Birmingham City Council’s leadership has been dragged through the political mud over the Trojan Horse investigations after leaked details of a meeting with head teachers emerged this week.
There are three, or perhaps four, inquiries under way, but people on all sides of the issue, the Department for Education, the city council, Ofsted, the schools and so on are accusing each other of making their minds up in advance.
One side is suggesting Ofsted was ordered to load its inspections to find evidence of organised jihadist teaching to protect the academy system and others are convinced that the appointment of counter-terrorism expert Peter Clarke to lead the Government’s inquiry is evidence of which way the inquiry is heading.
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Meanwhile, the leaked comments from city council chief executive Mark Rogers seem to suggest the council has set its own stall out to promote community cohesion ahead of all other concerns.
All sides are agreed there are serious concerns about the imposition by governors and teachers of strict religious teaching in secular schools, including segregating girls from boys and removing sex education from the curriculum, as well as removing some staff not enthusiastic about the changes.
There are also issues around accountability and governance and promotion of Islamic teaching in schools. Now we have various inquiries surrounded by suspicion of political motives.
Council bosses fear that education secretary Michael Gove wants to find evidence of extremism and terrorism and use it to bash the local education authority – rather than his precious independent academies. It certainly seems that someone within his department is leaking on a major scale.
The row between Tory Mr Gove and Lib Dem schools minister David Laws over free schools and free school meals, with leaks and secret briefings, suggests a dysfunctional department.
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The council has little faith in the Government inquiry into those leaks finding anything significant.
There is also anxiety over Ofsted’s role in all this – Sir Michael Wilshaw, who is leading its inquiry, has previously singled out Birmingham as a ‘national disgrace’ for its appalling record on child protection.
Sir Albert Bore is naturally worried that the fates are conspiring against the council.
He believes those pushing the Trojan Horse agenda see no distinction between extremism and terrorism on the one hand and traditional strict religious teaching on the other.
And having attended the Central Jamia Mosque in Small Heath, he said people there are rightly anxious about the outcome – fearing a backlash against the city’s Muslim community and an increase in community tension.
The council leadership has now written to the Sunday Telegraph and journalist Andrew Gilligan in response to his string of reports revealing the latest allegations and findings of the Ofsted inquiries.
I am told they knew nothing of four specific incidents and allegations of pro-terrorist teaching in schools reported this week and so they have invited Mr Gilligan to talk to either their own or the Department for Education inquiries.
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Despite the council burying its head in the sand early on in the Trojan Horse inquiry and failures to deal with rumours of religious infiltration over many years, it now seems to have embraced the scandal as a way of tackling long-running governance issues.
But it rightly fears there is a political dimension – as damning coverage neglects to mention that several of the schools concerned, including the most prominent Park View in Alum Rock, are academies answerable only to the Department for Education.
Despite having no direct responsibility for it, the local education authority is frequently criticised. According to the Trojan Horse letter securing academy status and the greater freedom that affords are crucial to imposing religious teaching.
I even asked Prime Minister David Cameron whether Trojan Horse suggested academies need greater oversight and accountability – perhaps at a local level.
Instead of answering the question, he gave the line that local education authorities had failed to improve schools and no one wants to return to those dark days.
He is probably right but just as the council should not bury its head over issues raised, the Department for Education needs to wake up to the fact academy governance is flawed.
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There were scenes of high farce at the licensing committee this week where councillors had gathered for the latest stage in the long-running bid by the Paradise Lap Dancing club on Broad Street to secure a Sex Entertaintment Venue licence.
I say councillors gathered, the Conservative and Lib Dem members of the committee all sent their apologies – obviously distracted by the local election campaigns.
Labour councillors were quite happy to proceed but questions were raised by lawyers over the perception of political balance on the committee.
Licensing involves a quasi-judicial process of applying council policy to cases – and in this respect party political affiliations are irrelevant.
So why did the committee decide to further prolong the misery for all involved by adjourning the case until what in all probability will be after the local election?