Views

'SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE: BUILDING EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT'

SPEECH BY DAVID MILIBAND MP

MINISTER OF STATE FOR SCHOOL STANDARDS

TO THE LGA / 4ps CONFERENCE

LONDON, 19 MAY 2003

The last few months have brought home to many people that our education system depends on a partnership of central and local government. This has been a unique year - with significant changes to the structure and distribution of the funding system, as well as one-off increases in pension and national insurance contributions. There are lessons for all of us about how to strengthen that partnership. Suffice to say that we in central government are committed to working hard with colleagues from local government to ensure that the funding system for schools delivers for the people who really count - the teachers and pupils in our schools. We all have a responsibility to ensure that the sound principles of stability, predictability and fairness run right through the funding system.

Today we have the opportunity to demonstrate our joint commitment to children - on the capital side of the financial ledger. It is common sense that the quality of capital investment has an impact on educational motivation, respect and opportunity. And I think it is equally clear that over the last twenty to thirty years capital investment has been neglected to the real cost of the nation's education system. Buildings and equipment that tell pupils that they are second or third class citizens will encourage them to view themselves as second or third class citizens; buildings and equipment that demonstrate commitment and respect will promote commitment and respect.

So the stakes are high - and the role of local government is central in delivering capital investment for children. You can take the strategic view. You can plan local provision. You can harness local energy. You can promote local innovation.

I believe that there is increasing recognition in local government of the opportunities. Many of you will have made a start. To those of you who have been developing increasingly attractive bids for Targeted Capital and PFI, but have not yet gained funding, I can only apologise, remark that the quality as well as quantity of bids has been steadily rising, and commit myself and the Government to a long term drive to meet your aspirations. We have a unique opportunity to help each other.

Good to Great

My starting point is simple: all investment and reform in education needs an educational vision. Ours is simple to describe though hard to deliver - an education system open to every child and tailored to the needs of each child. At the centre of that vision are effective schools:

schools marked by vigorous, innovative, brave leadership
schools with a centre of excellence that makes them special, and a commitment to collaboration that helps them improve
schools staffed by a strong school team, with a flexible workforce led by teachers but populated by an increasingly wide range of adults giving personal help to children
and schools working in strong partnerships with the community, to expand the horizons and opportunities of young people.

Those schools have a clear focus - high standards of teaching and learning for every child.

So in primary school every child has access to a broad and balanced curriculum, mastering the basics but also putting in place the creative foundations for further education and adult life.

In the early years of secondary school, too often considered transitional, dull, and even boring, a stretching and empowering phase of education that broadens horizons and develops individual interest and talent.

Then at 14-19, a new coherence based on the drive of the learner, with curriculum, assessment and qualifications providing a clear ladder of opportunity for every child.

To make this a reality, it is immediately obvious that capital investment has a huge role to play. That is the purpose of the Building Schools for the Future programme.

Investing in school buildings

For too long an aging school estate has been badly served by insufficient funding and an ad hoc approach to school buildings. The result - neglect. Six in every seven schools are now over 25 years ago, and many are reaching the end of their original design lives.

Yet, as we know, school buildings are vital to educational standards - a fact recently reinforced by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Their research, 'Building Better Performance', demonstrates that pupil learning outcomes are influenced by the quality of the school capital stock. Put simply, improving buildings increases attainment.

Since 1997, there has been significant progress. All LEAs and schools have shared an increase in capital investment. Up to £3.8 billion this year, from less than £700 million in 1996. This has helped address the worst of the building backlog, and has helped 20,000 schools to enjoy major improvements: new roofs, windows and boilers; the replacement of temporary classrooms; and the abolition of outside toilets.

But challenges still remain. The current building programme has improved asset management, but we have been digging ourselves out of a hole. New investment has necessarily been characterized by a patch-and-mend approach. Whilst essential, this has limited the scope for strategic investment and constrained the potential for building renewal to effect educational improvement. At best, current investment has had an incremental effect on pupil standards.

It is now time to think more strategically. And we have a real opportunity to do so. By 2005/06, capital investment in school buildings will rise to over £5 billion.

A substantial proportion of this increase will be devolved to schools and LEAs - empowering them to respond to local needs. The innovation of devolved capital direct to schools will continue. This year we have allowed those schools with overwhelming budget problems flexibility over this spending. Our commitment to capital investment - strategic and devolved - is undimmed.

LEA formula capital will continue to have a massive role: £642 million last year; £686 million in 2005/6, after two years of even higher funding.

But, to maximize the benefits of the new investment, we need to think more strategically and creatively about developing the school estate.

As set in our 'Building Schools for the Future' consultation document, we propose using £2.2 billion in 2005/06 to target specific building projects. The Government's commitment is clear: this funding is the first year of a long term programme to help deliver 21st century facilities to every secondary pupil in England. Year on year, the benefits multiply. Every pupil will gain; every LEA will have a role. The concept is simple:

where currently all investment is fragmented, some of it in the future should be strategic
where currently the vast bulk of investment is done school by school, the focus should be whole areas
where currently public sector expertise is dispersed in future it should be mobilised so we help each other.

This is a big reform. It is backed by serious money. But of course we have no monopoly of wisdom on getting it right at local level. That is why the proposals we have already made have at their centre a partnership of central and local government; and it is why we are engaging in this consultation in a serious way. Let me address some of the issues that we are seeking to address through the consultation.

Building for the Future

The first issue is that our proposals should get the right balance between primary and secondary education.

We are clear: investment in primary education is vital. It must continue to grow. We estimate that in 2005/6 there will be 25% more funds available for investment in primary education that in 2002/3.

But secondary education faces particular challenges and particular complexities.

Secondary schools are bigger, with a wider range of subjects, a wider range of staff, a wider range of needs. It is in secondary education that our vision of a system delivering quality and equity faces its greatest challenge. And secondary education is developing rapidly: new curricula, new staff, new collaboration across the school/FE divide. So we believe it is right to focus the new strategic investment on secondary education.

The second concern is to get the right balance of national support and local decision-making. On the one hand we know that local people and local government need support from the centre. On other we know that national schemes locally imposed will have no credibility.

So national government is making an offer. Not just more money, but also more support. More support in framing a local vision. More support in design. More support in negotiation with the private sector. More support delivered by a national body in which local government will be a joint shareholder with central government and the independent Partnerships UK. 4Ps are an able and articulate proponent of the interests of local government, and we want them on board as full partners from the outset.

Each and every project for secondary renewal will be locally-led. It cannot go ahead without local support. But we hope it will go ahead faster and more effectively with national support too. That is the purpose of our national Joint Venture Company.

The third concern is that we propose a wall to wall Private Finance Initiative. This is the belief that we are somehow wedded to PFIs and are incapable of considering alternatives.

We are not. PFI credits represent just over half of the strategic investment proposed for 2005/06. They are not the whole solution. However, when they are the right solution, PFIs provide substantial benefits.

Like you, we are concerned with the expense and inefficiency of some conventional procurement. And, like you, we know that PFI is no magic formula. We need to learn from the experience of both forms of procurement.

We want high quality buildings; projects that stay on time and on budget; and maintenance that is guaranteed in the long term. Where PFI can achieve this, we should grasp it with both hands. But conventional procurement has its place, and the balance of procurement methods will be a source of strength in the programme.

The fourth concern is that we are proposing an inflexible and unresponsive building process. This is the belief that our new ideas for design and procurement represent a Stalinist building project.

Let me assure you they do not. We are in the process of commissioning 12 exemplar designs - six for primary schools and six for secondary. These exemplars will be just that - a starting point for local people as a base for their discussions and their decisions about local educational renewal. They will be the basis for local input, not a limit on local input. I believe they will inspire your style, not cramp it.

Here is a fifth concern for us. We must ensure that this programme knits together the secondary education experience from 11-19. Every area needs the right balance of sixth form, sixth form college, FE and work-based provision to cater for the range of diverse needs. That means supporting local cooperation with the LSC.

Finally, we need to get the right balance between the universality of the programme, and strategic investment that delivers step change area by area. The consultation document sets out four criteria for investment: the potential benefit to standards, the impact on deprivation, the state of the current buildings, and the local capacity to deliver a complex programme.

Officials have been engaged in continuing dialogue about getting this right. And Philip Parker is giving one of the workshops on this issue this afternoon. We want every LEA to benefit from the programme over time; we want every project to have a clear quality threshold; and we want to ensure that time spent on bidding is well-spent.

I am delighted that we have four pathfinder projects in train - in Bristol, Bradford, Sheffield and Greenwich. We want to ensure that the transition to the full 2005/6 programme is as smooth as possible. So we want to make the most of this consultation period, and meetings like this, where face to face with Ministers and officials you can put forward your ideas.

Conclusion

This is a crucial time for English education. We have a unique opportunity to build on educational improvement.

The latest international study shows our 10 year-olds achieving more than every other country in the industrialized world expect Sweden and the Netherlands. By contrast, the same survey in 1996 showed that we were only average performers.

The PISA study, conducted by the OECD the year before last, showed that our 15 year olds are in the top quartile of performance for literacy, numeracy, and scientific literacy.

And we have more teachers with more support staff. Since 1997, over 24,000 more teachers; and over 80,000 more support staff. And this positive trend was confirmed in last month's figures. Education is an increasingly attractive place to work.

This is real progress. But it is progress that we must build on if we are to tackle the inequalities in our education system.

Half of all young people leave school without five good GCSEs. A significant degree of underperformance. And it is underperformance that is concentrated in our most disadvantaged communities.

My vision is of a high quality and high equity education system. The transition to a new funding system for revenue has caused strain. But I believe the vision is strong and the commitment across the system unwavering.

It is now backed by a vision of capital investment appropriate to our ambition. We are committed to building a national consensus around a programme for renewal; to ensuring that there is real thought and dialogue at the local level about the right sort of provision; and to providing the right national infrastructure to support educational improvement.

I hope you will work with us to achieve this, and look forward to working with you to do so.