ATL comment on the role of Regional Schools Commissioners

“ATL has serious concerns about the role of Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) and the academies and free school programme, and believe that schools should be accountable to the local community.

“We have commented before on Government proposals that neither parents nor governors, will in the future, have a say in the academisation of schools. How can RSCs ensure that schools are properly accountable to their community, and how will RSCs be held to account for their own performance in supporting schools to improve, without the input from parents and governors?

“It is wholly inappropriate that in future RSCs will decide if a coasting school’s improvement plan is credible enough to save it from forced academy conversion and we know that the evidence on forced academy conversion does not support its use as a 'cure' for under-performance.

“This is clearly a politically driven agenda; the educational benefits of a data and target driven culture are proven to limit, not promote good education and raise standards.”