A PROPOSED link-up between two North-East schools has received ministerial approval.

Lord Andrew Adonis, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools, has cleared the way for a federation between Middlesbrough's troubled Unity City Academy and the Macmillan College, which will gain City Academy status in September.

The federation will be responsible for the education of 2,500 children, with about 200 teachers. There are plans also to build a £6m vocational education and training centre.

The move follows the first federation in the UK, forged between Darlington's ailing Eastbourne Comprehensive and Hurworth Comprehensive.

Talks aimed at setting up a federation on Teesside were recently suspended because Macmillan College said it had not got the required backing from teaching staff at Unity City, which has failed an Ofsted inspection.

Macmillan College chief executive Bob Howarth said: "Following the meeting with Lord Adonis, the governors of Macmillan decided that, despite what are bound to be challenging times ahead, they will support wholeheartedly the creation of the Federation."

Joe McCarthy is chairman of the trust at Unity, where teachers have been balloted on taking strike action over new contracts and working conditions.

He said: "We firmly believe that the federation will enable the teaching and learning methods that have seen Macmillan become so successful, to be developed at Unity.

"One of the most important benefits will be the building at Unity of the new centre, which will be able to develop the practical and vocational courses that will particularly benefit those children who need to be shown that education really can meet their needs and aspirations."

The news has also been welcomed by Middlesbrough MP Sir Stuart Bell.

The groundbreaking union between Hurworth and Eastbourne comprehensives was established in July 2003 with £2m of taxpayers' money.

Ofsted said Unity City needed to be placed in special measures because it was failing to give an acceptable standard of education.

Leadership, financial management, standards of teaching and learning, attendance, punctuality and behaviour were all found to be sub-standard.

The schools said it was working on plans to tackle the issues raised.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the teaching union NASUWT, said: "Clearly NASUWT, as the union representing the vast majority of teachers at Unity Academy, wants them and the pupils to have as secure and positive a future as possible, but the news that this is likely to depend on a direct link with Macmillan College is a cause of deep concern unless the outstanding issues about the conditions of service proposed for teachers are resolved."

He said the union did not want Unity teachers to work under the same conditions of service as Macmillan teachers.