Speeches by O'Brien.

“Q Is there a major problem with schools employing teachers without qualified teacher status? Are non-QTS teachers not up to scratch? Would you regard it as a red flag if a school were employing non-QTS teachers? Would it make you think, “We’re probably heading towards a bad result here”? Sir Martyn Oliver: We do not ac…”

“Q Thank you for coming. I have some short questions that do not need particularly long answers. Have you found evidence that academy schools are not teaching a broad and balanced curriculum? Are you finding lots of academies not doing that? Sir Martyn Oliver: No, we do not find that.”

“Q The hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh) has raised some concerns, as has the Confederation of School Trusts, about the end of academy orders and the fact that because academisation is no longer automatic, there will once again be the prospect of legal action, lots of community campaigns agains…”

“Q What do you think of the curtailment of academy freedoms in the Bill? It has now been published, so you have seen it, albeit that you were not talked to before. What do you think about the moves to scale back the academy programme, the end of academy orders, and LAs setting up new schools? If you were doing this, is …”

“Q Do you have a sense that a large number of schools are not providing a broad and balanced education at the moment? Do you have a sense of how many schools are not following the national curriculum? Julie McCulloch: No, it is absolutely not a significant number at all. We hear from our members that the vast majority d…”

“Q89 Thank you for coming—welcome. I want to ask for your view on the second half of the Bill, on schools. We have heard a lot of criticism of it from the Confederation of School Trusts, some of our leading trusts and, indeed, a couple of Labour MPs. What is your view on the schools, rather than the wellbeing, part of t…”

“Q What would that look like? Do you have to do a case review? Jacky Tiotto: As soon as that child becomes the subject of a concern, such that you might be making an application to deprive, you hold a child protection conference and you have a plan in place to protect that child beyond the deprivation, so including and …”

“Q My real question is: what would you amend? We are trying to find out how we should change the Bill as it goes through. Jacky Tiotto: If I speak too long—because this is a great opportunity—please interrupt me. To go back to family group decision making and make a point about CAFCASS, we are the largest children’s soc…”

“Q So if you had the power, you could get this Bill into exactly the way you would draft it. With lots of experience in this world, you would change it so that we moved this thing in clause 1, part 1, so that it was focused on the point where there are initial child protection conversations rather than being in addition…”

“Q Is a number of weeks a potentially dangerous thing? Jacky Tiotto: For very young children when you are concerned, if they are still with the parents, which is sometimes the case, or even with a foster carer, you want permanent decisions quickly. That does not negate the need for the family to be involved. You can hav…”

“Q What is the average length of time? Jacky Tiotto: I do not know, but I would think it is a number of weeks.”

“Q Good morning and thank you for coming. Clause 1 states: “Before a local authority in England makes an application for an order” it has to “offer a family group decision-making meeting”. Those meetings are generally a very good thing. They are in statutory guidance already, but I have two nagging worries as we move to…”

“Q A quick question for Julie. You said it was not clear whether the Bill currently delivers a floor, not a ceiling. Would you welcome it if we all passed an amendment to make that very clear? Julie McCulloch: Yes.”

“Q What do you think the problem is that that measure is trying to solve? Julie McCulloch: In our view, it is right that there should be a core national entitlement curriculum for all children and young people; we think that is the right thing to do. The devil is in the detail—we are going through a curriculum review at…”

“Q You can be a good teacher even if you do not have QTS. You can be the right person. Julie McCulloch: Yes. We absolutely in principle think that there should be qualified teacher status, but it is about that contextual piece. The third area where we have some concerns about the context is the extent to which there is …”

“Q Do you think it is sometimes better to have a good professional person whom the head thinks is a good teacher, rather than no teacher at all? Julie McCulloch: In some cases, yes. That is a sad place to find ourselves, but sometimes that is the case, particularly when we are looking at vocational subjects at the top e…”

“Q Is there anything else that you would like amended in the schools section of the Bill? Julie McCulloch: I have two other thoughts, just to finish my point about the context within which this is landing. The second is about the challenge around recruitment and retention in schools. Although the proposal about qualifie…”

“Q You would welcome greater certainty about those things, presumably. Julie McCulloch: We absolutely would, and continued funding.”

“Q So you will have two tiers. What is your understanding of the position on secondary school breakfast clubs? Have you had any undertakings on the future of the free school breakfast programme that exists in secondary schools, or the holiday activities and food programme? Is it your understanding that there is secure f…”

“Q Can I press you on that one? I do not understand from the Bill how breakfast clubs are supposed to work. Obviously, many primary schools already offer a breakfast club, and they charge for it. If you are now supposed to offer 30 minutes and a free breakfast—I think the going rate will be 60p in the first wave—how doe…”