The Evolution of the Education Select Committee in the 2015 Parliament– Part One

The Evolution of the Education Select Committee in the 2015 Parliament– Part One J David Morgan 1 Introduction In 2015 the Education Select Committee was formed after the start of the new Parliament which had been elected on May 7th. The former Chair, Graham Stuart, did not seek re- election. Under current rules he could have served an additional term.i A new chair, Neil Carmichael was elected by a secret ballot of all MPs on 17th June. By agreement between the parties the chairmanship was only open to Conservative MPs.ii Three candidates stood, with 597 votes cast in the first round of an election under the Alternative Vote System. The results were Candidate 1st Round 2nd Round Neil Carmichael 224 294 Tim Loughton 191 252 Caroline Nokes 182 - Table 1 – Election of Chair of Education Select Committee, June 17th 2015iii Since the departmental committee system was set up in 1979, a committee overseeing the main Government department responsible for compulsory school age education has existed in various formats. It began as the Education, Science and Arts Committee. It has undergone a number of name changes and variation in responsibilities in the subsequent thirty-six years, to mirrors changes in the Department itself. The latest change in name was made on 15th June 2010.iv The committees are governed by Standing Order 152 which states that “Select committees shall be appointed to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the principal government departments” (in this case the Department for Education)…and associated public bodies.”v The committee has a series of pages on the Parliamentary website.vi Of the eleven members of the 2010 committee at the end of the Parliament, one (David Ward, LD) had been defeated at the General Election. All others were re-elected, but only three chose to seek nomination to the successor committee, Neil Carmichael; Ian Mearns and Caroline Nokes (who has subsequently stepped down). Committee meetings take place on a frequent basis. Most commonly the committee will hold evidence sessions which are open to the public on Wednesday mornings when the House is in session. There have been additional hearings on other days, and some weeks have not had any hearings. These are frequently preceded by a brief private meeting of the committee. Other private meetings and seminars have been held. Formal Minutes of the committee are published, and have been a major source for this paper.vii This is a follow up to the paper presented at the 2015 Political Studies Association Annual Conference in Sheffield.viii Such was the turnover in the membership of the committee, and 1 | P a g e the change in chairmanship, that it was decided to look at the new committee. In particular the focus moved from the opposition members to the committee as a whole. As part of this research the public meetings of the committee were attended by the author on 9th, 16th September; 14th October; 4th November; 1st, 2nd December 2012; 13th , 27th January; 3rd February; 2nd and 9th of March 2016. Notes were taken and observations made. Interviews were conducted with three members of the committee during 2016, and informal questions put to members at various times. Transcripts of committee hearings were obtained from the committee website.ix Contributions by members to proceedings in the House of Commons Chamber and Westminster Hall were found in Hansard. 2 The Establishment of the Committee As noted above, the first step was the allocation of chairmanships to the political parties. Three Conservatives, one a former Education Minister, and two members of the 2010 Committee put themselves up for election to the chair. Party allocation of seats on each committee had also been agreed, and self-nomination was called for within each party. The House of Commons had endorsed the principle in 2010 that “parties should elect members of select committees in a secret ballot by whichever transparent and democratic method they chose.”x The Committee of Selection put down a motion for membership of the Education Committee on 6th July 2015. Subsequently Kate Hollern; Kate Osamor (both Labour) and Caroline Nokes (Conservative) have stepped down from the committee. Their places have been filled by Catherine McKinnell; Stephen Timms (Labour) and William Wragg (Conservative). The first meeting of the committee was held on July 8th, and it considered Working Methods and Future Programme.xi In the first eight months three members stood down and were replaced. Early turnover is not unusual. In 2005 one member (Evennett) had stood down within six months, a second (Farron) after 10 months, and a third (Blackman-Woods) just after the first anniversary of the nomination of the committee. In 2010 two members (Burns and Kendall) stood down after four months. Three of the Specialist Advisors from the previous Parliament remained with the committee - Professor David Berridge, Marion Davis CBE, Professor Becky Francis. Dr Matt Woolgar joined them. Berridge and Davis had been specialist advisors to the committee since the 2010-12 session, and Francis since 2013-14. 2 | P a g e The committee is supported by a number of Clerks. At January 2016 these were - Richard Ward Clerk Kevin Maddison Second Clerk Martin Smith Committee Specialist Anna Connell-Smith Committee Specialist Jack Dent Inquiry Manager Jonathan Arkless Senior Committee Assistant Simon Armitage Committee Assistant Beryl-Joan Bonsu Social Media Assistant Gary Calder Media Officer Table 2 – Committee Staffxii 3 The Work Programme Formal minutes of meetings are produced and are now published on the committee’s website.xiii The predecessor committee finished its work with a report reviewing its work over the 2010 Parliament – “Closing the Gap: the work of the Education Committee in the 2010-15 Parliament”. It was careful not to propose an agenda for its successor, but contained a number of comments about Education matters which will no doubt continue to influence the current committee. It noted that “the DfE has delayed post-legislative scrutiny of the Education and Skills Act 2008 and the Equality Act 2010 until after the [2015] General Election”xiv On 16+ care options it urged, “whoever is in Government from May 2015 to reconsider this issue.”xv On the future of Ofsted and the committee’s recommendation that Ofsted’s functions be separated, it commented that “Again we consider this a priority for the next Parliament.”xvi It urged that “whoever is in Government from May 2015 should make increased accountability in the academy sector a priority.”xvii In the Chancellor’s Budget speech on 16th March 2016, George Osborne announced, “ that I am today providing extra funding so that by 2020 every primary and secondary school in England will be, or be in the process of becoming, an academy.”xviii In response to this announcement, the Chair of the Committee issued a press release which said - "Some academies are delivering great results for their pupils but in progressing to a fully academised system we must ensure all schools are properly held to account for their performance. Multi-Academy Trusts already play a substantial role in our education system and they will be increasingly important as all state schools move to becoming academies. MATs currently receive little scrutiny and in our inquiry we are determined to examine their performance, accountability, and governance. The Government will face significant challenges in implementing these proposals. The drive to change school structures will pose particular issues for primary schools, where only around 15 per cent are currently academies. As a Committee we look forward to examining the full details of these proposals."xix The 2010-15 Committee noted that ‘Progress 8’ will be introduced in 2016 to assist in measuring pupils’ progress through their school careers. The committee stated “we would expect our successor Committee to pay close attention to the impact this has on school 3 | P a g e accountability.”xx On apprenticeships and traineeships, the report noted “we highlighted the necessity for new proposals to be developed early in the new Parliament. We also suggested that there were questions to be answered about ownership of apprenticeship standards once the current redesign work is completed.”xxi Careers advice had been a matter of concern throughout the last Parliament and noted that reform “remains a work in progress and should be high up the agenda in the next Parliament.”xxii Accompanying the report was a film commissioned by the committee which included a request for “members of the public to tell us what they think the next Government needs to do about early years, child protection, schools, Ofsted, and support for young people as they complete their secondary education…we hope that people will engage with our successor Committee to help them determine the key issues to be examined when embarking on new inquiries in the new Parliament.”xxiii It is certainly the view of the author of this paper, that issues which dominated hearings of the predecessor committee, such as concerns about the mental health of looked after children; child abuse; Regional School Commissioners; and the accountability of schools in the academy sector remain at the forefront of the committees work. The new Chair, Neil Carmichael set out his vision for the committee in an interview with the House Magazine. Three roles were highlighted, ‘the traditional role of being “quite robust in our scrutiny of government”; being a “thought-provoking tool of the parliamentary system”,

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