Hackney Council: under government pressure

Government targets failing Hackney schools

Hackney came bottom in the national primary school league table published earlier this year. By September, the government will have the powers to order an inspection, whether Hackney - or any other failing authority - agrees or not.

Hackney Chief Executive Tony Elliston under fire

Elliston on how they are approaching the problem

Thursday's move on Hackney is a central part of the government's bid to raise the profile of Local Education Authorities (LEA's), marginalised under the Conservatives.

The Education Secretary, David Blunkett, wants LEA's to play a major role in raising educational standards.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Blunkett said: "Wherever failure exists, we will root it out and we will work with those at local level to do something about it."

Blunkett on raising standards
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A White Paper due to be published within a month will set out how the Government expects LEA's to set targets for their schools and how "action plans" will be required from those schools which fail to meet the targets . It will also explore the possibility of "improvement teams" could take over the powers of those which fail to respond adequately.

Stephen Byers: focussing on LEA's

Stephen Byers tells the BBC about the government's education agenda

Later on Thursday, the schools standards minister, Stephen Byers, is expected to say that where LEA's raise standards, they are part of the solution; where they do not, they are part of the problem. In Hackney, schools do not seem to have had the required support.

Hackney's education authority has had a troubled recent past. One school - Hackney Downs - was closed by the previous government. Two other Hackney schools were included in a list, published in May, of eighteen schools which failed to improve sufficiently quickly.

There has been no director of education in the borough for more than a year. Hackney Council's chief executive, Tony Elletson, has already urged the government to set up an Education Action Zone in the borough. He told the BBC: "We welcome the Ofsted inspection as we would any government initiative which can help us improve standards in our schools."