OFSTED claims Middlesbrough Council “has failed to balance schools’ greater autonomy with maintaining an oversight on their performance” (Echo, Mar 13).

So when the policy of an educational quasi-market advocated by all main political parties fails to drive up standards by freeing schools as the producers of education for pupils (and parents) as consumers, the local authority, whose funding has been hit over several decades effectively ending any meaningful support role, gets the blame.

Is this what counts as “putting fairness at the heart of government” these days?

Linda Allen, Newton Aycliffe.