Where is this much-vaunted consultation promised in the glossy brochure "Inspiring generations to succeed", which carries the logos of West Sussex LEA and the Woodard Corporation, and quotes the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) in its blurb.

We are told that the DCSF agreed on July 26, 2007, that the proposals could enter the next phase, the feasibility stage, which includes "wide public consultation with staff, governors, parents, students, local communities, nearby schools, local councils and other interested parties".

And here we are, nearly a year later, and as far as I'm aware the only parties directly involved are WSCC and the schools themselves.

The brochure does carry a tear-off slip at the back, with a closing date of March 26, 2008, but I'll wager that very few of those that are supposed to be engaged in the consultation have actually seen the brochure, never mind getting the slip in on time!

The whole exercise is almost as farcical as Adur District Council's consultation on the move to the leader and cabinet form of decision-making, but they share one common element, and that is a complete disdain, if not downright contempt, for the people who are going to be most affected by these changes, local people dependent on these authorities for the services that they provide, and to whom these authorities should be accountable.

It hardly needs to be stated, but the reason that it is so vital to have a meaningful debate about this change is the need to address the burning issue for those parents, like myself, and their children – whether or not academy status is going to lead to an improvement on what exists at present; are our children going to benefit significantly as a result of the change?

And it has to be said that the picture nationally does not generate confidence in this New Labour-inspired initiative.

Schools in the north-west delivered over to fanatical religious organisations that deny the theory of evolution; in Oldham, five secondary schools to be closed down, but only three academies to be created; in Islington, a school earmarked for closure just because it is in the heart of a Blairite flagship borough, a political sacrifice to a political has-been.

And while there is very little evidence that those not mired in scandal and controversy can deliver a higher standard of education or a higher level of achievement than the secondary schools they supplant, there is plenty of evidence that they can generate substantial profits for these sponsors, which is why more big business sponsors are getting involved.

In conclusion, this is the privatisation of education through the back door, requiring a high degree of co-operation between this wretched New Labour government, the equally wretched Tory West Sussex local authority and the Woodard Corporation, and if things are left as they are, the three organisations will stitch things up with the minimum of meaningful consultation.

Those parents involved in the local authority's Age of Transfer changes in Adur will know exactly what is being referred to.

What changes everything is the degree of involvement of parents, governors, staff and community in INSISTING on a full consultation, writing to the local MPs, demanding that council officials attend meetings, issue up-to-date briefing notes, genuinely engage in the debate about what is best for our children now and in the future.

That is what has been happening in the other parts of the country referred to above; that is what needs to happen in our area.

S. J. Guy
Southview Road
Southwick

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