In his recent Budget, George Osborne set out plans to convert every primary and secondary school in the country into academies by 2020.

Nationally the scale of the challenge is huge as 16,000 primary schools need to become Academies in the next five years. Over the last five years the Government has found it difficult to secure enough quality sponsors to take on just 5,000 Academies.

Responding to the Government’s whitepaper, ‘Educational excellence everywhere’, Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson, Councillor Tom Davies, takes a view on the policy that will force all primary schools in Kingston to become Academies.

Councillor Tom Davies said,

“Locally, I don’t see where we are going to find the Academy sponsors to take over our Primary schools. I’m not convinced that central government has the capacity to deal with this sort of reorganisation or that our Primary School leaders in our borough even want this to happen. A full and frank consultation with stakeholders is essential!

The Tory plan to fast-track Academies rides roughshod over any parental rights who just want a say over the future of the schools their children attend. There is huge cross party opposition and Downing Street is facing a growing rebellion among grass roots Tories.

And with the Chancellor’s £4bn black-hole in the public finances, where will they find the extra cash needed? I worry that once again Local Authorities will bear the brunt and I fear some parents will struggle to find a school place in the future.”