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News archive - Nov/December 2009

An open door for the litigious and disaffected?

SCHOOL LEADERS are concerned that the pupil and parent ‘guarantees’ in the education Bill, announced in the Queen’s Speech, will be an open door for litigious parents.

The Children, Schools and Families Bill provides new parental powers enshrined in a series of legal guarantees outlining what families can expect from the state school system and the right to complain directly to the local government ombudsman should they feel schools and councils are failing to meet these requirements, which could result in parents taking schools to court.

However, the guarantees are based on the assumption that parents want the best for all pupils in the school and that all children want to learn, which is “regrettably not always the case,” says Dr John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders. “Parents rightly want the best for their own child, but that may be sometimes at the expense of others. School leaders have to make decisions based on what is best for the majority of students. In a time when funding is becoming tighter they will have to prioritise and will not be able to give equal weight to every aspect of the ‘guarantee’.

“It is easy for the government to ‘guarantee’ specific rights for pupils and parents when ministers aren’t the ones who have to deliver. It is school leaders and staff whose jobs will be on the line if they don’t meet the ‘guarantees’. If government is going to make a guarantee on behalf of schools, it must provide the means for schools to deliver on all these items.”

“School leaders are extremely concerned that these ‘guarantees’ will turn into a whingers’ charter for the more litigious parents to complain, first to the head, then to the governors, then to the Local Government Ombudsman service. This will create an immense amount of work for school leaders, who are currently trying, with government encouragement, to create more productive relationships with parents.”

Echoing these concerns, Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “It will be critical to ensure that the wording of the guarantees in the Bill does not open the floodgates to the vexatious, litigious and disaffected.”

The Bill guarantees that every pupil will go to a school where they are taught in a way that meets their needs, where their progress is regularly checked and where additional needs are spotted early and quickly addressed, which includes the right to demand one-to-one tuition. Parents can expect access to extended services including support and advice on parenting.

Alongside these greater rights are greater responsibilities, insists the DCSF. Parent guarantees will include strengthened Home School Agreements setting out expectations on parents and making clear their responsibilities for their child’s behaviour. The Bill will give schools stronger powers to enforce these agreements when parents do not.

Schools secretary Ed Balls said: “The Bill will ensure every parent is guaranteed to have a good local school, a balanced curriculum, tough home school agreements and catch-up support for those who fall behind so that every child and young person can get a good education and make the most of their talents.”

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