend on campaigns against applications for grant-maintained status, and to reimburse governing bodies up to the same limit for their own campaign expenses.

§ Mr. Brandon-Bravo
I am grateful for that reassurance. Is my right hon. and learned Friend aware of the almost pathological hatred of any movement that takes control away from Nottinghamshire county council and gives it to schools? So great is that hatred that I believe that the chairman of my local education authority would do anything, say anything and spend anything to keep his empire intact. Other hon. Members who represent Nottinghamshire seats are aware of that tyranny—the authority has sought to deny Members access to schools in case they say something wrong to boards of governors.

§ Mr. Clarke
I am as familiar as my hon. Friend with the extraordinary extent to which Nottinghamshire county council will go in its hostility towards schools that are not under its control. At the moment, it is distributing large amounts of leaflets to parents involved in ballots in respect of grant-maintained status in the north of the county. We believe that there is a case for factual information to be given to parents when such ballots are held and that it should be in the form of a simple leaflet on each side. We are taking steps to ensure that large amounts of charge payers' money are not spent on defending bureaucratic empires, and, I hope, to improve the quality and accuracy of some of the information put out by the local authorities.

§ Mr. Tony Banks
I am more concerned about the money that the Government have spent on schools that have opted out. For example, the Secretary of State knows very well that Stratford school in my constituency was due to close as part of the reorganisation but that, to serve their ideological purposes, the Government allowed it grant-maintained status. That makes no sense, given that when Walsingham school in Wandsworth wanted to go for grant-maintained status as part of the reorganisation, the right hon. and learned Gentleman refused its application. We now have to pay £6,000 for every student at Stratford and we get only £3,000 for students in the rest of Newham. The Secretary of State should stop playing politics with the kids of Newham.

§ Mr. Clarke
The hon. Gentleman displays all the spiteful fury that was shown by his local education authority against the wishes of the parents of Stratford school who voted for grant-maintained status. Not only were large sums spent on pressurising people to reject the application for grant-maintained status; the authority went to huge lengths to try to stop the school opening, including barring all the future governors and anyone else concerned with grant-maintained status from the school until the legitimate date, attempting to take away equipment, and a large number of other steps. I recall that 1021 that was the school at which some of the staff who intended to leave asked children who were intending to stay at the school to stand up. When those children identified themselves, they were made to stand in front of the class to be berated.

§ Mr. Banks
It is a lie.

Hon. Members
Oh!

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. Fortunately, I did not hear that.

§ Mr. Clarke
We are organising ballots to determine the parents' wishes about whether schools should be governed by the local authority or by their own governors. There is a case for common sense and for a sensible level of information on both sides so that parents can reach an objective and non-pressurised view.

§ Mrs. Peacock
Is my right hon. and learned Friend aware just how much many local authorities spend on their campaigns—often outrageously political campaigns, such as that in Kirklees—to persuade parents and school governors that it is not right for schools to apply for grant-maintained status? The campaigns that they run are quite outrageous.

§ Mr. Clarke
What is called for is a straightforward factual leaflet produced by one side and a straightforward factual leaflet produced by the promoters. The ballots can then be carried out in a sensible atmosphere and parents can make their own choice.

§ Mr. Fatchett
The Department's own propaganda budget has increased by more than 300 per cent. since the last general election and the Government are spending more than £250,000 of taxpayers' money on Grant-Maintained Schools Ltd.—a Conservative party front organisation. Is not it about time that the Government introduced powers to stop the use of taxpayers' money for party-political purposes? Or are the Secretary of State and the Government so worried about the weak nature of their own policies that they have to use taxpayers' money to get their cheap propaganda arguments across?

§ Mr. Clarke
It is totally false to claim that the Government are increasing spending on propaganda. The hon. Gentleman describes as propaganda activities that are certainly not party political, such as the advertising campaign to recruit teachers. The hon. Gentleman has merely taken a bit of briefing from the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Mr. Dobson), who always does these things, and who cites as examples of political propaganda all the Government's health education leaflets, including those in connection with the AIDS campaign.
In respect of ballots for grant-maintained status, we propose that there should be a simple leaflet on one side and a simple leaflet on the other. Labour authorities in particular are spending a fortune on campaigning, and the money is not theirs but the charge payers'. They are also making some extremely misleading claims in what they say about the consequences of opting out.