The Education Secretary, Estelle Morris, has confirmed that it will not appear at least until schools in England return after the summer break.

The consultation document, to form the basis of an Education Bill containing Labour's big second term plans for schools, had been expected before now.

The judgement about whether somebody should come in to schools to help is how well they will support our teachers in teaching children

Estelle Morris Education Secretary

"We will publish it probably at the start of September," Ms Morris said on the Breakfast with Frost programme on BBC One.

Rumours abound as to the reason for the delay.

One obvious potential sticking point is the extent of the involvement of the private sector in running schools. Ms Morris denied that the delay was due to wrangles over this.

But she said there were "really tough decisions to be made" over private sector involvement in education.

'Tough talking'

"It's going to be a White Paper that faces up to those decisions so in that respect I expect the autumn will be about tough talking, sharing our ideas," she said.

Another possible explanation is that ministers have got cold feet over plans to increase the number of single faith schools, in view of the trouble in towns such as Bradford.

Lord Ouseley's "race review" of the city last week pointed to a problem with racial segregation in the city's schools.

But Ms Morris cited only practical difficulties caused by the late general election.

"If we had published it this week, schools are actually on holiday and although teachers aren't the only audience for the White Paper they are a clear part of it," she said.

Lord Ouseley's review focused on segregation

"I wasn't very happy with sending out a White Paper that's a very important document - it's going to talk about our vision and plans for four years - on either the day that schools broke up or quite honestly two weeks after some have already done so."

In fact most schools in England have not yet broken up - although independent schools have already begun their summer holidays.

On the issue of privatisation, the minister said there were some schools, often serving very disadvantaged communities, "where we have never ever got it right".

"I have got a real bottom line - that we've got to make that happen, we've got to get that improvement in public services, not just for some but for everyone.

"And if using some of the skills from the private sector helps me do that, fine - but it's not the only thing."

Supporting teachers

She said she wanted to embrace what worked. There would be no question but that head teachers were the ones running the schools.

Standards would be raised only by supporting teachers.

"Is there a range of things we can do to support that front line, to support those teachers?

"And if it's about providing better information, if it's about doing some of the administration, if it's about perhaps providing training for leadership, I don't mind bringing in somebody else to support them.

"Never ever take your eye off this: That the judgement about whether somebody should come in to schools to help is how well they will support our teachers in teaching children."

Faith schools

The education secretary said she had thought a lot about faith schools over the last week in view of events in Bradford, where there has been rioting blamed on racial tensions.

Some people have argued that the answer is to have more integrated schools.

"We wouldn't open faith schools unless that is what parents want," she said.

"But I think the way Bradford's been described we need to do some serious thinking."

In Birmingham - which includes her parliamentary constituency - there were schools that were 98% Muslim.

"And they do well, and we have many examples of good, multi-racial schools and we ought to hang on to that," she said.