HACKNEYED IDEAS

Ian Willmore, ex-Labour councillor in Hackney

and still a party member, says sending a 'hit squad' there will fail

LAST WEEK, the Education Minister, Stephen Byers, announced that he was sending in an improvement team to the London borough of Hackney, Britain's first officially 'failing' local education authority. Mr Byers struck assertive poses in the media, demanding that Hackney's local politicians did not put political inter- ests before those of the borough's 30,000 pupils. And, in a remarkable show of una- nimity, the educational establishment, from the Association of Head Teachers to the Local Government Association, wel- comed New Labour's apparent determina- tion to show 'zero tolerance' of low educational standards. Even the Tory spokesman Stephen Dorrell made grudg- ing noises of support. Forced firmly over a political barrel, Hackney council accepted Mr Byers's decision, which in fact has no legal force. Most journalists did not bother to ask any awkward questions.

But, as usual, the educational establish- ment and its media chorus were wrong. Hackney education certainly needs reform; but the government's action is more about public relations than substance. It has been announced for vulgar political reasons, after some particularly seedy Labour party in-fighting. It is unlikely to have any real effect in raising standards in Hackney schools and may even make matters worse.

Hackney council runs 70 schools, with a total budget of £110 million. Seven prima- ry schools have been required to take 'spe- cial measures' to raise standards, after critical inspections by the Office for Stan- dards in Education (Ofsted). This is evi- dence of serious educational problems. But they are not necessarily any worse than schools in neighbouring Labour bor- oughs. In fact, since the closing of Hack- ney Downs school in the dying days of the last government, Hackney's nine secondary schools are probably better than most of their neighbours. One third of Hackney's secondary pupils scored five GCSE grades A to C in 1996, twice the proportion in 1990. This is probably the fastest rate of improvement of any education authority, and a reasonably good result for one of the most deprived boroughs in the country. (The 1996 figure for the whole of London was only just over one quarter.) Financial provision for the schools is still high. The budget formula that allocates revenue is one of the most generous in the country. Unlike all the surrounding boroughs, Hackney has a large capital budget for school repairs — £10 million this year. Even the administration of services and assessments for children with special edu- cation needs (including physical disabili- ties and mental handicaps) is good, compared to the serious failures of bor- oughs like Haringey.

So why has the government taken action? Ofsted's report on the local educa- tion authority claims that there is a 'politi- cal vacuum' in Hackney. This phrase takes us to the heart of the matter. Hackney has of course been a Labour-controlled bor- ough for decades — until recently, that is, when angered by council incompetence and corruption, 17 Labour councillors defected from the official group. The bor- ough is now run by a loose coalition of Tories, Liberals and the defectors' faction, known, with happy irony, as New Labour. This coalition is powered largely by Hack- ney's dynamic and abrasive chief executive Tony Elliston, who has begun a pro- gramme of drastic reform under the slo- gan 'Transforming Hackney'.

Mr Elliston has taken, in the words of a key New Labour councillor, David Phillips, 'an axe' to failing council depart- ments. As well as clearing out incompetent senior officers, he has started, for exam- ple, to put direct council services on a con- tractual relationship with the rest of the authority. Fairly soon, if his reforms pro- ceed, schools will be able to use any clean- ing firm or builder they choose, rather than being tied to expensive and ineffi- cient in-house ones provided by the coun- cil. This may seem simple common sense, but neighbouring boroughs like Haringey still insist that the council's direct labour force be used by schools regardless of quality or cost, and Hackney Old Labour is determined to follow this traditional approach.

Mr Elliston has also begun to take his axe to the education service. Already, after an interesting informal deal between the New Labour faction, the NUT and the chief executive, the former Hackney educa- tion director Gus John has departed. With him went Janet Dobson, head of education policy and wife of the London Labour MP and Cabinet Minister Frank Dobson.

Hackney New Labour have policies which in different circumstances national New Labour would welcome with enthusi- asm, but their drastic purge of key Labour- supporting officers and their apostasy from the official group have been greeted with rage by the London party machine, and in particular by the regional secretary, Terry Ashton. Mr Ashton announced on the evening of their defection that the • New Labour councillors had been expelled from the Labour party, a rather drastic stream- lining of the usual disciplinary procedures.

If Mr Elliston and Hackney New Labour want to complete their reforms, they must act fast. The borough elections take place next May, and official Labour candidates are likely to win a comfortable majority. The Old Labour councillor John McCaffer- ty will return to the leadership of the coun- cil. Labour has pledged to stop all Mr Elliston's reforms and to sack the chief executive on taking office. Mr Elliston is therefore determined to complete his slim- down of the council bureaucracy by next February at the latest.

Ofsted's investigation into Hackney education is in two parts. The first, prompting immediate government action, was into the local education authority. The second is supposed to be into local schools. But — and this curious fact has not been announced by Mr Byers — Ofst- ed has sharply restricted the second half of its work. This is because the militant local branch of the National Union of Teachers threatened industrial action if Ofsted attempted to observe any class- room teachers in action. Bowing to the union's peremptory demand in what can only be described as a rather Old Labour fashion, Ofsted is now to speak to head teachers only.

In fact, Hackney council is under no obli- gation to work with the Ofsted team. The Labour government has not yet amended the 1996 Education Act to allow what the spin doctors call 'hit squads' to take over whole education authorities. But when Mr Phillips of Hackney New Labour asked for assurances that the Ofsted team would work with the chief executive's reforms, Mr Byers accused him of 'playing politics' with children's education and refused to give any guarantee that the chief executive's reforms would be allowed to proceed. National New Labour is determined to blame Hackney's new ruling coalition for all the borough's problems. This will cer- tainly help Hackney Old Labour in its drive to regain control and return to its tradition- al methods of rule.

The government has certainly chosen the right moment to strike at the Hackney renegades. Hackney education has no per- manent chief officer, and the favoured internal candidate recently turned down the post and left the council, largely because he anticipated the government's intervention. Three attempts to recruit a head of primary inspection have failed. Ninety new head teachers have been appointed in the borough in the last six years. Mass departures are not uncommon. A primary head teacher recently rang an education officer and said, 'I've just lost seven teachers. What should I do?' Indeed, many senior council officers and teachers would not consider working in somewhere like Hackney. But this is not the fault of the current council leadership or chief executive. It is the result of Hackney's enormous social problems, and of the incompetence and internal politicking that have resulted from decades of unchal- lenged Old Labour rule. What can the government's hit squad do about that? Nationally, New Labour thinks that 'naming and shaming' failing schools and councils will lead to improved perfor- mance. It certainly goes down well in the party's focus groups, but the truth is often the reverse. When Morningside primary school was named as one of the country's 18 worst schools, the four best teachers in the school handed in their notice within a fortnight. Putting in a hit squad is hardly likely to help morale in the education authority, or to persuade strong external candidates to apply for vacancies.

Not everyone shares Mr Byers's opti- mism about the calibre of his hit squad. The head of the squad, Richard Painter, was previously in charge of the educational association put in by the last government to run the Hackney Downs school. He arrived promising that the school could be `turned around' and kept open. Within four weeks, he had decided to close it after all, the recommendation originally made by Hackney's own education officers. Mr Painter is a successful businessman and chairman of a City Technology College in Wandsworth. When Hackney officers went to meet him on his appointment to discuss the future of the school, they were alarmed to find him in a meeting with local police discussing the protection he would need before venturing onto school premises. On this evidence, Mr Painter may lack the nat- ural empathy with Hackney that he may need to be effective. On the other hand, Professor Michael Barber, the govern- ment's head of school improvement, should know something about the area. In the late 1980s he was Old Labour's chair of education in, yes, Hackney. He even appointed the head of Rams Episcopal, the other Hackney primary school to fea- ture in the national list of shame. Whether his involvement will prove more useful this time than last remains to be seen.

It may be fun to watch the hit squad tackle issues that have defeated the best local politicians and officers for decades. For example, Hackney has the largest Hasidic Jewish population outside New York and Jerusalem. Mindful of this tightly organised voting bloc, who will not send their children to secular state schools, Labour in Hackney created a special education budget of almost £2 million exclusively for this community. But all three Hasidic councillors left Old Hackney Labour for New. They are negotiating with the council for volun- tary-aided status for the Yesodey Hatorah school. National New Labour favours the principle of extending volun- tary-aided status to non-Christian reli- gious schools. Hackney New Labour agrees. But Hackney Old Labour is now vigorously opposed to their demands. Which way will the hit squad go, and what will they do when local Muslims, Seventh-day Adventists and others demand similar treatment? One senior council officer told me, 'There are no lib- erals in Hackney, you know, just funda- mentalists, sectarians and zealots. Religious or political, it makes no difference.'

A true programme to improve educa- tion in Hackney would certainly involve supporting the chief executive's reforms. It would also mean tackling the culture of alienation and violence that particularly affects children from white, working-class families in the south of the borough. It would mean tackling the serious and grow- ing problem of basic literacy, partly a result of Hackney's great ethnic diversity: it is estimated that more than 100 first lan- guages are spoken in the borough's schools. Above all, it would mean tackling the poverty, joblessness and urban squalor that so damage the whole community. That would mean serious effort, serious time and of course serious money. National New Labour has no intention of providing any of that.

So the hit squad will come in, make a bit of noise and leave early next year. Reform of the council's antique and byzantine structure will be made a little more diffi- cult. But Hackney Old Labour will be given a fine boost in the run-up to next May's elections and Hackney New Labour and their allies will taste defeat. Stephen Byers will be able to make a joyful noise in the media, having scored what Labour strate- gists privately call an 'early win'.

Meanwhile the equally incompetent Labour-run councils next door to Hackney will be encouraged by the demise of Hack- ney New Labour to continue their failures without criticism or interference. And thousands of London's children will contin- ue to leave school without basic skills or qualifications. It all makes me proud to be a Labour party member.

Ian Willmore is a former Labour deputy leader of Haringey council.