David Cameron has sounded the retreat on plans to force all schools to become academies.
The Department for Education said yesterday that it had “listened to feedback” and concluded that the blanket legislation was unnecessary.
Instead, it will seek more limited reserve powers to force all schools in an area to convert to academy status if the education authority is failing to provide a minimum standard of school improvement, or if almost all the local schools are already academies. Failing or “coasting” schools still face enforced takeover by academy sponsors.
Small rural schools will be offered protection under a “double lock” whereby those that become academies will be closed only if both local and national governments agree to shut them down.
Village schools have already been promised more money, with 1,200 due to benefit from a new national formula for funding.
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The retreat follows a revolt by Tory MPs, alarmed at the implications for village schools if they were forced to become academies.
It is a blow to the standing of Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, but the damage to her reputation will be limited by the fact that George Osborne made the announcement of an all-academy school system by 2022 the centrepiece of his budget in March.
Mr Cameron, who was briefly the Conservative education spokesman before becoming party leader in 2005, was also closely involved in pressing for all schools to become academies, a school reform developed by Labour. He liked to claim that he wrested away the initiative and “put rocket boosters under” it.
Conservative MPs, many of whom attacked the policy in a debate last month, are likely to accept the changes and allow the rest of the white paper to proceed, with senior backbenchers such as Graham Brady and Graham Stuart ready to welcome the climbdown.
By confirming the about-turn on the day after regional and local elections, the government tried to limit the damage. But opponents of its school reforms, including the teaching unions, are likely to be emboldened by the decision and claim victory.
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Mrs Morgan tried to put a brave face on the reversal, saying that she remained determined to see all schools become academies in the next six years but it was not necessary to legislate for this.
“I am today reaffirming our determination to see all schools become academies,” she said. “However, having listened to the feedback from parliamentary colleagues and the education sector we will now change the path to reaching that goal.
“By focusing our efforts on those schools most at risk of failing young people, and encouraging good and outstanding schools to seize the opportunities of conversion, we will ensure the continued growth of the academy programme, empowering frontline heads and transforming even more children’s education.”
Analysis
It is becoming a familiar trick: policy that needs to get dumped gets thrown out on a Friday afternoon when, Downing Street hopes, the world is looking the other way (Sam Coates writes).
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Plans to overhaul pensions were abandoned on a Friday afternoon in March to head off rising Tory backbench disquiet. Budget climbdowns on the tampon tax and disability cuts were slipped out on a Friday afternoon in April, as were plans to make the food industry responsible for chicken welfare.
So it should have come as little surprise that Downing Street repeated the trick yesterday and changed its stance on converting schools to academies.
Not all such changes are done on Fridays, though. The reversal on tax credit was made in the autumn statement last November, while David Cameron was forced to back down over admitting unaccompanied child refugees from Europe on Wednesday. With a working majority of only 18, expect more Friday surprises.
Poster boy of free schools quits
The founder of England’s highest- profile free school is to quit his role and has expressed regret for attacking standards in other schools (writes Greg Hurst).
Toby Young, a journalist whose father was a Labour peer, will step down in the summer as chief executive of West London Free School academy trust, which runs a secondary school and two primaries. Its flagship secondary school in Hammersmith was one of the first 24 free schools approved by Michael Gove in August 2011, when he was education secretary.
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Mr Young was a poster boy for the free schools policy, which allowed parents and community groups to petition for money to open a new school. His departure comes amid claims by Labour that the original idea of parent-led new schools had been eclipsed as the process was professionalised, with the majority of applications from existing academy sponsors or teachers and educationalists.
Mr Young, who wrote a book called How To Set Up A Free School, was originally chairman of governors at West London Free School and then became chief executive of the trust.
In an interview with Schools Week, a specialist publication, he admitted that the role would need someone with greater education experience. He added that he had been “arrogant” to think that high expectations and a traditional curriculum were enough to create a successful school.
He said: “If I could rewind six years, and know then what I know now, I would have been much less critical of other schools.”
