A good example-indeed a harbinger-of direct private sector involvement in education provision, management and governance is the policy for the creation of EAZs, first established in England in late 1998. Their objectives were to raise achievement in disadvantaged areas through a combination of educational and social interventions. Zones consisted of local clusters of around 20 schools, both primary and secondary schools, working in partnership with parents, businesses and other local groups to tackle disadvantage and improve standards. Each Zone was to be managed by an ‘Action Forum’ that would enable non-professionals to take a leadership role in creating change. Zones were encouraged to be flexible, to promote innovation in curriculum and in the management of teaching staff, to build partnerships that crossed professional and administrative boundaries. It was claimed that Zones would work because they would be strongly led by businesses, who were encouraged to bring ‘new skills, experience, funding and radical ways of working into education’ (Department for Education and Employment [DfEE], 1997). Business was invoked in the Zones as the model of efficiency and innovatory practice: