Concerns have been raised over the absence of reference to minimum design standards in the new Academies Bill, which is currently going through Parliament. Lord Howarth and Baroness Whitaker raised the issue during the report stage debates in the House of Lords. This new legislation will remove schools which gained academy status from local authority control and give them access to central government funding. It will also pave the way for new ‘free’ schools, which will be academies, to be built.

The Education Secretary, Michael Gove, said of the Bill: ‘It grants greater autonomy to individual schools, it gives more freedom to teachers and it injects a new level of dynamism into a programme that has been proven to raise standards for children, and the disadvantaged most of all.’

But the Shadow Education Secretary Ed Balls claimed the Bill, which has now been passed, was ‘railroaded’ through the Commons to avoid proper scrutiny.

The National Deaf Children’s Society (NCDS) campaign Sounds Good?, which campaigns for improved acoustics and support for deaf children in schools, has also expressed concern that deaf children will not get the support they need under the proposed funding arrangements for academies.

For the full story, visit the Architects’ Journal website
www.architectsjournal.co.uk/8603427.article

For more information on the Sounds Good? campaign, visit the NCDS website
http://tinyurl.com/sounds-good-academies