Shephard ultimatum to Ridings authority
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Inspectors will be sent into all schools in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, unless the Labour authority agrees to an investigation of its services by Friday, Gillian Shephard, the Secretary of State for Education, threatened yesterday.
She asked Tony Blair, the Labour leader, and David Blunkett, the shadow education secretary, to support her demand for an inspection of the council, which admitted that it had failed the Ridings school.
Labour said she was merely trying to divert attention from an international report on maths and science which shows English 13-year-olds lagging behind most of the rest of Europe in maths. A spokesman said Calderdale had already said publicly that it would co-operate with an inspection. The only issue was timing.
Mrs Shephard asked Calderdale to volunteer for inspection after inspectors failed the Ridings school. They said bad teaching, poor management and the authority were all to blame.
The Government cannot force a local authority to co-operate with such an inspection, though the Education Bill going through the Commons would enable it to do so in future.
However, the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) has powers to inspect any school and could inspect all Calderdale's schools.
Last week, the council said in reply to Mrs Shephard's request that it was considering setting up its own independent review and wanted "detailed discussions" on the scope of the proposed inspection.
Mrs Shephard said: "Calderdale's handling of the Ridings school has achieved national notoriety. It is outrageous that the authority should be anything other than wholly co-operative in welcoming an independent Ofsted inspection of their services to pupils and parents." In a letter to the council, she demanded a definite response without conditions by the end of the week. The inspection is scheduled for the first week of December.
An Ofsted spokesman said: "We are ready to inspect Calderdale and are disappointed by their prevarication."
A Labour spokesman said: "Mrs Shephard knows perfectly well that Calderdale has agreed to co-operate. She seems to be trying to create a conflict where none exists."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments