Education policy and the development of the school organisation committee

This article investigates some of the administrative processes involved in setting up the School Organisation Committee (SOC) in one Shire County in England. Labour central government wants SOCs inter alia to make decisions on the planning and provision of school places 'more local and to speed up the process' that previously involved often lengthy periods of consideration of cases by the Secretary of State for Education. Local politicians' views on the SOC and the implications for local-central power relations are reported in this article.