Controversial plans for the government to turn all failing schools in England and Wales into academies regardless of the opinion of schools, teachers and parents are set to be rejected this week by the House of Lords, it has been reported. 

Under new government proposals, which have been signed off by MPs, schools would automatically be reclassified as academies in any case where an Ofsted inspection judges them to be "inadequate". 

The Education Bill would also mean that there would need to be no consultation with parents before a school is reclassified and taken away from local authority control. However, the Independent on Sunday said it has seen an amendment to the Bill from Labour peers. In this, it is specified that parents, teachers and local councillors would have the power to block the school from changing its status. 

The shadow schools minister in the Lords Mike Watson said the government was guilty of making sweeping changes to the education sector without taking into account the views of those who would be likely to be affected. 

“George Osborne, in his Autumn Statement, announced last month that the government will ‘help every school become an academy’ and ‘make local authorities running schools a thing of the past’.

"If this really is the main aim of the Bill, then they are willfully forgetting the importance of parents having a say in their child’s education," he added. 

“Labour has been pressing the Government on this issue throughout the Bill’s passage through Parliament. Despite recently making a number of concessions elsewhere in its plans, the Government appears determined to push ahead with this attack on consultation rights."

Any attempt by the House of Lords to block the Education Bill is only likely to add to the friction between it and MPs, however, after Lords previously voted to block controversial tax credit cuts, forcing the government to backtrack.