Page 15


 


 


NEWS


 


 


The political brief


 


June 4 saw the final Queen's Speech before the General Election with the Government setting out its legislative agenda and political priorities for the year ahead. While there was no specific Bill relating to schools or education, there were nonetheless several pieces of legislation of direct relevance to teachers and the education sector.


 


Serious Crime Bill


 


One of the Bills announced in the speech, the Serious Crime Bill, will include provisions to tackle child neglect. The criminal law on child neglect has not changed in 80 years and is based on the Poor Law Amendment Act 1868 and its replacement in 1933. The Bill will make it clear that cruelty likely to cause psychological harm to a child will be a criminal offence.


 


This announcement follows a campaign on the issue by Liberal Democrat MP and former NASUWT member Mark Williams.


 


English Council Election Results


 


Councillors


 


Labour: 2,121 councillors (up 324) and 82 councils (up 6) Conservatives: 1,364 councillors (down 236) and 41


councils (down 11)


Liberal Democrats: 427 councillors (down 310) and 6 councils (down 2)


UK Independence Party: 163 councillors (up 161) Greens: 38 councillors (up 18)


Others: 146 councillors (up 43)


 


Councils


 


Labour: 82 councils (up 6)


Conservatives: 41 councils (down 11)


Liberal Democrats: 6 councils (down 2)


No overall control: 32 (up 8)


 


Education Policy


 


Also announced in the Queen's Speech was that £7billion would be spent on funds for new school places in England to meet increased need over the next seven years. However, with local authorities no longer able to open schools themselves, it can be expected that the majority of these new places would be in free schools and academies.


 


Reference was also made to existing Government policies including free schools and academies, reform of GCSEs and A levels and provision of universal free school meals for infant pupils.


 


Opposition Response to the Queen’s Speech


 


In responding to the Speech, Labour leader Ed Miliband focused on the issues he believes should have been included, and advocated the following additional Bills: • Make Work Pay Bill to reward hard work;


 


• Banking Bill to support small business;


• Community Bill to devolve power;


• Immigration Bill to stop workers being undercut;


• Consumers Bill to freeze energy bills;


• Housing Bill to tackle the housing crisis; and


• NHS Bill to make it easier to see your GP and stop privatisation.


 


Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill


 


While focused primarily on the private sector, there are sections of this Bill which will have an impact on the public sector in general and schools specifically, including:


 


• tackling abuses of the National Minimum Wage and cracking down on misuse of zero-hours contracts.


• making childcare regulations more flexible; and


• preventing 'highly paid' public sector employees retaining redundancy payments when they come back to the same part of the public sector within a short period of time.


 


This Bill applies mainly to England with some provisions also extending to Northern Ireland and Scotland.


 

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