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28 Apr 2008 : Column 229W—continued
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will require admissions forums to publish an annual report on the extent to which admissions arrangements in their areas are operating fairly; and if he will make a statement. [201095]
Jim Knight: Legislation provides admission forums with a power to produce annual reports on the effectiveness of admission arrangements in their area, to feed into the School Commissioner’s biennial report to Parliament on fair access.
As part of our recent announcements to strengthen the school admissions framework and ensure more compliance with the School Admissions Code and admissions legislation, we published, on 2 April, draft amendments to the Education and Skills Bill for consideration at Commons Report to place a duty on local authorities to report annually to the Schools Adjudicator on the legality, fairness, and effectiveness of admission arrangements in their areas. This duty on local authorities is in line with their role to monitor compliance with the statutory admissions framework and their duty to ensure fair access to educational opportunity. Copies of these draft amendments are available in the House Library.
We also signalled that we will publish detailed proposals in the early summer to further strengthen the admission system, which will include improvements to admission forums.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the role of the schools adjudicator is in monitoring and enforcing the code of admissions; and if he will make a statement. [201096]
Jim Knight: The school's adjudicator considers objections to admission arrangements where the admission authority concerned fails to comply with the mandatory provisions of the school admissions code, or does not follow its guidelines. Local authorities have a duty to refer to the adjudicator the admission arrangements of any school if it appears to them that they do not comply with the law or the mandatory requirements of the code. The Secretary of State made a statement to Parliament on 2 April in which he outlined his proposals to extend the role of the schools adjudicator to ensure that all admission arrangements are legal, fair and effective.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) which local authorities use a system of authority-wide fair banding for school admissions; [201108]
(2) which 10 local authorities select the highest proportion of their secondary school children by ability; and what proportion of secondary school pupils were educated in selective schools in each of those authorities in the last year for which figures are available. [201058]
Jim Knight: We do not collect the information asked; however Sheffield Hallam University carried out research into secondary school admissions for 2006 (published in January 2008) which showed only a small minority of schools use banding. Three local authorities Greenwich, Lewisham and Tower Hamlets had authority-wide banding. Sheffield Hallam found that the following 10 authorities select the highest proportion of their secondary school children by ability.
| Total places | Selective places | Non-selective places | Percentage selective places | Percentage non-selective places | |
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what research he has commissioned on schools admission arrangements; and if he will make a statement; [201109]
(2) what research his Department has commissioned on the effects of selection by aptitude; what assessment he has made of the merits of such selection; and if he will make a statement; [201110]
(3) what research his Department has commissioned on the merits of selection by aptitude in the last three years; and if he will make a statement; [201178]
(4) what research his Department has commissioned on selection procedures in schools using partial selection in the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [201180]
Jim Knight: The Department commissioned Sheffield Hallam university, in conjunction with the National Centre for Social Research, to undertake a comprehensive study of school admission arrangements in England. This study mapped the arrangements for all admission authorities of secondary schools and examined the experiences of parents and careers who applied for places in secondary schools for September 2006.
This report examines the major issues concerning school admissions, including regulation, coordination, oversubscription criteria (including banding, selection by attainment and selection by aptitude) and appeals. The full report was published in January 2008 and is available from the DCSF Research and Statistics Gateway:
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what estimate he has made of the proportion of (a) primary and (b) secondary schools using faith-based criteria for admissions in the latest period for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement; [201186]
(2) if he will make it his policy to collect information on the number of maintained schools which select by faith; and if he will make a statement. [201304]
Jim Knight: The latest figures published by the Department show that in January 2007 there were 6,255 maintained primary schools and 587 maintained secondary schools designated by the Secretary of State as having a religious character. These schools are permitted to use faith-based oversubscription criteria in order to give higher priority to children who are members of, or practice, their faith. The Department does not collect information on how many of these schools do or do not use faith-based oversubscription criteria.
As signalled in our statement to the House on 2 April, we will be tabling an amendment to the Education and Skills Bill which would place a duty on local authorities to produce a report on school admissions, to be submitted annually to the Schools Adjudicator.
We intend for these reports to include information about the admission arrangements for schools in their area and this could include, in the case of schools designated as having a religious character, whether they give higher priority to children who are members of, or practice, their faith.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the level of intra-year pupil turnover at the 50 schools in England with the highest levels of intra-year pupil turnover in the latest period for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [201189]
Jim Knight: The requested information could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the number of fully subscribed schools which have not been approved for expansion on the grounds of (a) neighbouring schools having surplus places and (b) unavailability of local authority capital funding. [201591]
Jim Knight: School place planning is a local matter and it is for the local authority and individual schools to decide whether to consult on, and then publish, statutory proposals to expand a school. Following publication of any statutory proposals, the final decision would be taken by the local authority or schools adjudicator, or, prior to 25 May 2007, the local School Organisation Committee or schools adjudicator.
Since January 2003 statutory proposals to expand nine schools have been rejected. The Department does not maintain records of whether the schools were over-subscribed or the reasons for rejection and we have made no estimate of rejections due to neighbouring schools having surplus places or the unavailability of local authority capital funding. The Department has no
information on other cases where a school, or local authority, have decided not to proceed to publish expansion proposals.
Each local authority is allocated significant amounts of capital through a range of different programmes that can be joined-up and used flexibly according to local priorities. Additional resources are also available through the new Primary Capital Programme and, through application, for the expansion of successful and popular schools from the Standards and Diversity Targeted Capital Fund. The Government have made it clear that the wishes of parents should be taken into account in planning school place provision and that they want to encourage successful and popular schools to expand to meet parental demand.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many parental representations made to local authorities have been referred to his Department since the publication of Expanding a Maintained Mainstream School or Adding a Sixth Form: A Guide for Local Authorities and Governing Bodies in March 2008; and how many have been referred in the last 12 months. [201592]
Jim Knight: No parental representations have been received since March 2008 and one has been received in the past 12 months.
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many schools have more than 1,500 pupils, broken down by index of multiple deprivation decile. [201687]
Jim Knight: The requested information is shown in the table:
Schools: Catering
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what proportion of (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each local authority area had (i) no kitchen facilities for producing school meals and (ii) no daily access to hot school meals for pupils in the latest period for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [201207]
Kevin Brennan: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given previously for question number 187150.
Schools: Class Sizes
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the average (a) primary and (b) secondary class sizes in the 20 (i) highest and (ii) lowest deprivation local authority areas; and if he will make a statement. [201192]
Jim Knight: The requested information has been placed in the House Library.
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