Councillors from all parties will be invited to monthly meetings

Councillor Imran Khan was appointed as executive member for education, skills and culture in May, taking on the role previously held by current leader of Bradford Council Susan Hinchcliffe.

Cllr Khan told the Telegraph & Argus he recognised there were major issues with the district’s education system, and wanted to get the whole of Bradford Council involved in improvements.

One way to do this was by organising monthly meetings where every councillor would be invited to make suggestions on how to improve education, he said.

Cllr Khan, who is also chief executive of the Grange Interlink community, health and leisure centre and has previously been a lecturer at Bradford College, said: “We do have a massive problem around education, and we haven’t been doing well for a number of years.

“We have let down generations of young people. We have a collective responsibility, and although we are trying to do more to improve things at a time where it is more difficult for councils to take a lead in education.

“I want to do things a different way to how we’ve done things before. Things haven’t worked in the past, and it is not about blaming individuals, it is about coming up with new ideas, some of which are fairly simple. We have 90 councillors in the council, and I can’t remember the last time they all sat down to discuss education.

“Sometimes they put motions forward at full council meetings to debate, but it is not a real debate, the leading party is going to ultimately vote through what they want.

“I’m not saying that’s right, but that’s unfortunately the way it works. I want to set up a cross party forum for education where any councillor can come to express their views openly, without any political bias.

“We need it to be open, honest and transparent. There are a lot of councillors with plenty of experience with education, and we want to make the most out of that.”