Inner London Education Authority

The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was the education authority for the 12 inner London boroughs, from 1965 until its abolition in 1990.

ILEA's Inner London within Greater London

The Inner London Education Authority was established when the Greater London Council replaced the London County Council as the principal local authority for London. The LCC had held responsibility for education in Inner London from 1904, while in Outer London education was administered by local boroughs. The creation of the GLC covering the whole area required a separate authority covering only inner London. The ILEA did not cover the small area of North Woolwich, which was part of the County of London but was transferred to the new London Borough of Newham in outer London.

ILEA had a strange legal status. Technically the GLC itself was the education authority for inner London, but it was both administratively difficult and politically unjust to allow outer London members of the GLC to have an input. Therefore it delegated responsibility to ILEA as a 'special committee', consisting of the members of the GLC from the Inner London area, plus one member delegated from each of the inner London boroughs and the City of London. Members of the GLC/ILEA tended to concentrate on one only although they attended the meetings of both.

It was possible for ILEA to have a majority of Labour members when the GLC had a majority of Conservative members and this happened from 1970 to 1973 and 1977 to 1981. In addition, most of the important decisions taken by ILEA were taken by its Education Committee, on which every member sat. The Education Committee could also co-opt members with experience of education, with some of them representing the teaching unions.

The initial composition of ILEA in 1964 was 43 Labour members to 9 Conservatives, with 1 Independent. After the 1967 election the Conservatives won a majority and Christopher Chataway became Leader. However Labour won control in 1970 and Ashley Bramall began his long leadership. His term saw ILEA go over to comprehensive education, and the abolition of corporal punishment. He retained power despite the Conservative election victory in the 1977 GLC elections.

When the left under Ken Livingstone won control of the GLC after the 1981 elections, Bramall lost his position in an internal Labour Party vote, being replaced by Bryn Davies. Ken Livingstone later expressed regret for this decision and expressed his admiration for Bramall's leadership abilities. The remaining years of ILEA saw a succession of left-wing leaderships, none of which lasted long nor established a strong reputation. Frances Morrell, formerly an assistant to Tony Benn, lead a feminist ILEA from 1983 to 1987, before Neil Fletcher took over.

ILEA had fended off one attempt to abolish it in 1980. The abolition of the GLC, announced in 1983, led to another attempt to get rid of ILEA, but the Inner London Boroughs were adjudged not ready to handle education services. The Conservative government was led by Margaret Thatcher who had grown to dislike ILEA as over-spending and over-bureaucratic while Education Secretary in the early 1970s, and would have liked to abolish it. Initially the proposal was to replace it with a joint board nominated by the inner London Boroughs, but eventually it decided to keep ILEA as a directly elected body. In May 1986, each London Parliamentary constituency elected two members of ILEA. Labour won an easy election victory.

Backbench Conservative MPs continued to oppose the continuation of ILEA. The Education Reform Bill of Kenneth Baker proposed to allow Boroughs who wanted to opt out of ILEA and become education authorities. However, the Government's hand was forced when an amendment was tabled in the House of Commons to abolish ILEA altogether. The Government announced on February 4, 1988 that it would accept the amendment and abolish ILEA in 1990. Once the Bill was passed, ILEA then complied with this decision in the interests of education. The inner London boroughs then became education authorities, and remain so today.

Leaders of the Inner London Education Authority

Although ILEA was created in 1964 and came into its powers in 1965, the post of Leader did not exist until April 1967. For the period 1964-67 the de facto Leadership was shared between the Chairman of the Education Committee, James Young, and the Chairmen of the Authority, Harold Shearman (from 1964-1965) and Ashley Bramall (1965-1967).

• Chris Chataway 1967-1969
• Lena Townsend 1969-1970
• Ashley Bramall 1970-1981
• Bryn Davies 1981-1983
• Frances Morrell 1983-1987
• Neil Fletcher 1987-1990