Michael Gove's education plans threaten local accountability and leave parents with too many unanswered questions

Remember the "Big Society". It was launched 10 days ago in the Downing Street garden with lots of touchy-feely talk about enabling people and empowering communities.

David Cameron was at his preachy best on "taking power away from politicians and giving it to the people". As he explained: "We know instinctively that the state is often too inhuman, monolithic and clumsy to tackle our deepest social problems … the best ideas come from the ground up, not the top down … when you give people and communities more power over their lives, more power to come together and work together to make life better – great things happen."

How times change. Fast-forward a week and the fast-track academies bill is laid before the House of Lords with the aim of the government removing as many schools as possible from the oversight of the local authority – and fast.

So fast, in fact, that even before the bill was publicly available (so much for new politics), any headteacher could click on the Department for Education website and find the four easy steps to "conversion".

They go something like this. Head decides he/she fancies opting out. Governors meet and pass a resolution. Secretary of state approves, agrees funding agreement (the commercial contract that governs academies). The government then orders (yes, orders) the local authority to "cease maintaining the school" and hey presto, they're free.

The whole process should take no more than three months, which helpfully includes the summer holidays when no one is around.

Oh yes, then there is the passing issue of the parents. But they appear to be just bystanders in the process. No consultation is required – under current legislation a school has to be discontinued before it can re-open under new management and that process involves lengthy consultation. The only mention of the wider community comes in the last, optional, point of the new plan, which merely advises heads and governors to consider how they "might wish to inform staff, pupils and parents of the intended conversion".

If it weren't so scary, this high-speed juggernaut that is about to collide with the publicly accountable state education system (and disenfranchise thousands of parents on its way) would be almost comical.

What is the rush? Is Michael Gove worried he may not be in power in September, scared that Liberal Democrat councillors and activists might finally notice that the coalition is rapidly smashing up their carefully crafted education policy or anxious that parents might rise up and object?

Either way, the ramifications of so many schools becoming independent are immense and local parents are surely entitled to have a say and ask some of the many, as yet unanswered, questions. For instance, money will be promised as a bribe to opt out but where does it come from and which other schools lose out as a result?

Then, who ensures those admissions, special needs and the education of vulnerable children is managed fairly and properly resourced. Local authorities, which don't actually run schools at the moment, still have important responsibilities in this area. If thousands more schools become their own admissions authorities, who is going to ensure the system works fairly, particularly since LA boundaries will have no meaning?

The model funding agreement left by Labour attempted to bind academies into the local authority family. If that is torn up by Gove, chaos could ensue – something that local communities are surely entitled to debate.

Finally how will parents be represented on governing bodies? At the moment, the academies are only required to have one parent governor. Is this the sort of empowerment Cameron has in mind?

The truth is that this bill heralds a massive act of centralisation. Whitehall ordering the closure of schools is only the start, the next step is that Gove and his civil servants will be managing thousands of funding agreements with individual schools at the expense of local accountability.

Will Labour oppose the bill? To date, that is not clear. The intricacies of the leadership election seem to have distracted Labour MPs from the realisation that they are now the official opposition. Moreover, Labour opened the stable door to this madness, so shutting it could be a painful process. One which many parents, and Labour party members, would very much like to see, nonetheless.

If you're interested in proper consultation, or opposing these plans in your area, I would like to know via my website or via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it "'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addy44636 = 'truthschools' + '@'; addy44636 = addy44636 + 'googlemail' + '.' + 'com'; var addy_text44636 = 'email'; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text44636 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .