Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department’s news story Drive to create more good school places for families published on 11 May 2018, what steps by voluntary aided schools would be seen by his Department as playing an active role in their community; and whether that is a condition of receiving funding to open new voluntary aided schools.

Schools have a key part to play in providing opportunities for young people from different backgrounds to learn with, from and about each other; by encouraging, through their teaching, an understanding of, and respect for, other cultures, faiths and communities. Our existing statutory guidance for decision-makers opening new maintained schools sets out that when considering a proposal to open a voluntary-aided school, the decision-maker must consider its impact on community cohesion. This will remain the case for new voluntary-aided schools created using funding from the capital scheme, and we will develop the detail of the scheme over the coming months.