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Mr. Clarke: Out of respect to the hon. Gentleman, I was not going to mention the by-elections, but as he has mentioned them himself, perhaps I will. I was in both Birmingham, Hodge Hill and Leicester on Monday. In both cases specialist schools had been announced last Thursday, and in both cases the Liberal Democrats had opposed those schools from the outset. The Liberal Democrats twist and turn on these issues all the time.
The hon. Gentleman got four things completely and utterly wrong. First, we are not saying that only 20 per cent. of wards in Britain will have children's centres and support for them; he will realise that if he reads the document. We have identified financial priorities, but we intend to provide children's centres for all people throughout the country. That is what we are seeking to do, and that is what we will do.
Secondly, the hon. Gentleman was wrong about selection. There is a code of admission for city academies, specialist schools and all other schools, which rules out selection on the basis of ability. It applies to all schools in those circumstances. City academies and specialist schools have mixed-ability intakes, should have mixed-ability intakes, will continue to have mixed-ability intakes and, beyond that, will have a responsibility—set out in this document—to work together to do far better for excluded pupils and pupils with special educational needs than they do at present.
Thirdly, the hon. Gentleman simply failed to grasp the massive implications of our "Building Schools for the Future" programme. I said in my statement that spending on capital is now seven times as great as it was in 1997. We have a programme, set out in the April Budget statement, to ensure that every secondary school in the country has world-class resources and will continue to do so over the next 10 to 15 years. My hon. Friend the Minister for School Standards has already announced the first wave, and later this year we will announce the second group of local authorities involved. Academies are included in that programme, are working on it, and are a key element in it. The hon. Gentleman's suggestion that the only way in which a school can secure modernisation and investment is by becoming an academy is completely and utterly wrong.
Fourthly, the hon. Gentleman asserted that none of this was about the curriculum. Next time, I will not make the mistake of giving him a copy of a document in advance. If he had taken the trouble to read this document even at the most elementary level, he would have seen that the curriculum and everything about it is at the centre of our proposals. That applies to enrichment in primary education, to choices for 14 to 19-year-olds in secondary education, and to academic vocational courses. It is central. The hon. Gentleman is
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right to say that it is central, but he should not pretend that it is not central for us. We are driving curricular standards up: that is what our programme is all about.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst): Order. I realise that there is a great deal of interest in the statement, but we have the business statement to come, and the subsequent debate, which is on a highly important matter, has had to be time-limited. I therefore hope that Members will make their questions extremely brief, and that the Secretary of State will respect that in his answers. I should add that, in line with Mr. Speaker's practice, I do not intend to call Members who were not present for the beginning of the statement.
I now call the Chairman of the Select Committee on Education and Skills, who I hope will get us off to a crisp start.
Mr. Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on what was, for me, a clear indication that the Government's obsession with education continues. That gives great pleasure to a Chairman of the Education and Skills Committee. I am reminded of the 1995 commitment of the then leader of the Labour party, now the Prime Minister, to both diversity and an end to selection.
I have one brief point to make about something that concerns me. The three-year commitment to schools will be widely welcomed, but I have a little query about the extent to which the strategic role of local education authorities will be enhanced.
May I end with a short request for information? I have tried to visit every specialist school that selects on the basis of aptitude, and have managed to find only schools specialising in music and the performing arts.
Mr. Clarke: My hon. Friend is entirely correct on his last point, and that is a key issue on which his Committee will report shortly. We will study that report very carefully, and I appreciate the work that we have done with the Committee. Local education authorities have a key strategic role to play through the children's trusts, but more importantly through their involvement in the single annual review of every school, so that we can move towards higher standards. The local authority role is enhanced strategically, but the important issue is the budget that we have established for every school.
Sir Patrick Cormack (South Staffordshire) (Con): Why, in six pages of this statement, is there no mention of discipline? Does the Secretary of State not understand that what is undermining his efforts to bring better standards to many schools is the collapse of discipline in them?
Mr. Clarke:
I used the word "behaviour" rather than "discipline", but I did deal with that issue; indeed, the document contains a lengthy passage on it. The hon. Gentleman is right to refer to the need for good behaviour and discipline, and the document sets out a number of suggestions on how to address that issue. I shall not repeat them now, but I am happy to discuss them with him further.
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Jeff Ennis (Barnsley, East and Mexborough) (Lab): Given that more than 91 per cent. of parents already get the school of their choice, how will that statistic be increased as a result of today's announcement? More importantly, how will choice be given to poorer parents who do not have their own means of transport?
Mr. Clarke: My hon. Friend is right to point out that the overwhelming majority of parents do have choice. However, the areas in which parents do not enjoy choice are not spread evenly throughout the country, and in some areas the level of choice is inadequate, which is why we are investing in them. As my hon. Friend suggests, the level of choice is least in those working-class areas in which education provision has failed for a number of years. That is why we are investing in them through independent specialist schools and the city academies, and it is to those areas that resources should be directed. Through programmes such as excellence in cities and those that deal with behaviour in schools, we will continue to focus on extending choice in those areas where the level of choice is least.
Mr. John Maples (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con): Whatever the rights and wrongs of selection, Warwickshire has several very popular grammar schools and, at the same time, a Labour-led local education authority. Unfortunately for the Secretary of State, those grammar schools are among the most popular and successful schools in the county. The Government scheme for funding the expansion of popular and successful schools, to which he referred, rather trivially and unnecessarily specifically excludes grammar schools. Is the scheme that he announced today going to include or exclude grammar schools, or will his plan to encourage the expansion of popular and successful schools specifically exclude the most popular and successful ones of all?
Mr. Clarke: The plan will not exclude them. It focuses on specialist schools, rather than schools that select by choice, but as I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman), we will consider what the Select Committee has to say about selection and then decide how to proceed in respect of Warwickshire and elsewhere.
Ms Karen Buck (Regent's Park and Kensington, North) (Lab): There are quite exceptional intake variations between inner-London schools in terms of the proportion of pupils with special needs, the proportion of looked-after children and the proportion receiving free school dinners. What measures are in place to ensure that all schools take a fair proportion of children who present the greatest challenge to the school intake?
Mr. Clarke:
My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to this issue, with which two of the measures that I set out today deal. First, the single annual review will ensure that all agencies can work with schools to determine whether they are taking the range of pupils that they need to take. Secondly, we want to establish foundation groups, through which headmasters come together and take responsibility for children in such circumstances. There have been some very positive
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developments in this regard, and we will work to deal with this issue in a way that meets my hon. Friend's concerns.
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