Education secretary's plans for reform doomed to failure if for-profit companies not allowed to run schools, says thinktank
A rightwing thinktank has called on the government to allow profit-making companies to open and run free schools, arguing that Michael Gove's plans for reform are otherwise doomed to failure.
In a report published tomorrow, the Adam Smith Institute says companies should be able to run free schools without the need for a charitable vehicle or trust framework, as required by existing legislation.
Tom Clougherty, executive director of the institute, says: "Unless you allow for-profit companies to enter the market, it is very hard to see where all those new school places are going to come from."
The report says that in 2008, the Conservatives set a target to provide 222,000 extra school places. So far, only 323 applications to open free schools have been made. Just 41 have proceeded to business case stage, and only a handful will open in September 2011.
There are already 489 independent profit-making schools in England, and the institute says these are overwhelmingly non-selective, secular and concentrated in some of the most needful metropolitan areas. It says 41% of these schools operate on fees less than, or on a par with, the national average per-pupil funding in the state maintained sector, but still significantly outperformed the independent sector as a whole in Ofsted inspections between 2007 and 2010.
The report says there is no evidence to suggest that for-profit management compromises standards – claiming the opposite appears to be true.
The report concludes by proposing the government remove any requirements relating to corporate or legal structure from free schools legislation. Schools would no longer have to be run via a charitable vehicle or operate under a trust framework. Private companies, partnerships and sole traders should all be able to participate in the Free Schools programme.