Chi Onwurah
Main Page: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)Department Debates - View all Chi Onwurah's debates with the Department for Education
(10 years, 6 months ago)
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Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
The Minister spoke about the safeguards in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening, but his comments were unconvincing given that it has happened and children are suffering as a result. Will he now acknowledge that the Secretary of State in Whitehall cannot possibly provide the level of scrutiny, oversight or support that schools need and which the local community, through the local authority, is much better placed to provide?
Mr Laws
The very fact that we are having this urgent question about one particular school that has performed very badly shows the degree of scrutiny there is on free schools. The challenge is to ensure that every other failing school across the country has the same level of scrutiny.