College for Educational Leadership (Hansard, 19 November 1998)

§ 3. Charlotte Atkins (Staffordshire, Moorlands)
If he will make a statement on the College for Educational Leadership. [59104]

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Mr. Charles Clarke)
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced our plans to establish a new national college for school leadership at a conference for new head teachers on 20 October. The proposals for the college will form part of the major programme for modernisation of the teaching profession to be set out in a Green Paper to be published before the end of the year. The college is intended to provide heads with the cutting-edge leadership skills they need to drive up standards in schools. We intend to publish a prospectus for the college early next year and the college will be established in 2000.

§ Charlotte Atkins
I thank my hon. Friend for that answer. In the light of the Select Committee's report on the role of head teachers, does he recognise that if we are to overcome the recruitment difficulties, we must make the profession more attractive and respected? Obviously, higher training and a better system of training are one solution, but another would be to provide more systematic mentoring and support from local education authorities and outside bodies.

§ Mr. Clarke
I pay tribute to the Select Committee report, a task in which my hon. Friend played a major part. It is a very valuable report. As she well knows, it recommends that the Government consider how the college might focus on raising the profile of school leadership, bring cohesion to the training and development of heads and build on existing best practice. One very important element of existing best practice is mentoring, which exists in some schools and is very effective. I very much agree with my hon. Friend that one of the college's objectives will be to find ways of developing the relationship between schools and the wider community, through mentoring and other means.

§ Mr. David Willetts (Havant)
The college may want to focus on schools that are coasting, particularly in educating 14 to 16-year—olds, so will the Minister repeat the Government's commitment to introducing a progress index that shows the performance of all schools in educating 14 to 16-year-olds-or will there be a climb down? Will the Government publish information only on schools in grades A and B? Would not such a U-turn be evidence of how far the Government are out of touch with the views of secondary teachers around the country?

§ Mr. Clarke
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is making a statement on that later this afternoon. We have been clear throughout—in the face of Conservative opposition—about the need to develop effective value-added data on the basis of which parents can make accurate judgments about the schools that they 1096 are considering. We have a pilot project going through that in great detail, and it is our strong intention to develop the value-added data in a way that will assist parents to make the informed judgments that they wish to make.

§ Mr. Willetts
During oral questions on education and employment, Madam Speaker, it is unacceptable for the Minister to tell the House that there will be a statement on the matter later today. If the Government are going to abandon their previous stated policy of publishing an index of the performance of all secondary schools, the House should be told so now.

§ Mr. Clarke
I remind the right hon. Gentleman that the main question is about a college for educational leadership and headship training, which is not what he has asked about. My right hon. Friend is making a statement on the matter later. It will speak for itself.

§ Mr. Nick St. Aubyn (Guildford)
On a point of order, Madam Speaker.

§ Mr. Stephen Dorrell (Charnwood)
On a point of order, Madam Speaker.

§ Mr. Willetts
On a point of order, Madam Speaker.

§ Madam Speaker
Order. I cannot take points of order in the middle of questions.