Legislation to turn every school in England into an academy independent of local authority control will be unveiled in the budget.
Draft leglislation, to be published possibly as early as Thursday, will begin the process of implementing a pledge made by David Cameron in his conference speech last autumn.
The prime minister said his “vision for our schooling system” was to place education into the hands of headteachers and teachers rather than “bureaucrats”.
The move follows criticism of the government for going into stasis during the referendum campaign. Cameron and the chancellor, George Osborne, are keen to show that they are in charge of a “reforming” government.
Sources told the Guardian that the plans would be a key part of Osborne’s budget on Wednesday in order to start the process before officials are forced to shut down work because of the purdah before the May elections and EU referendum.
As the chancellor prepares to announce his budget against the backdrop of a deteriorating economic outlook, the government is keen to show that it is pressing ahead with changes, despite the looming referendum.
The chancellor has faced claims of backing away from major measures after he dropped proposals for a radical overhaul of tax relief for pension contributions.
Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, who has been touted as a potential rival to Osborne for the Conservative leadership when the prime minister steps down, is expected to give more details of the plan for the education shakeup when she opens the House of Commons debate on the budget on Thursday. She will appear on the BBC’s Question Time on Thursday evening. The Treasury refused to comment.
The plans are likely to be fiercely rejected by Labour, which argues that taking thousands of schools out of council control means that accountability and oversight falls on to Whitehall alone.
Lucy Powell, the shadow schools minister, said there was “no evidence to suggest that academisation in and of itself leads to school improvement”.
She pointed out that the chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, had written to the secretary of state for education highlighting serious weaknesses in academy chains.
“How the government can plough ahead with the wholesale academisation of all schools in light of his evidence beggars belief. We want to see robust accountability and oversight of all schools regardless of type,” she said.
Powell accused the government of offering nothing new, saying ministers should focus instead on teacher shortages, school places and inequalities.
In his memo to the education secretary, Wilshaw had said: “Many of the trusts manifested the same weaknesses as the worst-performing local authorities and offered the same excuses. Indeed, one chief executive blamed parents for pupils’ poor attendance affecting pupils’ performance.
“There has been much criticism in the past of local authorities failing to take swift action with struggling schools. Given the impetus of the academies programme to bring about rapid improvement, it is of great concern that we are not seeing this in these seven MATs [multi-academy trusts] and that, in some cases, we have even seen decline.”
But the legislation is very likely to pass because the issue is widely supported by Conservatives, and the SNP would probably abstain on any votes affecting English education.
The white paper will come just days before the government’s education and adoption bill is made law.
That bill was introduced to “sweep away bureaucratic and legal loopholes” and speed up the process of dealing with failing schools by taking them out of local authority control and putting them in the hands of academy sponsors.
When the bill was introduced, the government estimated that up to 1,000 “failing” schools would be turned into academies as a result.
Of the more than 24,000 schools in England, about 5,000 are now academies – and with 85% of primaries still in local authority control this gives some insight into the scale of the task ahead.
The role of the local authority in the education of the nation’s children, which has been gradually eroded with the introduction of academies, will be virtually brought to an end by such legislation.
Schools and councils have been bracing themselves since the prime minister first outlined his education vision and they will be keen to know now the detail in terms of timing and process.
Former education secretary Michael Gove, who launched the Tories’ education plans, originally considered making all schools academies but pulled back because of the challenges it would pose.
Concerns have already been raised about whether there would be enough good sponsors to take on schools. With many more schools facing academisation, that task will be even greater at a time when some academy trusts are facing criticism for under-achievement.
MPs sitting on the education select committee announced this week they would be launching an inquiry into multiple academy trusts after a series of Ofsted inspections raised concerns.
Teachers’ unions, who have been critical of the academisation process, said parents and teachers would be outraged. Kevin Courtney, the deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “Finally the government has come clean on its education priorities and admitted that its real agenda all along has been that every school must become an academy.
“The fig leaf of ‘parental choice’, ‘school autonomy’ and ‘raising standards’ has finally been dropped and the government’s real agenda has been laid bare – all schools removed from collaborative structures within a local authority family of schools, all schools instead run by remote academy trusts, unaccountable to parents, staff or local communities.”
Councils reacted angrily to the news. Councillor Roy Perry, chairman of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, said: “Ofsted has rated 82% of council-maintained schools as good or outstanding, so it defies reason that councils are being portrayed as barriers to improvement. Ofsted has not only identified that improvement in secondary schools – most of which are academies – has stalled, but it has praised strong improvement in primary schools, most of which are maintained.”
He said only 15% of the largest academy chains perform above the national average in terms of pupil progress, compared with 44% of council-run schools.
“It’s vital that we concentrate on the quality of education and a school’s ability to deliver the best results for children, rather than on the legal status of a school, to make sure that we’re providing the education and support needed in each area,” he said. “The LGA opposes forced academisation and giving significant powers relating to education to unelected civil servants with parents and residents unable to hold them to account at the ballot box.”