Schools 'need to have strong chiefs' (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Former adviser says education needs tough people in charge

9:01am Wednesday 21st October 2009 in Education By Ben Barnett

David Mallen

Bradford needs stronger leadership to deliver the long-awaited change in Education, according to a former advisor to Serco.

David Mallen spent five years as chairman of the Education Policy Partnership (EPP), a policy-making group which brought together teachers, head teachers, governors, councillors and other people with a stake in the district’s schools.

Under the directive of the Secretary of State, the Partnership worked in an advisory capacity to private firm Serco, operating locally as Education Bradford, when it was awarded a £360 million ten-year contract to deliver support services to the district’s schools.

Bradford Council had been stripped of its responsibility to run schools on its own by the then Education Secretary following a damning Ofsted report.

Mr Mallen, CBE, now trust chairman of the Saint Paul’s Academy, in London, told the Telegraph & Argus what he thought about education services in Bradford.

Mr Mallen, who served the EPP from 2001 until it was disbanded in 2006, said: “I had some reservations about privatisation but Bradford wasn’t performing well and I thought ‘let’s see if an alternative model will work’.

“What I struggled to find out was quite what it was that Serco brought that wouldn’t have come anyway.

“The people they had were good managers but what Bradford needed was really good leaders and I’d hoped Serco, because they were paying bigger salaries, would bring in better leadership, but they didn’t.”

He said the success of Bradford’s outsourced services model could be measured against Calderdale, Rotherham and South Tyneside where Ofsted criticism saw new people brought in within those local authorities.

“Each has gone on to perform pretty well,” he said.

“Serco did achieve improvements but what was needed was a step change and that never, ever happened and it’s still needed.

“It’s all been a bit disappointing. I wanted to make it work and to an extent it did, but my feeling is it didn’t work well enough.”

He said the Council had the basis for a strong team to lead education services but needed strong, powerful people alongside Kath Tunstall, strategic director for services to children and young people.”

e-mail: ben.barnett@telegraphandargus.co.uk