Yesterday was a black day for our schools with hundreds of new buildings being cancelled in a hammer blow for hundreds of thousands of parents, pupils, teachers and governors.
But Michael Gove has now added insult to injury with a litany of errors in the list of schools he published yesterday. Schools which yesterday thought they were ‘unaffected’ are now finding out they will be cancelled after all.
This is not just a piece of paper – these are the hopes of communities and pupils being raised and then cruelly dashed.
If he had any decency the Education Secretary would come back to the House of Commons to apologise to the schools affected. He must also publish a final correct list and show clearly where the errors were so schools and communities can have certainty about whether or not they will receive the investment they were promised.
This is a disgraceful way for a Secretary of State to make an announcement when opportunities for young people and the hopes of communities are in the balance.
I fear there may be others, but the errors my team has spotted so far include:
- On the list published in the House of Commons library, the four Academies in Northamptonshire are listed as ‘unaffected’; on the list published on the DFE website it says they are listed as ‘for discussion’.
- On the list published in the House of Commons library, St Helena School in Colchester, Essex is listed as ‘unaffected’; on the list published on the DFE website it is listed as ‘stopped’.
- There are also reports of confusion in Sandwell where the DFE has listed schools as ‘unaffected’, but the local council has been told by the DFE to expect cancellations.
If there are any other errors people become aware of then please email me at ed@edballs.com (the two lists will be posted here shortly).
18:00 UPDATE: Michael Gove’s Department has now published a third version of the list of new school buildings facing the axe. The list shows a number of further changes to the lists published yesterday bringing the total number of schools which have had incorrect information to 22:
- Bexley Business Academy was previously absent from the list, but is now listed as ‘under discussion’
- Queensbury in Birmingham was previously listed as ‘unaffected’ but is now marked as deleted (in tracked changes), but with no explanation.
- Sinfin Community School in Derby was listed as ‘under discussion’ but is actually open and is unaffected.
- JCB Academy in Staffordshire, previously listed as ‘under discussion’, has now disappeared from the list altogether.
- In Peterborough; the Thomas Deacon Academy (Central), previously missing from the list, is now listed as ‘under discussion’.
- The following schools in Sandwell, previously listed as ‘unaffected’, are now listed as ‘stopped’: Bristnall Hall, Heathfield, Manor, Meadows, Menzies, ‘New KS4 and Tharpuetic Units’, Perryfields, Stuart Bathurst RC, Wood Green.
- The following Academies in Sandwell previously listed as ‘unaffected’ are now listed as ‘for discussion’: George Salter Collegiate Academy, Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy, Shireland Collegiate Academy.
My letter to Michael Gove this afternoon can be read below:
Dear Michael,
There was dismay in the House of Commons yesterday when you made an announcement about cuts to the school building programme without making a list of the schools affected available to Members of Parliament who were in the House for your statement.
As you may now be aware there were a number of errors in the lists published yesterday. I fear there may be others, but the errors my team has spotted so far include:
- On the list published in the House of Commons library, the four Academies in Northamptonshire are listed as ‘unaffected’; on the list published on the DFE website it says they are listed as ‘for discussion’.
- On the list published in the House of Commons library, St Helena School in Colchester, Essex is listed as ‘unaffected’; on the list published on the DFE website it is listed as ‘stopped’.
- There are also reports of confusion in Sandwell where the DFE has listed schools as ‘unaffected’, but the local council has been told by the DFE to expect cancellations.
This is a very serious matter and I would ask you to come back to the House of Commons to apologise to the schools affected and to publish a final correct list showing clearly where the errors were so schools and communities can have certainty about whether or not they will receive the investment they were promised.
I believe this is a disgraceful way for a Secretary of State to make an announcement when opportunities for young people and the hopes of communities are in the balance.
In your statement to the House of Commons yesterday afternoon you also claimed that the reason you have decided to freeze the whole Building Schools for the Future programme was because you had to “rein back the projects that had not been properly funded.”
In my response I stated that “all capital funding announcements, including those on BSF, were made with prior agreement between the Department and the Treasury in a normal and fully legitimate way and with his full agreement as chief accounting officer.”
In your response, you went on to claim that I had “made unsustainable and irresponsible promises that he knew no Government could keep” and that “£2.5 billion of unfunded commitments is evidence of scandalous irresponsibility.”
In my statement I said “If the right hon. Gentleman has evidence that the proper processes were not undertaken, it is incumbent on him to provide that evidence to the House, rather than make these allegations.”
The Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education has now written to me and I attach a copy of his letter. He confirms that “decisions on capital expenditure, including those relating to Building Schools for the Future, were subject to Treasury clearance, where appropriate” and “if any actions on this, or any other matter, were in breach of the requirements of propriety or regularity, I would have sought a Ministerial Direction. I can confirm that I made no such requests during your time as Secretary of State.”
In light of the Permanent Secretary’s letter, I would now ask you to set the record straight as a matter of urgency.
Given the seriousness of these allegations, and the fact they were made in the House of Commons chamber, as well as the very serious errors made in the lists of school buildings cuts published before the House yesterday – I am copying this letter both to the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Cabinet Secretary.
Yours sincerely,
Ed Balls MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Children & Education
Tags: cuts, investment, schools
Go Ed!
It also demonstrates the lack of sense in going back to an out-dated, restrictive, unfair A-level system. Gove – though with much less excuse than a 17 year old who has just been heartbroken, or come down with tonsillitis – made a series of mistakes in this announcement that make him look particularly ignorant.
Hopefully, over the course of his term in office, continuous assessment will show him to be slightly less incompetent than he managed to appear this week. Though of course this is exactly the sort of measurement process ‘lacking in rigour’ that he wants 6th form education to move away from.
On the basis of this week’s performance he should be out of a job.
I hope you get your apology. I hope you push until it arrives, and resist any ConDem accusations of vanity. The ‘the last government messed everything up’ reasoning – nonsense of course – is still not a valid reason for making their decisions, but it’s particularly galling when they twist it to this extent. I think ‘the poor’ call it lying, don’t they?
I heard the Children’s minister yesterday talking about the Early Years curriculum on Radio 4. The presenter had to remind her that she is in ‘the government’ (she forgot to qualify it with ‘previous’). But it rang alarmingly true. They have not yet emotionally engaged with the responsibility – still high on the excitement of the process.