Queen's Speech

Lord Bishop of Lincoln Excerpts

Thursday 3rd June 2010 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Lincoln]

My Lords, I welcome this opportunity to join others in paying tribute to the new Minister. I also pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, with whom I have locked horns once or twice in the past. I was very grateful for her speech and for the maiden speeches of the noble Lords, Lord Hill, Lord Hall and Lord Kakkar, and of my noble friend the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Guildford.

I speak as chair of the Church of England’s education division. That is not insignificant in so far as the Church of England possesses 5,000 church schools within its family and is the largest single provider of academies. Therefore, we read with interest the coalition’s programme for government and the upcoming Academies Bill. Like others, I will restrain myself from commenting in detail on that Bill until Monday when we will have the chance to address it in rather more concise detail.

The Church of England—I think that I speak on behalf of other faith communities in this respect—continues to see itself as co-operating with the coalition Government in trying to push forward education standards in this country. However, noble Lords will probably gather from what I am going to say that we are perhaps not yet ready for coalition with the new Government. We need to see a lot more detail and to tease out a little more of what is proposed in the upcoming Academies Bill, in the White Paper and in the Bill on education which is proposed for later in the year. Suffice it to say that coalitions, as we all know, entail compromises, but they also entail tensions. Tensions can be creative or destructive. In relation to the topics from the gracious Speech on which we are focusing today, I identified at least three tensions that could turn out to be creative or destructive. We must wait and see. The first of them is that I read into the programme for government, as expressed in the gracious Speech, two takes on what we mean by welfare which go to the heart of the equality issue. We have seen equality widen in our society in recent times, and so to address that issue, and to do so within the context of a debate on welfare, is vital.

On the one hand we can see welfare in individualised terms, on the other we can see it in institutionalised terms. By individualised, I mean when we adjudge that a person who is poor, unemployed or marginalised is poor, unemployed or marginalised because of the kind of person and individual they are, their character, where they have come from, their background and their context. If we individualise welfare in that way, we end up with some of the proposals which are now before us in terms of carrot and stick. You provide benefits on the one hand, and you introduce sanctions on the other, because what you are about is trying to manage individuals into better places. We see evidence of that in what is before us.

However, we also see evidence of what I am describing as institutionalised welfare; that is, when we adjudge that if a person is poor, unemployed or marginalised, it is not so much about them necessarily but about society itself and how we institutionalise equality in many of our assumptions, not to mention in much of our legislation. Therefore, if we are going to address welfare on an institutionalised basis, that is when we get into enhancing benefits—simplify them by all means, but enhance them—and you end up with a major premium placed on, for example, progressive taxation. We see in what is before us—perhaps it is the influence of the Liberal Democrats—an emphasis on institutionalised welfare and a response that needs to be systemic rather than targeted on individuals. There is a tension there. It will be interesting to see whether they cancel each other out or whether they prove to be fruitful for being combined in coalition.

The second tension that I detect is between the two takes on competition. On the one hand, we have competition that can be summed up by the well known phrase, “catch me if you can”. That is when the best inspire and encourage the rest. We see evidence of that in much of the rhetoric that surrounds what is now coming our way: for example, partnering between academies and less well achieving schools. Clearly that is about catch me if you can: “I am doing well and I am going to work with you to inspire and encourage you, too, to do well”. On the other hand, there is another form of competition, which is “devil take the hindmost”, where the best leave the rest behind. Noble Lords will probably be familiar with the well known story of the two businessmen who find themselves in a jungle clearing and see a lion about to pounce. One businessman panics and stands there, petrified. The second calmly opens his briefcase, takes out a pair of trainers and starts putting them on. The first businessman says: “What are you doing? You cannot run faster than a lion”. The other replies: “I do not have to: I only have to run faster than you”. I see some evidence of that understanding of competition in what is in front of us, and what we will be discussing on Monday and thereafter. At the moment, free schools look as if they are more like devil take the hindmost than catch me if you can. Does the one cancel out the other? Let us wait and see. Perhaps they will be enriched by appearing together in coalition.

The third tension that I detect, and will speak briefly about, is between the two takes on accountability. Central control is in there. The Academies Bill—which is very short, with 16 clauses—refers to the mostly new powers of the Secretary of State no less than 20 times. That says to me that quite a lot of control is becoming nationalised. On the other hand, we have a good deal of evidence of devolution to subsidiary bodies, and local influence becoming very important, particularly in parental choices around free schools. Again, there are tensions between the two takes on accountability. I look forward to seeing whether they turn out to be creative or destructive.

There is much for the Church of England to welcome in what the coalition Government are proposing. The pupil premium is welcome. So is less micromanagement and regulation. It was good to hear from both the Minister and the noble Baroness, Lady Morris of Yardley, about more trust for teachers. We are very pleased to see the continued respect for denominational schools, which may be paid the compliment of other schools becoming more like them in ethos, values, quality and contextuality.

We have worries about where the money is coming from. If the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, thought it was inappropriate for the Labour Benches to ask that question, perhaps she will not be quite so offended if I ask it. Where is the money coming from? Who is responsible for strategic planning? Will the poorest areas benefit or fall further behind? What about the coasting schools that are neither outstanding nor failing? What about governance, especially in relation to protecting the religious character of schools and ensuring the role of parent governors? What does “inclusive” mean in relation to admissions? As has been said before, it looks as though free schools are likely to work best when they are least needed.

Will the tensions cited prove to be creative or destructive? We hope and pray for the former; and the Government can count on us to be reliable and constructive partners in this brave new world of new politics, new brooms and new opportunities.