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(i) the admission of pupils to relevant schools in their area,
(ii) the admission of pupils in their area to other relevant schools.
(5) Regulations under subsection (1) may make provision as to—
(a) the time by which any report under that subsection must be made; and
(b) the form and content of any such report;
and may, in particular, require a report to include a statement as to whether or not admission arrangements for maintained schools in the area of the local education authority conform with the requirements imposed by or under this Part as to the content of admission arrangements for maintained schools in England.
88Q Reports under section 88P: provision of information
(1) A relevant person must, on request, provide a local education authority in England with such information as the authority may reasonably require for the purpose of enabling the authority to fulfil their duties under section 88P.
(2) In subsection (1), “relevant person”, in relation to a local education authority, means—
(a) an admission authority (other than the local education authority) for a maintained school in the area of the local education authority;
(b) the admission forum for the area of the local education authority;
(c) any member of an appeal panel constituted under section 94 by—
(i) the local education authority, or
(ii) the governing body of a foundation or voluntary aided school in the area of the local education authority;
(ii) a city technology college, or
(iii) a city college for the technology of the arts,
in the area of the local education authority;
(e) any other local education authority in England;
(f) such other person as may be prescribed.’.— [Ed Balls.]
Brought up, and read the First time.
4.49 pm
The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (Ed Balls): I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Sylvia Heal): With this it will be convenient to discuss the following amendments: (a), in line 10, after ‘schools’, insert ‘and academies’.
(b), in line 17, after ‘school’, insert ‘and academy’.
(c), in line 42, after ‘school’, insert ‘and academy’.
(d), in line 56, after ‘school’, insert ‘and academy’.
(e), in line 244, after ‘school’, insert ‘and academy’.
(f), in line 337, after ‘school’, insert ‘and academy’.
(g), in line 362, after ‘school’, insert ‘and academy’.
(h), in line 405, after ‘schools’, insert ‘and academies’.
(i), in line 408, after ‘school’, insert ‘and academy’.
(j), in line 413, after ‘schools’, insert ‘and academies’.
(k), in line 427, after ‘school’, insert ‘and academy’.
(l), in line 432, after ‘school’, insert ‘and academy’.
(m), in line 494, at end insert ‘and admission forum’.
(n), in line 527, at end insert—
‘(d) the number and percentages of first, second and third preferences expressed in accordance with arrangements made under section 86(1) of the School Standards and Framework Act (or more if applicable) which were met and the main factors that affected whether such preferences were met;
(e) the number of appeals made to the appeal panel within the area of the authority;
(f) the ethnic and social mix of pupils attending schools in the area of the authority and the factors that affect this;
(g) the extent to which existing and proposed admission arrangements serve the interests of looked after children, children with disabilities and children with special educational needs;
(h) how well the admission forum protocol has worked and how many children have been admitted to each school under the protocol;
(i) whether primary schools are meeting their statutory duties in relation to infant class sizes;
(j) details of other matters that might affect how fairly admission arrangements serve the interests of children and parents within the authority; and
(k) any recommendation or recommendations that the forum wishes to make in order to improve parental choice and access to education in the area of the authority.’.
New clause 18— Selection by aptitude
‘(1) No new or existing maintained school shall select pupils by aptitude.
(2) For the purposes of this section, “maintained school” includes all Academies, Specialist, Trust or Foundation Schools.’.
New clause 19— Parental right to secure attendance at nearest school
‘(1) The Secretary of State shall by regulations make such provision as he considers necessary which may include the repeal, amendment or revocation of any legislation enacted prior to the coming into effect of this Act, for the purposes of giving full effect to the principle set out in subsection (2).
(2) The principle referred to in subsection (1) is that the admission authority for each maintained school, following the commencement of a school year on or after 1st August 2011, shall admit all pupils on whose behalf the parent has stated a preference and demonstrated that the school is the nearest to the pupil’s home.’.
New clause 20— Retention of selection by ability or aptitude after parent ballot
‘(1) The Secretary of State shall by regulations make such provision as he considers necessary which may include the repeal, amendment or revocation of any legislation enacted prior to the coming into effect of this Act, for the purposes of giving full effect to the principle set out in subsection (2).
(2) The principle referred to in subsection (1) is that no admission arrangements for any school providing secondary education may, following the commencement of a school year on or after 1st August 2011 continue to make provision for the selection of pupils by ability or aptitude other than under section 101 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (Permitted selection: pupil banding) unless the continuation of such selection has been approved in a ballot of parents of pupils attending primary schools from which such pupils may by choice of their parents transfer.’.
New clause 21— Abolition of selection by ability before the age of 14
‘(1) The Secretary of State shall by regulations make such provision as he considers necessary which may include the repeal, amendment or revocation of any legislation enacted prior to the coming into effect of this Act, for the purposes of giving full effect to the principle set out in subsection (2).
(2) The principle referred to in subsection (1) is that no admission arrangements for any school providing secondary education shall, following the commencement of a school year on or after 1st August 2011 make provision for the selection of pupils under the age of 14 years by ability or aptitude other than under section 101 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (Permitted selection: pupil banding).’.
New clause 22— School admissions: cessation of selection
‘After the school year commencing on or after 1st August 2011, the following shall cease to have effect—
(1) sections 99 to 100, and 102 to 109 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (c.31), and
(2) subsection (1)(b) of section 39 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 (c.40).’.
Government amendments Nos. 119 to 123.
Government amendments Nos. 133 to 140.
Ed Balls: It is a great honour to speak on Report of this historic Bill to raise the education and training leaving age to 18, and also to move new clause 14 to strengthen the schools admissions code, which I believe is a vital part of the reforms to our education system that we must put in place to make this whole Bill a success. I should like to start by commending Committee members and all the outside experts on the high quality of scrutiny and debate that the Bill received in Committee. I very much enjoyed studying the details of those discussions.
This is a landmark piece of legislation; it is the biggest reform in educational participation for more than 50 years and the culmination of this House’s century-long ambition to deliver educational opportunity for all young people. In Committee, it was widely recognised by Members from all parts of the House that our wider education reforms—those to qualifications, the curriculum, information and guidance, schools and schools admissions—were all necessary steps to take over the next few years to bring our education system into line with the highest performing education systems in the world and to ensure that all our young people have the skills that they need to succeed in the fast-moving global economy.
Our goal is not simply to preserve opportunity and excellence for some, but to deliver it for all. We recognise that excellence for all demands both that every school is a good school and that every parent should have a fair chance to get their child into a school of their choosing. It is to deliver the goal that every school should be a good one that our national challenge programme will aim to lift all schools above the 30 per cent. threshold in respect of five GCSEs at grades A to C, including English and Maths.
Madam Deputy Speaker: Order. I wonder whether the Minister would confine or relate his remarks to new clause 14.
Ed Balls:
Fair admissions are also vital in ensuring universal access to educational opportunity, and excellence for all children and young people. That is why the Education and Inspections Act 2006 introduced the schools admissions code, with cross-party support in Parliament, to ensure a level playing field for all parents and to ban unfair practices, such as interviewing parents or asking them for financial contributions as part of the
admissions process. The code has been in operation for just one year. As my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman) said, we have been building on the Select Committee report that preceded it and on the 2006 Act, and I believe that we have made real progress in delivering fair admissions.
In January, the Minister for Schools and Learners wrote to all local authorities to remind them of their new obligations under the code. Also earlier this year, my Department’s officials undertook a spot check on admissions arrangements in three local authority areas. The areas were chosen by officials on the basis that they represented a London borough, a metropolitan borough and a shire county, and were areas where the schools adjudicator had received no complaints about admissions in the first year of the code’s operation.
As we have discussed before in this House, we were taken aback by the findings reported to us. One in six schools in the areas surveyed were found to have been in breach of the admissions code—18 schools were in breach on more than three counts. A total of 96 schools had adopted admissions arrangements that were unlawful under the code without any objection having been made to the schools adjudicator.
In the light of those findings, which I published to Parliament, and following detailed consultation on reforms to strengthen the admissions arrangements, which we have undertaken in recent weeks, the new clause introduces a package of proposals further to strengthen the admissions system on the basis of the announcements that I made to the House on 2 April. We believe that our proposals will constitute a further transparent and important step towards fair admissions.
The Minister for Schools and Learners wrote to the Chairs of the Public Bill Committee on 8 May to explain the detail of the proposals, and the letter was copied to the members of the Committee and to all Front-Bench spokespeople in the House. A copy of the letter was also placed in the Library. I should like to record that since we started that consultation, and since the proposals were published in draft, the chief schools adjudicator has written to me to welcome them, and I am grateful to him for his support. In addition, we have consulted widely with faith groups and parents groups, which all support the actions that are needed in order to strengthen the code and to ensure fair admissions.
The new clause and the amendments relate to the code in three areas. First, we need to do more to ensure that the admissions arrangements for all maintained schools are fully consulted on and scrutinised at a local level to ensure that, school by school, they comply with the code, and that therefore they deliver fair admissions for all parents.
The requirement for admissions arrangements to be consulted on annually, irrespective of whether they have changed since the previous year, is, in our view, an unnecessary burden. Also, parents and their communities are required to play no role in the consultation process. The amendments will therefore allow us to set out in secondary legislation a more flexible and adaptable consultation process, which will enable us more effectively to engage parents and communities.
It is our intention to consult in the summer on proposals that would require admission authorities to consult on their arrangements not every year, but every
three years, to lighten the burden on schools. Where changes are proposed within the three-year period, then, and only then, would a full consultation have to take place. It is our intention at that stage to ensure that parents and communities would be consulted. It is my intention separately but in parallel with that work also to ensure that in local areas elected local councillors can represent their constituents at appeals under the admissions code.
The second thing that we are doing in relation to the new clause is placing a clear duty on local authorities to report to the schools adjudicator on admission arrangements in their area. That is as part of their responsibility to monitor actively the compliance of admissions arrangements in their areas with the code and with admissions legislation. It is our intention to consult in the summer on regulations that prescribe the exact form, content and timing of those reports.
Thirdly, I am extending the role of the schools adjudicator so that, rather than being reactive as he is now, he will have a power to consider any admissions arrangements that come to his attention by any means, rather than waiting for complaints or reports to come to him. The schools adjudicator has no power to consider whether a school’s admission arrangements are unlawful unless he receives an objection from a local authority, a school, a faith body, a parent or an admissions forum. It is clear to me, on the basis of the evidence I have seen, that the adjudicator’s powers do not go far enough. He agrees with that.
Also, when particular admissions arrangements are referred to the adjudicator by my Department or are highlighted in a local authority report on admissions, the schools adjudicator will be obliged to consider them and to act accordingly. By extending the adjudicator’s role in that way, together with the other measures we are introducing through the Bill, we believe that we will be able to ensure greater compliance with the code and achieve fair admissions.
In fact, we believe that the steps we have taken in recent months will themselves constitute a decisive step towards fair admissions in our country. It is the only way to ensure that not some parents, but all parents, and not some children, but all children, have a fair and equal chance of gaining a place for the child at the school of their choice.
I should point out, as the letter to the Committee explained, that although those are the three main changes, there are other changes in relation to the new clause, which are consequential amendments Nos. 133 to 140, in particular to reorganise this chapter of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 so it is easier to understand and to draw the distinction between those amendments that relate to England and those that relate to the devolved Administrations.
I should also briefly mention the amendments to clauses 134 and 135, which we tabled and which were inserted during consideration of the Bill in Committee in the Commons. They support young people in fulfilling their duty to participate in education or training to the age of 18 by giving young people of whatever age the right to express a preference as to which school they want to attend to receive sixth form education, and give
young people aged 16 to 18 the right to appeal to an independent panel against decisions made.
Amendment No. 119 will remove the regulation-making power from clause 134, as the law already provides for children on a roll at a school and transferring to the sixth form to be kept on the roll unless there are lawful grounds for them to be removed. Amendments Nos. 120 to 123 are consequential to clause 135 as a result of amendment No. 119.
The admissions code demonstrates a substantial step towards fair admissions in our country. As I said, it was passed with cross-party support in the House, and I pay tribute to the Chairman of the Select Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield, for the work he did and the leadership he gave in delivering that code.
Rob Marris (Wolverhampton, South-West) (Lab): May I take the Secretary of State back to line 553 of new clause 14, which is on page 2057 of the amendment paper and concerns local education authorities requesting information from certain bodies? Line 553 refers to
“the proprietor of...an Academy...a city technology college, or...a city college for the technology of the arts...in the area of the local education authority”.
Will my right hon. Friend say what is meant by the term “the proprietor”?
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