HUNDREDS of failing schools will be shut and reopened as city academies, while successful institutions will no longer have to face Ofsted inspections under Tory plans to shake up the education system.

The proposals — to be announced at the Conservative party conference this week — come as it emerged that two former aides to Tony Blair are to advise on opposition education reforms.

Baroness Morgan, a Labour peer who served Blair as director of government relations and as women’s minister, has been recruited to help implement Tory plans for a network of Swedish-style “free schools”.

Morgan, once described as a “purely tribal” Labour figure, will work with the New Schools Network which, although cross-party, is being set up in anticipation of a Conservative victory in the general election.

Morgan will be joined on the [network’s advisory panel by Julian Le Grand, a professor at the London School of Economics who advised Blair at No 10.

Their recruitment is a coup for Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary, who is trying to build cross-party support for his education plans.

Under the proposals, groups such as parents, religious organisations and charities will receive government funding to set up their own schools if they are unhappy with local provision.

The intention is to bring competition to state education with popular schools able to expand, while those that fail to satisfy parents would shrink and perhaps eventually close.

Gove will this week announce a new strategy designed to answer Labour criticism that the policy would help middle-class families with “sharp elbows”, but would lead to poorer pupils being left behind in failing schools.

It is understood that the Conservatives will close hundreds of failing primary and secondary schools and reopen them as city academies independent of local authority control.

Gove will meet the companies and charities that sponsor academies at a summit to work out the details of the plan. The strategy could mean the number of academies — about 200 at present — doubling within months of the Tories winning power.

Under a Conservative government there would also be a shake-up of Ofsted, which would mean that thousands of the best state schools would be exempt from inspection. Instead the schools inspectorate would focus its resources on the 200 poorly performing schools in special measures and the 1,400 that are deemed inadequate.

“We’re also going to say to good schools, ‘You don’t need to worry about inspection, you won’t be inspected’,” said Gove.

“The corollary of that is we will have an even more intense process of inspecting schools that are not doing well.”

Gove also said he wanted to end Ofsted’s “box-ticking” culture and accused it of being more concerned with “social engineering” than the quality of education.

“We are going to say there will be four areas Ofsted will concentrate on. It will all be to do with the quality of teaching, pupil attainment, discipline and safety on site,” said Gove.

Morgan and Le Grand agreed to join the New Schools Network on the understanding that it will be independent of both ministers and the Conservative party. However, the organisation was founded by Rachel Wolf, a former Gove aide, and exists primarily to help implement Tory plans.

A source said: “It is true that this is designed to put in action the Conservatives’ plans, but it is vital that the network is kept at arm’s length to ensure cross-party support.”

The Tories have made concerted efforts to recruit Blairites to back their education plans. Alan Milburn, the former health secretary, is understood to have been approached to join the network, although he is said to have turned down a role.

Morgan declined to comment beyond confirming her involvement.

Le Grand said: “The Conservative ideas are interesting, although Labour pioneered the way with academies. It is a good idea to encourage any mechanism for establishing new schools.”

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