76 pages
A5
ISBN-10: 1 85856 063 2
ISBN-13: 978 1 85856 063 2

This report focuses, at different levels and in different contexts, on the issue of democratic accountability. Recent legislation has drastically curtailed the roles and influences of LEAs.
Various powers and responsibilities previously held by LEAs have been dispersed to schools, central government and quangos. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation funded the authors to explore the emergence of new forms of school/LEA relationships and of new organisational cultures and practices within LEAs through case studies of four LEAs of different size, political control, location and history.
The authors suggest that in the current legislation framework the meaning and practice of accountability are increasingly diverse, elusive and unclear. The report points to a regeneration of the debate about the future of local democratic accountability.