Public services will be the battleground of the next election, according to Hammersmith & Fulham Conservatives. This week, local Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman, Cllr Greg Hands, endorsed the 'Right to Choose' for parents announced by Conservatives to improve Hammersmith & Fulham's schools and make it easier for residents across the area to have a better and more diverse range of schools available to them.

Conservatives say that under their Government parents will be able to take the money that the taxpayer spends on their child's education to any school, whether state or independent, as long as no additional charge is made to parents. Conservatives also promise to increase spending on schools by a third and in order to stimulate an immediate growth in the number of good school places, and to establish a Schools Expansion Fund to provide significant help and incentives to all schools, new or existing, which wish to provide additional places.

Greg explained explained: "In our local schools we rely more than ever on the hard work of teachers, sometimes battling against worsening discipline and truancy, but always battling against Whitehall bureaucracy. Increasingly over-worked teachers are leaving the profession, worn down by the over-bearing pressure from Whitehall. That's not their fault. It's the fault of the system.

"Our proposals for a 'Right to Choose' will mean that we will trust teachers in Hammersmith & Fulham to set priorities for their pupils free from central targets. Good schools will be able to grow to meet the demand of local parents if they wish and parents will be able to choose the school that best suits their child, not be told where to send their child by a restrictive system. Our policy will mean excellence and choice for everyone, not the few.

"Our plans to increase the capacity of secondary school places by 7.5 per cent across the country means that across the London there will be the equivalent of 31 new schools."
and Hammersmith & Fulham Conservatives have fired the first shots on improving schools.

The full policy document and policy summary is available online at Right To Choose Web site