John Nash, Baron Nash
John Alfred Stoddard Nash, Baron Nash (born 22 March 1949)[1] is a British former businessman, also formerly a Conservative Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools.[2] Nash was chair of the British Venture Capital Association (1988–89)[1] and on the board of the Conservative think-tank, the Centre for Policy Studies.[3] With his wife, Caroline Nash, he founded the charity Future, which was established Future Academies, a trust managing school academies; he is joint chairman of the governors of Pimlico Academy, one of the institutions run by Future Academies.
The Lord Nash | |
---|---|
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for School System | |
In office 7 January 2013 – 28 September 2017 | |
Prime Minister | David Cameron Theresa May |
Preceded by | The Lord Hill of Oareford |
Succeeded by | The Lord Agnew of Oulton |
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
Assumed office 21 January 2013 Life Peerage | |
Personal details | |
Born | 22 March 1949 |
Education | Milton Abbey School, Dorset |
Alma mater | Corpus Christi College, Oxford |
Occupation | investor |
Education
John Nash was educated at Milton Abbey School, a boarding independent school in the village of Milton Abbas (near Blandford Forum) in Dorset, followed by Corpus Christi College at the University of Oxford, where he read Law, and obtained an M.A.[4]
Career
After reading Law at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Nash became a barrister before moving into finance.[5] Nash was Assistant Director of Lazard Brothers and Co Ltd (1975–1983) before moving to private equity firm Advent Limited, becoming its managing director in 1986.[1] He was co-founder of private equity firm Sovereign Capital, as well as being chair of the British Venture Capital Association from 1988 to 1989.[1] He is also the former chairman of one of the biggest contractors to the NHS, Care UK.[6] In January 2013 Nash left Sovereign Capital to pursue his political interests.
Political career
In January 2013 Lord Nash was appointed as schools minister.[6] He became a life peer as Baron Nash, of Ewelme in the County of Oxfordshire on 21 January 2013.[7][8] He and his wife have donated almost £300,000 to the Conservative Party and according to the Telegraph, the appointment raises concern about a potential conflict of interest and appointment of donors though the Department for Education said he would not make business decisions whilst in office.[6]
In April 2013, Labour councillors called for an inquiry after the new Pimlico primary school, where Nash was co-chairman of the governors, appointed an unqualified teacher as headmistress ahead of its opening in September.[9] Further criticism followed when she resigned after four weeks in the job.[10][11] Also in October 2013, a second headteacher, the acting head of nearby Churchill Gardens academy, was allegedly forced from her position following bullying by Future Academies managers.[12] In 2016, the National Union of Teachers cited Future Academies after the Nashes' daughter Jo, unqualified as a teacher, was given an unpaid teaching position at the trust's Pimlico Academy.[13] Future Academies has faced repeated criticism from teachers and parents regarding its governance[14] and curriculum.[15][16]
In March 2014, the Conservative minister rejected the council bid for Holborn and St Pancras building a post-comprehensive school, called a "university training school", but promised only to build them in Cambridge and Birmingham.[17]
In October 2016, following a backlash from schools and parents and the national boycott of the school census expansion, he wrote[18] that newly collected pupils' nationality and country of birth data would not be included in the National Pupil Database (NPD). In a letter to peers seen by Schools Week, Nash defended the sharing of pupil address and school data with the Home Office, but admitted the new information called for a different approach, saying, "given the sensitivity of the new information being collected we will not add this to the NPD, so no-one outside the department will be able to access it." Members of the House of Lords went on to oppose the law change[19] in a debate and motion-of-regret, which was tabled by the Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Lord Storey. On 31 October 2016 the House of Lords agreed after debate, with the regret motion on the expansion of the collection of pupil data: "That this House regrets that information about pupils' nationality and country of birth collected under the Education (Pupil Information) (England) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2016 (Statutory Instrument 2016/808)[3] could be used to help determine a child’s immigration status".[20]
Lord Nash resigned from government on 28 September 2017 and was replaced by Sir Theodore Agnew DL as an unpaid Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education.
References
- Debrett's John Nash, Esq
- Lord Nash
- Centre for Policy Studies, cps board
- John Alfred Stoddard Nash - Biography Archived 15 May 2014 at archive.today. Publisher: Debrett's People of Today. Retrieved: 15 May 2014.
- Centre for Policy Studies, Nash
- Holly Watt, Whitehall Editor (11 January 2013). "Two major Conservative donors appointed to government". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
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has generic name (help) - Lord Nash Archived 2 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- New Lords
- "Teacher training head defends Pimlico appointment". BBC News. 3 April 2013. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
- "Free school headmistress with no qualifications quits after four weeks". Independent newspapers. 10 October 2013. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
- "Pimlico free school head teacher Annaliese Briggs steps down". BBC News. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
- Syal, Rajeev (18 October 2013). "Second headteacher quits at schools minister's academy chain". Guardian. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
- Syal, Rajeev (12 May 2016). "Unqualified daughter of minister teaches in his academy schools". Guardian. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
- Dickens, John (20 January 2019). "Ex-minister's academy trust ignores governance guidelines". Schools Week. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
- Mansell, Warwick (25 January 2019). "'It's a dictatorship.' Angry parents fight back against school takeovers". Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
- Mansell, Warwick; Boffey, Daniel (16 September 2022). "Teachers at ex-Tory minister's academy chain set to strike". Guardian. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
- "Why did Lord Nash really reject the Institute of Education's bid for a university training school? - Where is My School?". Archived from the original on 14 March 2014. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
- "Nationality data won't be included in National Pupil Database, says minister". Schools Week. 28 October 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
- "The Education (Pupil Information) (England) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2016". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
- "House of Lords (October 31, 2016). Motion to Regret: Education (Pupil Information) (England) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2016". Hansard. Retrieved 12 June 2017.