FREE schools and academies could damage the progress of other York schools, according to the city’s education councillor.

City of York Council has received a report into how the Government’s policy direction for schools could affect York.

The new policies include “free schools” set up by parents and the expansion of the academies programme where new providers, such as private companies, could run a formerly state-run school. This would remove local authority control and funding would be provided per pupil directly from central government.

Carol Runciman, executive member for Children And Young People’s Services, said one of the benefits to local authority control was the need for external accountability.

She also said the funding would be taken out of the local authority’s budget for the rest of its schools, which would hit hard on top of cuts already announced by the Government.

She said: “It’s not the way to get equitable provision for all children.

“It’s not the parents who are concerned about their children’s education that I’m worried about. It’s those parents with such complex and difficult lives that they’re not able to support their children, who certainly wouldn’t start a free school.

“We in the local authority have committed ourselves to providing good education for all our children and we have got to keep that at the forefront of our mind, not the vociferous parents.”

Pete Dwyer, director of learning, culture and children’s services said the council had discussed a new partnership arrangement with some of its schools if the incentives for academies and free schools did start to tip the balance. He said the partnership arrangement would give schools more control over funding, decision making and planning and would work in partnership with Higher York and private business.

“If there were four to five schools not buying back into local authority services, the viability of some of the services would be threatened, particularly around school improvement,” he said.