Trojan Horse – what action did Peter Clarke recommend for Birmingham City Council (BCC) in particular and for all local authorities generally?

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Clarke recommended Birmingham City Council should:

1 Review its systems, procedures and policies covering the support given to its maintained schools to ensure patterns in behaviour can be spotted, to achieve an appropriate balance between maintaining community cohesion and the educational and safeguarding needs of children, to ensure BCC is not influenced unduly by a vocal minority and there is effective sharing of information between other agencies such as the police and the Department for Education (DfE).

2 Ensure it is responsive to whistleblowing; that it acts robustly and provides proper protection to whistleblowers.

3 Judge whether concerns indicate extremism; if so refer these to the relevant authority.

4 Consider setting up an independent process for governors and teachers to raise concerns.

5 Review all compromise agreement made within the last five years to assess their appropriateness and whether BCC exercised duty of care.

6 Improve governor support services to ensure effective appointments after suitable vetting and to provide effective governor support. This must be done before BCC starts appointing local authority (LA) governors again.

All Local Authorities should:

1 Ensure governors take on no more than two schools at any one time except in “genuinely exceptional circumstances”. 2 Ensure no single individual has undue influence over several schools.