Government drops key parts of Children, Schools and Families Bill following Tory opposition.
The Schools Secretary Ed Balls has been forced to remove some of the more controversial aspects of the Children, Schools and Families Bill in order to get it through Parliament before the general election.
The measures that have been dropped include the introduction of 'home school agreements', which would have provided head teachers with greater powers to enforce parental responsibility for their children's behaviour and a new requirement that local authorities carry out parental satisfaction surveys in secondary schools.
Other parts of the bill that have now been omitted are the introduction of a 'licence to practise' for teachers and new powers for local authorities to intervene in failing schools. The Secretary of State will also now not be given new powers to intervene in failing youth-offending teams.
The plan to make sex education compulsory for 15-year-olds has been shelved, as have plans to expand one-to-one tuition, create a home education register and introduce new standardised School Report Cards, based on the model used in New York.
The measures were shelved after the Conservative Party said they would not support them, citing the additional bureaucracy they would create for teachers and schools and the need to preserve parents' rights to withdraw their children from sex education.
However, in a letter to the Conservative shadow minister Michael Gove, Balls said: "I do believe the interests of children would have been better served had you agreed to these provisions reaching the statute book. Your refusal means the loss of a number of key provisions that would have made a significant difference to the lives of children and their families. It is a great pity that you have put at risk improvements in our schools, support for pupils, and the wellbeing of our young people."
Ed Balls also promised that the measures would be re-introduced in the first session of the new Parliament if Labour win the general election.
