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One of the main aims of the government's education policy is to make local education authorities a thing of the past by removing all schools from their control and establishing them as free-standing, self-governing academies. What was once 'a national service, locally administered' is being transformed into 'a local service, nationally administered'.
Donald Naismith argues that there is no inherent contradiction between the government's academy programme and the retention of local authorities, that, on the contrary, the government's school improvement programme would make more headway with local council involvement, and that the new devolution arrangements emerging present an opportunity for a renewed partnership between central government and a revitalised local government which should be taken. Arguments strengthened by the recently announced intention to re-introduce selection.
In his autobiographical sketch Very Near The Line, Donald Naismith described how the policies of the three London boroughs he served as chief education officer, Richmond-upon-Thames, Croydon and Wandsworth, helped to shape and advance Margaret Thatcher's education reforms.
In this affectionate tribute to his adopted city, he recalls his Bradford apprenticeship at school and in the city's education department, still powerfully evocative of Bradford's days as an outstanding education pioneer, which helped, in turn, to shape his thinking about the educational issues of the day and establish his belief in local government as an essential and beneficial part of the national system.
