Schools: Children in Care

Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton Excerpts

Wednesday 18th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

My noble friend makes an extremely good point. The more that we can encourage the independent and the maintained sectors to work together and learn from each other, the better it will be. I am certainly keen to do everything that I can to take that forward.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, can the Minister tell us how many of the places identified in the independent sector are allocated according to ability and entrance criteria and how many are awarded on the basis of need alone?

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

I do not have detailed information on all the schemes that are currently running. The new scheme that I was talking about is being run by the independent schools and the maintained schools together. They are expressly clear that selection and attainment are not part of what they want to do. They want to make it available to disadvantaged children of all abilities.