• Heads will have to undertake assessments
• White paper pledges extra help for gifted pupils

Teachers will need a new “licence to teach” to work in state schools, which will be reviewed every five years and revoked if they are not up to scratch, under plans to eradicate poorly performing staff from the English education system.

The government yesterday unveiled plans to roll out a licensing system, similar to that in place for doctors and solicitors, under which all teachers will be assessed regularly by their headteachers and face being barred from schools if they are not performing well enough.

Ed Balls, the schools secretary, said: “It may be that we will discover some teachers who don’t make the grade … we want this to be a profession that is continually learning and developing and that will be central to the licence. It’s saying we want to ensure the best teachers in every classroom in every part of the country.”

The plan is contained in a white paper published yesterday by Balls, setting out widespread changes to the English school system. The licensing system follows concerns among headteachers that it is difficult to sack under-performing staff, who often move schools to avoid being dismissed. It will be introduced from September 2010, starting with newly qualified teachers, those returning to work after a break from the profession and supply teachers, before a national rollout.

If teachers disagree with a verdict, they will be given a temporary licence while appealing against the decision through a tribunal.

Teacher unions were divided on the plans, raising concerns about the extra bureaucracy it would create, but welcoming Balls’s insistence that it would be matched with more training for teachers throughout their careers. The Conservatives said they would not back the scheme, as the white paper had “nothing original to offer”.

The white paper, Building a 21st-century Schools System, sets out a long list of guarantees to parents, many of which are already established policies, including one-to-one catch-up tuition for children who fall behind, a promise of a personal tutor for pastoral support, and a guaranteed place in education or training up to the age of 18. The document promises that every 11- to 14-year-old will have “relevant and challenging” learning and that pupils who are judged to be “gifted” will be given a written plan setting out the extra support they will receive.

If schools are failing to meet the guarantees, parents can complain first to the school, then the local authority, and ultimately to the local government ombudsman, says the document. But Balls acknowledged that schools could be challenged in the courts. “Judicial review redress would be very much a last resort,” he said.

The white paper also puts parents under new obligations to support their child at school. They will have to sign stricter home-school agreements and would face fines of up to £1,000, enforceable by the courts, if they fail to meet the conditions. The white paper also:

• Presents plans to overhaul the school funding system to redirect money to schools in the poorest areas of the country. It could mean that high-performing schools in well-off areas will face cuts.

• Sets out plans for a new report card judging every school on six factors including: pupil progress, attainment and wellbeing, parental and pupil perceptions of the school, and how well schools are narrowing the achievement gap between rich and poor. It will include annual surveys of parents and pupils.

• Introduces a new wave of federations and chains of schools, where good headteachers are given responsibility for other local failing schools.

• Signals the end of the centrally controlled national strategies, which include the literacy and numeracy hours, to decrease Westminster control of schools and give headteachers more powers to drive up standards.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “It is not clear to me that headteachers will welcome an additional responsibility to relicense their teachers every five years. As no money has been attached to this proposal, and performance management has not resulted in access to continuing professional development, there is nothing to welcome in this proposal.”

Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary, said: “Instead of real steps to improve teaching, such as giving heads the power to pay bonuses to specialist teachers or reforming teacher training, Ed Balls proposes yet another huge bureaucratic measure that will cost a fortune and cause all sorts of problems.”

The pledges

The pupil guarantee

Schools will tackle bullying, keep classrooms safe and weapon-free;

An entitlement to learn a language and musical instrument at primary school;

At secondary, pupils will have vocational and academic study options;

The chance to do community service or work experience between 14 and 19;

School-leaving age raised to 18 by 2015;

Catchup support if pupils fall behind;

Gifted children to get extra help;

Five hours a week of sport from September

The parent guarantee

A fair admissions code;

To be consulted during Ofsted inspections;

To have contact with their child’s personal tutor at secondary school;

Online school reports from 2010;

Parenting classes and extra childcare outside of the school day