Blue school thinking

I have written the cover feature in this week's Public Finance, looking in detail at the Conservative plans for schools, drawing on an interview with the shadow schools secretary Michael Gove. My argument is that there is rather more in common between Labour and the Tories on structural reforms such as academies and school chains than either Ed Balls or Michael Gove would care to admit. But there is a bigger difference over the curriculum and the wider purpose of schools. You can read the article here.

Making Every Child Matters more practical

I have a column in today's Independent, arguing for a more practical focus to Every Child Matters, the government's drive to link education and children's services. Here's an extract:

Six years on, there is a sense that things are not working out. In his recent review of the Baby Peter case in Haringey, Lord Laming said the problem was that his ideas hadn't been introduced fully or fast enough. But head teachers fear that some of Laming's solutions are part of the problem. There may be worthy new "safeguarding" committees and "partnership working", they say, but you can't get hold of a social worker when you need one. The Government has professionals bogged down in "integrated strategy" and "inter-agency governance" but too little attention has been paid to the practical measures that could really make a difference. And heads' support for closer links between schools and welfare services has been turned into frustration as efforts to merge two very different professional approaches – that of the teacher and the social worker – are put into practice.

Is the 'children's agenda' working for schools?

I have a piece in this week's Public Finance looking at another aspect of the fallout from the Baby P case in Haringey and the departure of Sharon Shoesmith. The merger of the education and social services agendas after the inquiry into the Victoria Climbie case has led to complaints from some that social services needs are downplayed where schools specialists take charge. But there are also those who fear that the aims of this merger are not being met. Instead a new bureaucracy has emerged, with headls having to go to lots of joint planning meetings, when it might be better simply employing social workers in schools. You can read my piece here.