Councils targeted over bad schools

Local education authorities will have to draw up action plans for improvement as they face a national inspection programme for the first time, it was announced last night. Giving details of fresh powers granted under the Government's new education bill, the Chief Inspector of Schools, Chris Woodhead, said teachers could not entirely be blamed for the failings of schools. Where they failed, they had often been let down by education authorities, he said.

He cited The Ridings School, Halifax, which was declared failing after staff demanded the removal of up to 60 disruptive pupils. Staff had complained of a lack of support, he said, and Calderdale local education authority was already scheduled for an inspection.

"Teachers in schools can make a difference, and it simply isn't possible to blame every problem on the Government, on parents or on the collapse of Western civilisation. But I do accept that teachers work within a context, and local authorities are very much part of that context. The finger of blame cannot and should not be pointed simply into the classroom."

Ofsted, the schools' inspection body, is to visit 12 authorities each year and report on their performance. Members of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Schools, who work for Ofsted, will be accompanied by staff from the Audit Commission. They will choose local authorities to visit by grouping them into social and economic "families" and then inspecting three from each - one with good results, one bad and one middling.

Reports of the inspections, which will look at whether standards are satisfactory and at whether the authority delivers value for money, will be delivered to each area's education committee, which will be expected to respond with an improvement plan.