BHA: Government gives contradictory answers over inclusivity and ‘faith’ school admissions

Questions have been answered in Parliament today about the Government’s policies on admissions to ‘faith’ schools and on new schools, as part of the continuing debate following on from last year’s judicial review brought by the British Humanist Association (BHA) against a Council’s decision to approve two new highly discriminatory Catholic schools.

The questions were asked by All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group (APPHG) Secretary Baroness Massey of Darwen and answered by Government spokesperson, Baroness Garden of Frognal. The first two questions focussed on new legislation found in the Education Act 2011 which was at the centre of the case .Baroness Massey tabled amendments to that legislation during the Bill’s passage through the Lords:

1. To ask Her Majesty's Government whether local authorities in England must seek proposals for the establishment of an academy when they wish to establish a new school, or whether they can arrange for a faith group to propose a voluntary aided school.

A: Where a local authority thinks a new school needs to be established in its area, it must, under Section 6A of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 (the academy presumption [introduced by the 2011 Act through amendment]), first seek proposals for the establishment of a new academy or free school. Those proposals must be submitted to the Secretary of State to decide whether he is willing to enter into a funding agreement with any of the proposers.

It is possible for voluntary aided school proposers, which can be faith groups (though not exclusively), to submit proposals for a new school, to a local authority, for consideration outside of the academy presumption arrangements. Since the enactment of the relevant provisions of the Education Act 2011, this can now take place without the prior consent of the Secretary of State. Any such proposals must, however, still follow a statutory process set out in regulations brought into force in 2007.

2. To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the removal of the requirement for groups to seek consent by the Secretary of State before publishing proposals for voluntary aided schools outside of competition [as done by the 2011 Act] was intended to make voluntary aided schools easier to establish or to remove a requirement on the grounds of reducing bureaucracy.

A: Removing the requirement to seek the consent of the Secretary of State before publishing proposals for voluntary aided (VA) schools was done as part of the department's drive to reduce bureaucracy. Since this requirement was first enacted in 2007, there have been 43 such requests for consent and none have been turned down. While we have removed the requirement to seek the consent of the Secretary of State, all VA school proposals are still required to follow the same statutory process as set out in regulations that were brought into force in 2007.

BHA Head of Public Affairs Pavan Dhaliwal commented, ‘On question 1, this confused answer reflects the issue at the centre of the Richmond case, namely that while section 6A plainly says a local authority must seek Academy proposals, at the same time, the Government has it that it can instead arrange with faith groups to propose Voluntary Aided schools outside of competition.

‘On question 2, this answer clashes with what the Government said in its legal submissions in the Richmond case. Here, it said that a policy objective of the 2011 Act “was to make it easier to establish voluntary aided schools, the majority of which are faith schools”, because “In some cases… religious organisations will not wish to establish an Academy. This is mainly because only 50% of places can be prioritised on the basis of faith if that Academy is oversubscribed.” This makes it clear that reducing bureaucracy was not the only aim. Yet in parliamentary debates at the time, just as here, the change is presented simply as reducing bureaucracy, and not making highly discriminatory religious schools any easier to establish.’

Baroness Massey also asked:

3. To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the commitment in the coalition agreement to "work with faith groups to enable more faith schools and facilitate inclusive admissions policies in as many of these schools as possible", what progress they have made in ensuring voluntary aided schools have inclusive admissions policies.

A: New faith academies and free schools can only apply faith based admissions criteria to up to 50% of their places. Only maintained schools designated as having a religious character are permitted to apply faith based admissions criteria and allocate up to 100% of their places to children of the faith and only when they receive more applications than they have places.

The department brought a new school admissions code into force in February of last year that set out a shorter, clearer set of principles for all admission authorities, including VA schools, to follow. We have also made it much easier for all schools, including voluntary aided schools to increase their intake to reflect parental demand.

We do not collect any information on whether any school is being more or less inclusive. It is noteworthy, however, that the most recent report of the chief schools adjudicator made no reference to faith school admissions being an issue, whereas the 2011 report did.

4. To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the likely impact of the Education Act 2011 on the balance of faith and non-faith school provision.

A: We have not undertaken any impact assessment on the balance of faith and non-faith school provision, as we expect the vast majority of schools to continue to be non-faith schools.

Ms Dhaliwal continued, ‘As the first two answers demonstrate, it is now easy for faith groups to open Voluntary Aided schools instead of Free Schools, thus avoiding the 50% limit. The new, simplified admissions code also seems to us to make religious schools even less inclusive than before. And the point about the chief schools adjudicator hides the fact that between the two reports, the adjudicator changed – something we speculated at the time was motivated by the previous adjudicator’s criticisms of religious schools.

‘We are disappointed that this Government seems to be taking things so far backwards in enabling religious schools to continue to select pupils on the basis of faith, while providing contradictory answers about whether or not this is its intention – depending upon whether it is trying to persuade the public, or trying to persuade a judge.’

Notes

For further comment or information, please contact BHA Head of Public Affairs Pavan Dhaliwal on 0773 843 5059 or at pavan@humanism.org.uk.

Read more about the BHA’s campaigns work on ‘faith’ schools: http://www.humanism.org.uk/campaigns/religion-and-schools/faith-schools

The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people who seek to live ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. It promotes a secular state and equal treatment in law and policy of everyone, regardless of religion or belief.