Part two of the big shake-up

How will you choose the partner?

A: It's going to be a large contract. We will set up specifications and, like the managing partner (which will oversee a massive buildings project within the district's schools), consultants will help us to do it. It will go out to tender and we will choose the best.

What will happen to LEA staff and teachers?

A: Teachers and other school staff have contracts with their schools and that will continue. For the 600 or so LEA staff, it would depend on the nature of the contract we draw up on the specifications, and that would depend on consultation. They might be employed by the board in some form. This is not about cutting jobs, it's about increasing effectiveness. They shouldn't be concerned this is in some way a crude privatisation or anything approaching it.

If we do this right we could probably create a situation where it would mean less jobs going than if we had carried on under the existing LEA and Fair Funding (which means more money goes direct to schools to employ their own staff).

Are you doing this because you believe the forthcoming Ofsted report of the LEA will be

damning?

A: We don't know what the result of the Ofsted report is. We started discussions about this months before the Ofsted was undertaken. Whether the Ofsted is good or bad this is the right way to move for the pupils on the district.

Will Government money go to the partnership?

A: The Council would be responsible for setting the budget for the area, and coming to some agreement between the authority and the partnership about the levels of funding.

The board would then set school budgets within its budget.

Would a partnership be more interested in profit than in good education?

A: We pay our teachers to attend at school. They do their job for money.

In every relationship like this there's a profit reward element. We have to write a contract in such a way that a profit for a private partner is reasonable when we consider the input their putting in.

The contractual specifications drawn up by the Council will be a key element. We will spend time and effort on that.

Why has there been no consultation?

A: There's going to be full consultation. This is driven by the responses to 2020 Vision. We would expect to treat our staff properly and well but they're not the people who determine the level of service we will be providing and the aspirations we have for our children.

Why do this at a time of major upheaval for schools?

A: It's important for education to be effective and to deliver good quality education. We will not alter from our determination to change this organisation until such a time that we are satisfied that we are delivering an improving service to the people of this district.

The pace of change will continue until such time that the change has taken place.

In consultation for the 2020 Vision, people told us they wanted a change and we are delivering that change.

What impact will this have on the managing partner, who is overseeing building work for

reorganisation?

A: This will not have a massive influence on the managing partner, who has got off to an excellent start.

Bearing in mind it took a year to appoint the managing partner, how long will it take to get this underway?

It will be relatively quick. It should be less than a year. In two or three months it should be going out for a preferred partner, if that's what consultation concludes.

What is the future of the LEA?

The Council will exist. This is a cutting edge proposal which, if we get it right, an example followed across the country. And the LEA will be much more secure than it is now because it will be at the cutting edge of the education agenda.

The Council will still set admission policies, for example.

What will be the role of the new assistant chief executive?

He or she will be a Council officer clearly responsible for the commissioning role and therefore will be responsible for ensuring the authority's expectations are met by the partnership and for advising about policy issues addressed at the board.

They will lead as an officer on the question of the commissioning role about setting standards. And will be responsible for drawing up the contract.

How will pupils benefit?

Pupils will get a better service, more focused on educational attainment and standards.

The aim is to move Bradford's pupils' achievements above the national average.

How is this partnership accountable?

It is accountable through the partnership board. The Council lays down the targets for the board to deliver on standards.

The radical changes

Parents, teachers and pupils are still reeling from the uncertainty of Bradford's schools shake-up, which involves nearly 200 schools and thousands of children.

A full 12 months after Bradford Council was given the go-ahead by the Government for the reorganisation, the managing partner responsible for £171 million of building work had still not been appointed.

Last week, only days before the start of the two-week school Easter holidays, international firm Bovis was named as the long-awaited managing partner and started work, pledging a timetable for building work in each school within eight weeks.

As far back as October 1998, some schools rejected the proposals mechanism for finding new jobs for 1,500 teachers whose schools were set to shut. They branded the process where they had to select staff without knowing who they were as like Blind Date.

About 150 teachers still don't know where they will be working from September - and a similar number of support staff such as clerical workers and caretakers.

And some schools are still unsure about what buildings they will be using this autumn.

While schools work hard to protect their pupils from the uncertainty and disarray, pupils at closing schools face an extra week out of class at the end of term so closing schools can move everything out.

And the memories of last September - when temporary classrooms in some schools were not ready, forcing pupils to stay at home - are still fresh in the minds of many parents.

A total of more than 150 temporary classrooms are already being planned for September as the building work is not even started in the majority of schools.

The brand new Challenge School - a new secondary for the Manningham area - will be housed several miles away in the Woodend Middle buildings in Shipley's Windhill for a year.

Education bosses have always said the motivation behind the shake-up is improving standards. In the last schools league tables, in December 1999, Bradford 11-year-olds, on average, performed well below the national average in the three core subjects of maths, English and science.

The figures revealed 55 per cent of Bradford 11-year-olds achieved level four standards in maths - compared with 68.2 per cent nationally.

In English, it was 59.3 per cent locally compared with 69.7 per cent nationwide, and in science, 65.5 per cent of Bradford pupils achieved the target, compared with 77.9 nationally.

Last December, it was revealed the funding came £47 million short of the cash needed for the shake-up and it was only in February that approval was given by the Government for the extra cash.

But approval has been given by the Government for the full £171 million programme of building improvement which will see a massive scheme of new buildings and refurbishment at schools throughout the district.

Middle schools will shut this summer, with a new style of primary and secondary schools starting their first year from September.

Education chiefs say the new scheme for the education partnership board is the next stage in the process of improving standards.

The huge rebuilding and refurbishment scheme for school buildings is the first part, they say, and gets the bricks and mortar of the schools right.

And they say now action is needed to improve the way education is delivered throughout Bradford, which is the driving ambition behind the pioneering scheme to have an education board, led by a senior internationally-renowned educationalist, to drive up standards.

Council chiefs say their aim is to get Bradford pupils performing better than the national average in school tests within a decade.

Hague attacks shake-up

Conservative party leader William Hague yesterday launched a scathing attack on Bradford Council's handling of the education reorganisation in the district.

Talking during a visit to the city, Mr Hague, right, said: "This council has completely botched the reorganisation of education. They have made a hash of that. As a local authority it needs more councillors with good common sense."

He added that councils should not be forced to modernise their structures and that it was vital cabinet-style leadership did not lead to secrecy in government.

Bradford Council leader Ian Greenwood (Labour) said the Conservative party had continuously refused to help Bradford schools while in government.

He said: "The Labour Government has given £171 million for physical regeneration of our schools and that's the largest investment ever made - one which was never made by Mr Hague's party."

He added that the people of the district had been fully consulted on changes to the council structure and that they welcomed a modern system of local government.

Liberal Democrat leader in the council Jeanette Sunderland said: "They certainly have made a mess of education and it's certainly been underfunded. But what we've got to remember is that the underfunding of education was done by the Tory government."

Anger over 'plans made in secret'

A major row over secrecy has erupted following the announcement of the radical plans.

Leader of the Council's Tory group Councillor Margaret Eaton, below, said she was angry that any decision had been taken before the publication of the Ofsted report and before councillors had been given the opportunity to discuss the findings and subsequent proposals.

She said it was also "utterly intolerable" that hundreds of LEA staff had been kept in the dark.

Coun Eaton said the Ofsted report was expected to be one of the worst ever produced and she believed the move was a pre-election "damage limitation" exercise for the controlling Labour group.

She is now calling on the Economic Scrutiny Committee to review the decision and what she claims is the by-passing of councillors.

"Ian Greenwood seems to want to put all the blame on the staff for the Council's poor performance in education," she said.

"Yet it is a direct result of political decision making over recent years that our schools have not been funded at the level recommended by the Government.

Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Jeanette Sunderland said: "I am very worried that very important decisions affecting every child in the district have been taken behind closed doors and have reached this stage without going to all Executive members. It is disgusting.

"This is an astonishing admission by the Labour group of their complete lack of confidence in being able to run our education services."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.