Member

Amendment 446B, while framed as refinement, would in effect reintroduce the very duty that we are seeking to repeal—to issue academy orders to schools identified as requiring significant improvement by Ofsted or assessed by RISE teams to be significantly underperforming in comparison to their peers. Our intention in repealing the duty, as I have previously said, is to provide greater flexibility. This amendment would constrain the Secretary of State’s ability to implement a broader and faster range of tailored support for schools requiring significant improvement, and would risk imposing structural change where it may not be necessary or effective. It would, therefore, undermine the core purpose of our intervention policy objective. It also misunderstands the role of RISE teams, which is to support the efforts of schools and their responsible bodies. They are not an inspectorate.