Parent-power reforms 'failing'

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Ministers pledged to put "parent power" at the heart of reforms designed to allow popular schools to expand while weaker schools would be forced to improve or close.

But the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the school system was not flexible enough to allow new schools to open or existing schools to compete for parents. As a result, parents have to compete with each other to find places at the most popular schools, the IFS said in a report funded by the CfBT Education Trust.

Alastair Muriel, a co-author of the report, said: "In a system of inflexible supply, parent demand is not harnessed as a force to drive up standards.

"Instead, securing places at the best performing schools is a zero sum game, and one which better-off parents tend to 'win' at the expense of the less well-off.

"In other words, if schools do not have to compete with one another, then parents are forced to."

The IFS said there were three criteria used to determine whether genuine "school choice" exists for parents - funding tied to pupil numbers, flexibility in the supply of education and freedom for headteachers.

The system in England "probably fails" on the last two, despite government promises to expand school choice dating back to 2005, the report said.

The IFS also warned that councils were failing to pass on extra Government cash intended to help teach children from the poorest homes.

About half the money earmarked to help disadvantaged pupils is being redistributed around their local authority areas, the study said.