Good evening to you all. It's always good to be among friends, and I'm delighted to be here tonight with so many representatives
of the best of local government. Good, responsive, well-delivered, local government is at the core of the way we, as Liberal Democrats, view governance in Britain.

Both the Labour and Conservative parties have sought to undermine and denigrate
the role of local government. So much so, that in parts of the country, barely one in ten people bother to turn out and vote for their local councillor.

Indeed, there has been much debate recently, ever since Gordon Brown's Budget in March, questioning the role of local government in running local schools.

Well I want to say a few words this evening questioning the role of central government
in running local schools.

Since they came to power three years ago, promising to make education their number one priority. Labour's involvement in the classroom from Westminster and Whitehall
has chiefly been characterised by an endless stream of statutory national targets handed down from on high.

Since May 1997, 4,585 targets have been introduced by the Department of Education
or its agencies. And despite the fact that ministers claimed they did "not want target-setting to overburden schools", these targets require a staggering 306,480,472 separate measures to be monitored - many on a quarterly basis.

To find that there are literally hundreds of millions of separate measures being monitored by schools at the Government's insistence is truly shocking.

Evidence that targets can divert resources towards some parts of the education service
at the expense of other equally deserving parts has been mounting for some time.

Moreover, dealing with the endless stream of Government bureaucracy is putting an enormous burden on teachers. In the Moor Lane Junior School, in Ed Davey's constituency of Kingston and Surbiton, where OFSTED have submitted a negative report, which many feel takes no account of the school's individual circumstances, every single full-time teacher is planning to leave at the end of the year. This is a staggering state of affairs.

Target setting can be a valuable tool for raising standards and making government more accountable, but the process needs to be open, accountable and consultative, as opposed to the secretive, Treasury-dominated exclusive system, put in place by the present government.

I propose that one individual plan, set for each individual pupil should replace the plethora of national targets that exist at present. The plan would be set by the school, but be accountable to parents, the LEA and OFSTED.

National targets which take no account of local or individual variations, simply put pressure on teachers to place more emphasis on borderline candidates at the expense of those at either the top or bottom of the scale.

I want to see the responsibility for children's learning put back where it belongs in schools and in the home not in the DfEE. Individual schools have the flexibility
to set objectives and targets for pupils which account for local needs and circumstances. The Government must trust parents and teachers to do the right thing.

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