Asked by: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact that voluntary-aided schools that select 100 per cent of their pupils based on faith will have on religious integration.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Many schools with faith-based admissions have diverse intakes, and many schools that don’t have faith based admissions have homogenous school populations. While faith schools are allowed to give priority to children of their faith, some choose to allocate only a certain percentage of their places with reference to faith in order to open up places to other children regardless of faith, and many do not have faith admissions criteria at all. Where there are sufficient places, faith schools must offer a place to every applicant regardless of faith.
The department undertook an extensive series of activities as part of the Schools that Work for Everyone consultation to understand the variety of opinions relating to faith schools. Having considered the views of respondents, and those of a range of other stakeholders, the department decided to establish the voluntary-aided capital scheme alongside retaining the 50% cap in faith admissions in faith designated free schools.
An analysis of how the voluntary-aided schools capital scheme will affect specific protected groups (equalities impact assessment) is attached and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/voluntary-aided-schools-capital-scheme-equalities-impact-assessment.
Asked by: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they will ensure that local objections to proposals for new voluntary-aided faith schools with the legal power to select all of their pupils based on faith are adequately taken into account by local authority decision-makers.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Alongside the launch of the capital scheme for new voluntary-aided schools, the department published the updated and attached statutory guidance for proposers and decision-makers on opening and closing maintained schools.
The guidance explains that proposers are required to consult prior to publishing statutory proposals for a new school and hold a four-week representation period once the statutory proposals have been published. In deciding proposals, decision-makers (usually the local authority) must take any comments received during the representation period into account.
The statutory guidance sets out the department’s expectations on how the consultations are carried out, including the Cabinet Office guidance on consultation principles.
Asked by: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to introducing measures to promote social integration in all schools, in the same manner that has been done for voluntary-aided schools that select 100 per cent of their pupils based on faith.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Schools play a vital role in promoting integration and encouraging greater community cohesion and this includes faith schools.
The Integrated Communities Strategy made clear the important role schools play in knitting communities together. All state funded schools, whatever their type, have a legal obligation to promote community cohesion and to teach a broad and balanced curriculum, and are under a duty to foster good relations between different groups. They are also required to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs. Their effectiveness in doing so is inspected by Ofsted.
Many existing faith schools have a strong record on promoting integration and the department encourages them, as well as all new schools, to engage in programmes such as school linking, that promote social mixing within and across schools. The department is taking forward over 20 measures across its portfolio to support the sector to promote integration, as set out in the Integrated Communities Action Plan. This can be accessed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/integrated-communities-action-plan.
This document is also attached.
Asked by: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to ensure that measures designed to prevent voluntary-aided schools that select 100 per cent of their pupils based on faith from having a detrimental impact on social cohesion, such as school linking programmes and religious diversity on governing bodies, are implemented and maintained once those schools have opened.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Schools play a vital role in promoting integration and encouraging greater community cohesion and this includes faith schools.
The Integrated Communities Strategy made clear the important role schools play in knitting communities together. All state funded schools, whatever their type, have a legal obligation to promote community cohesion and to teach a broad and balanced curriculum, and are under a duty to foster good relations between different groups. They are also required to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs. Their effectiveness in doing so is inspected by Ofsted.
Many existing faith schools have a strong record on promoting integration and the department encourages them, as well as all new schools, to engage in programmes such as school linking, that promote social mixing within and across schools. The department is taking forward over 20 measures across its portfolio to support the sector to promote integration, as set out in the Integrated Communities Action Plan. This can be accessed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/integrated-communities-action-plan.
This document is also attached.