Nigel Martin

I moved a motion at yesterday’s meeting of the full County Council asking for a full and wide-ranging consultation with parents and local communities on the future of school admissions in County Durham.

I did this because of the decision of the Schools Adjudicator to overturn the Durham Johnson admissions criteria for 2009 entry in which he determined that the policy of giving priority to associated transport was intrinsically unfair. He was also critical of the council’s consultation procedures.

My motion was defeated by the Labour majority which leaves a very unsatisfactory situation.

This autumn the so-called “consultation” for 2010 entry will begin. School governing bodies will be asked their opinions, which will be fed into a mysterious body called the Education Forum. This comes up with proposals for Cabinet who take the final decision.

At no point do families and local communities get any real input. All they can do is to appeal to the Schools Adjudicator after the decisions have been taken.

What is this Education Forum? It consists of 14 people made up of two (Labour) councillors, 11 educationalists and just one parent governor representative. It meets in private (no-one else is allowed to listen in to the debate, not even other councillors) and the minutes are not made public. Indeed, I can find no mention of this body on the County Council web site.

In other words the policy is being made by something more akin to a medieval Star Chamber than an open democratic process. Moreover, there appears to be no way for elected councillors in general to scrutinise what is going on.

Frankly this is a scandal. In the debate yesterday, all that Councillor Vasey (Labour Cabinet member for young People’s Services - she sits on the Forum) could say was that the council was following government rules.

I rest my case!