Council chiefs have responded to today's annual Ofsted report with a call for greater local authority powers to intervene in struggling academy schools.

The comments follow the publication of HM Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw's second annual report, which found too many schools in England are still blighted by weak leadership and mediocre teaching

Responding to the report, Cllr David Simmonds, chair of the Local Government Association's children and young people's board said since half of secondary schools had assumed academy status, becoming directly accountable to central government, questions about their performance ‘need to be asked elsewhere'.

‘We do not believe Whitehall has the capacity or local knowledge to exercise oversight of academies, particularly as the number grows,' said Cllr Simmonds.

‘Councils already have a role to play in driving and supporting school improvement, but no power to intervene in academies or keep an eye on academy finances, he added.

Cllr Simmonds said: council oversight of schools works and because they had first-hand knowledge of their local area, local authorities were in a much stronger position to intervene at an early stage than either an academy chain in another county or a civil servant in Whitehall.

‘Councils have a responsibility for school improvement – now give us the funding and powers to intervene in any struggling school,' he concluded.
 
Among key findings in the Ofsted report is the claim poor white children are being left behind amid a schools' landscape showing sharp regional variations in educational attainment.