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OK, this is a biggy for democracy lovers out there. Anyone who holds to the principle “legislate at haste, repent at leisure” (he says mangling a quotation, sorry, but it was good enough for the Spectator…).
Why is new legislation being rushed through?
First off, why am I claiming that legislation is being rushed in? Well, the first signs were Ed Balls rapid acceptance of the reports recommendations and the need to introduce legislation, coupled with the simultaneous launch of a public consultation (a nicety they have to observe to placate us plebs and make us think they might be listening to our views). For doubters though, this could be seen as a normal course of events, and you may dismiss me as a conspiracy theorist if I based my assumption on this (though I think I have given you enough rope on that score already ;-) ). So, how about this.
Draft Legislative Programme 2009/10
Improving schools and safeguarding children Bill
Creating world class standards in schools, listening to parents, giving them more information and acting to protect vulnerable children by:
- delivering the commitments in the forthcoming Schools White Paper including:
- a new set of guarantees to an individually tailored education for each child and their parents;
- backing head teachers to enforce good behaviour with measures to clarify parents responsibilities to sit alongside their entitlements;
- an accountability framework and school improvement strategies for all schools, underpinned by a new School Report Card;
- giving parents a greater say over the range of schools in their local area;
- clarifying the role of Ofsted and other inspectorates in inspecting Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) and enable information sharing for LSCB purposes;
- improving monitoring arrangements for children educated at home;
- helping to tackle anti-social behaviour through powers of intervention with Youth Offending Teams that are considered to be failing - otherwise putting young people and/or local communities at risk;
- putting in place a new framework, based on the position in youth courts, to enable the media to report the substance of family proceedings whilst protecting the identities of families and providing the courts with discretion to disapply this safeguard where it is in the public interest and safe to do so.
(Red emphasis is mine)
So, report received, recommendations accepted, consultation opened, legislation scheduled, consultation closes October. Order strikes me as a little strange, as does the pace. Surely deciding to legislate before the consultation is complete suggests a) they have already decided b) they see the need to do it in a hurry, otherwise they would wait for the consultation results, decide a course of action, and then schedule any necessary legislation
So, why the hurry? Are people in imminent danger? The Badman review found anything but, they even had to fiddle the stats to even suggest there was the merest hint of abuse being a potential problem. So what other option is there? Possibly an attempt to crush home education before the general election? I’ll leave you to reach your own conclusions.
Photo courtesy of Flickr User Fred_Bear
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