LABOUR'S Worcester parliamentary candidate has slated what she calls "a lack of accountability" over county schools - saying she fears the way Worcestershire is going.

Councillor Joy Squires used a General Election hustings last night to lay into Worcestershire County Council, telling the public she is concerned about the loss of local authority control.

During the event at Worcester Sixth Form, organised by the city's Trades Union Council:

- Conservative Robin Walker said before Tudor Grange Academy was created, parents would tell him they were "prepared to move house" to avoid sending their children to the old school, calling it "tragic"

- Lib Dem Federica Smith said research suggesting four in 10 teachers leave within a year of qualifying is "devastating", saying the next Government needs to "take a step back" and stop meddling in education

- Green candidate Louis Stephen said his party would "cancel Ofsted inspections" and replace it with local testing, and strip back the curriculum to hand it to teachers

Cllr Squires said: "In the end, there's an awful lot of public money that goes into education, it is absolutely vital for the country as a whole and so important - and there needs to be scrutiny of that (how the cash is spent).

"We need to look at that spending, whether it is done at a national or local level, there needs to be some accountability because it's been taken away.

"Particularly in Worcestershire there's nothing really, no consequences, the schools are left to fend for themselves."

During the debate she name-checked the Tory-led county council for allowing so many schools to go free from local authority control, and called the free schools programme "stupid".

Mr Walker said: "Before I became an MP I spent four years talking to teachers and found two things, firstly they had too much paperwork to deal with and secondly, had to deal with too much change, too many diktats from central Government.

"And that was under the last Labour Government, never mind this one.

"I think the last Government failed on that and so has this one, we've got more to do, we've got to get out of teachers' hair and let them get on with it."

He also highlighted the fact that more schools in Worcestershire are now good or outstanding than ever before, and called the Tudor Grange Academy "a success story", something Cllr Squires agreed with.

"It was a courageous move by the Labour Government, I remember being on the campaign trail and meeting people who were thinking of moving house rather than send their children there before, which was a tragic situation," said Mr Walker.

Miss Smith said: "It shouldn't be down to Michael Gove, who was a journalist, or Nicky Morgan, who is a lawyer, to decide what happens with our education, we need to take a step back and listen to the experts."

Peter McNally, standing for the Trade Unionists and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), told the audience "making profit from education" is wrong.

"They were warned about the problems of this but went ahead with the fragmentation anyway," he said.

"It's interesting to hear Federica talk about this because her party didn't oppose any of the changes to education, they helped push it through."

Mr Stephen said the Greens would back a lessening of demands on teachers, saying morale is too low, and backed more money for Further Education.

"This current Government and Labour are hell-bent on cutting taxes and services, we're quite happy to say we'd raise taxes and put more into services, we're quite honest to say that's what we would do," he said.

Worcestershire now has 59 academy and two free schools independent of council control.

Mr McNally also said he was "a big fan of lifelong learning".

"I did at degree at the Open University and if it was available to me, it should be available to others," he said.

During the debate Mr Walker said there was "no magic money tree" of cash.

"We shouldn't kid ourselves there is a magic money tree," he said.

LET’S GET OUT OF THE ROYAL’S PFI DEAL, SAYS CITY GREEN CANDIDATE

DURING the hustings at Worcester Sixth Form the candidates also clashed over the future of the NHS.

Green Party candidate said the Government should try and get out of Worcestershire Royal's Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

He called it "an absolutely crazy way to build a hospital", saying the Greens would put aside £5 billion to try and scrap them.

"It's pretty obvious we should be trying to renegotiate these contracts, we should buy them out," he said.

"The Green Party would put £5 billion aside to do this, it was a bad mistake but it's never too late to put it right."

Councillor Squires said: "I'm not in a position to say Labour would take the PFI contract back to the Treasury, but I do think there's a strong case to do that.

"However, that PFI has delivered an excellent hospital for Worcester, it might not have happened without that."

She said the A&E problems had been created by "a perfect storm" of GP surgery's inadequate hours, the city's walk-in closure, the NHS re-organisation, a cap on nurse training and even agency spending.

"All of these things are contributing," she said.

Mr Walker said he had asked experts to look at the royal's PFI deal with the acute trust, and said the "rise in demand" for hospital services was driving the pressures.

"I will campaign for a £25 million upgrade of A&E at Worcestershire Royal over the next five years," he said.