Peers took the opportunity of Part 6 of the Bill to scrutinise several areas of the Government’s policy on Academies and Free Schools.
The Government reaffirmed its view that schools could be trusted to run their own consultations about converting to Academy status, without further central prescription. It explained that permitting Free Schools to employ teachers without Qualified Teacher Status was a small additional flexibility at the margins of the system. There was detailed debate on the powers of schools with a religious designation in relation to staffing, which prompted the Government to explain the existing and longstanding legal framework.
