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Baroness Blatch: My Lords, I thought that trotting out Ripon yet again would be irresistible. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Peston, that I make no secret of my preference for the continuation and even the extension of grammar schools. But the point that I was making in my amendment was that, whether or not one is for or against grammar schools, there ought to be a concern for the relentless and—what I would describe as—the "disruptive" activity of the petitioners. They create quite a fuss, standing outside school gates, in the market square and stopping people as they are shopping in the area.
The threat of closure is the outcome of a successful ballot: the grammar school is closed. If there are places in the area it may not even re-open as a comprehensive school. It may be merged with another school. If the noble Lord remembers the Act where that was enacted, he will know that the organisation of the school on ceasing to become a grammar school is a matter for discussion after and not at the time of the decision. That closure threat is unsettling for the parents and for the staff. I must also argue that that can have an effect on the education of the children. It is disruptive. It pre-occupies the minds of those who oppose the notion of closing the grammar school.
Therefore, the parents who support it—and they are not always the parents of children at the school but those in the area—the children, the teachers and certainly the governors and the head teacher will become involved in a campaign. Their energies are dissipated in the activity of opposing the closure. I return to Ripon. Ripon is not the example that should be used here because it had a successful petition. There was a ballot. It was determined by the local parents that the grammar school should continue. And there is a moratorium in place.
That is not the point of my amendment. If those who collect the signatures for a petition are unsuccessful—they may collect half or three-quarters, or even 99.9 per cent of the signatures—and do not collect 100 per cent of the required signatures, the petition fails. They are allowed to return to that year after year. I am simply saying that that is unacceptable. It creates a relentless war of attrition on the schools. I do not think that in putting that on the statute book the Government made a principled point. I think that the politics of envy are at play here. Somehow or other they see grammar schools as some creature of middle England that should be lost from the system. Mr Blunkett said that he frankly could not care less whether or not they survived. He does not see them as an important part of the tapestry of education.
However, if there is a principle at stake here, why, if it is so important for parents to have a view about whether grammar schools should continue, is it not the
same for city academies—I think that the noble Lord, Lord Peston, agrees with me—city technology colleges, specialist, music and drama schools? They all select children. For every child that is selected, many children are not. Those parents could feel equally aggrieved. As I say, I do not think that there is a principle here: it is the politics of envy. Sadly, there are too many people who oppose the existence of grammar schools. That is a great pity because I think that they are an important part of the tapestry of education in this country. However, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Baroness Blatch moved Amendment No. 80:
- Page 29, line 11, after "shall" insert "if requested by a majority of governing bodies of maintained schools in their area"
The noble Baroness said: My Lords, we have rehearsed the arguments with regard to Amendment No. 80. They are similar to those for schools forums. We are now talking about admission forums. I again want to argue for all those authorities with good arrangements in place which work well. Some operate a collegiate system, others operate a system akin to the UCAS. Those plans go on.
Where there is dissatisfaction or grievance about the admission arrangements not working in an authority, and a group of schools say that they would like to have an admission forum, I believe that one should be set up. If that is not the case, and what is working in the authority works well with the approval of the schools, I see no reason why that system should not continue. I beg to move.
Lord Peston: My Lords, I want to use the amendment in order to ask a question. Mine is the next amendment which is also connected with admission forums. I have one problem: I have great difficulty in understanding the composition of the admission forum. Who will be on the admission forum? I cottoned on late to the composition of the schools forums. I was therefore able to follow our debates on that subject.
I wonder whether I am alone in being the only person who does not understand what the composition of the admission forum will be. I am hoping therefore that, best of all, the Minister will stand up and tell me who will be on the admission forums, but if my noble friend does not know—which I cannot believe for one minute—then maybe the noble Baroness, Lady Blatch, will tell me if she knows. It has held me back a little in terms of my approach to the matter.
That is my only reason for intervening at this point on admission forums. It would be helpful to know rather more precisely who will be doing this.
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment No. 82 which is grouped with Amendment No. 80. It seeks to add city technology colleges and city academies among those included in the admission forums' discussions. We had a fairly lengthy discussion on this matter in Committee.
The outcome of our discussion on admission forums was, first, that the forums are to be purely advisory. Their aim is to help smooth the admissions arrangements in any local area. Normally that local area will be smaller than that of the local education authority. It will revolve around a sub-area of a town or a particular rural district area.
City technology colleges are totally independent. They will be outside, but will be invited to participate as the Minister said. We would very much like them to join in. We want to encourage city technology colleges to participate in forum discussions. We shall, by way of regulations, require forums to invite city technology colleges to attend meetings. All academies, through their funding arrangements, will be obliged to comply with the requirements of admissions law as it applies to maintained schools. They will be required, therefore, to take part in the statutory admissions forums. Since that is the case, our view is that it would be sensible to include them on the face of the Bill.
Quite clearly, city technology colleges have a major impact on admissions arrangements. Since the forum is only advisory and since its purpose is to try to sort and smooth matters out, the sensible thing would be to have not only the academies which are required to be there—and it is silly not to have them on the face of the Bill if they are going to be there—but to include city technology colleges on the face of the Bill. That is why we tabled the amendment again. I do think that there would be some sense in the Minister agreeing to it.
Lord Lucas: My Lords, I support the amendments tabled by my noble friend and by the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp. They seem to be eminently sensible. My noble friend's amendment is essential for this part of the Bill.
Amendment No. 81A is intended to take matters a little further. The Government have never fought shy of giving advice to people who do not want or need it. I do not see why they should fight shy of giving advice to all schools up to and including independent schools where to other schools in the area that seems to be an important part of the way that admissions are handled locally.
Obviously, that does not apply in some towns and cities, such as Winchester. Winchester College might as well be on Mars for all the interface that it has with the other schools in the locality. But there are other independent schools—Manchester Grammar School springs immediately to mind—that would like to be back in the state system if only the right funding arrangements could be organised. Many other independent schools, such as the arts-related schools, have a strong interface, one way or another, with what is the general education pattern in the area. I want the admission forum to have the power to involve those schools and issue advice to them if that is considered right by those schools and others in the locality. That would take the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, a little further.
7.30 p.m.
Baroness Ashton of Upholland: My Lords, I hope that my noble friend Lord Peston now feels that he knows what is to be the membership of the forum. For the benefit of any other noble Lords who have doubts, we have issued a policy statement that is available in the Library. When we rise—I am with the noble Baroness, Lady Blatch, in wanting to move to that point—I am happy to discuss the matter with noble Lords who are in any doubt.
I turn to Amendment No. 80, which, as the noble Baroness, Lady Blatch, said, we debated in Committee. I am a great fan of mandatory admission forums. I speak as a parent who was on the receiving end of a good quality one last year, when my son moved from primary to secondary school. It is one of the ways in which we know that we can improve the school admission process for even more parents and children. Every area will benefit from having a forum and the forum's role will be valuable. Many people have told us that forums would have a greater impact if they were in every area and admission authorities were required to have regard to their advice.
They will advise all admission authorities in the area, including the education authority, on admission issues and consider how well existing arrangements serve the interest of local parents and children. They will reach local agreement on new or controversial issues and an important part of their work will be to broker arrangements to ensure that vulnerable and challenging children—and those who arrive in an area outside the normal admission round—have fair access to local schools. Those are matters that are far too important to be left to chance. The schools most likely to vote against the establishment of a forum are those that that would not want to join in such collaboration.
All maintained schools will, of course, have a voice on the forum. We will expect core members to include representatives of head teachers and governors of foundation, community and voluntary schools. Mandatory forums will improve the admission process by ensuring real discussion and consensus between the key admission partners in an local education authority area. That is a matter of real importance and should no longer be voluntary. We do not want every governing body to have to debate, vote and then make a request in order for forums to be established. I hope that, on that basis, the noble Baroness will feel able to withdraw the amendment.
I turn to Amendment No. 82, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp. As I explained in Committee, city academies, academies and city technology colleges are not maintained schools and are not subject to the admission provisions of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. However, we recognise that certain schools not maintained by local education authorities, such as academies, have an important contribution to make to admission forum discussions and should be included in the membership of the local forum and have regard to its advice.
All academies will be obliged through their funding agreements to comply with the requirements of admission law and the admission codes as if they were
maintained schools. Academies will therefore be required by their funding agreements to take part in statutory admission forums and to have regard to the forums' advice. In regulations, we will require education authorities to appoint representatives of academies to be members of the forum.We have put in place robust arrangements to ensure that academies will be inclusive schools and that they will agree their admission arrangements in partnership with education authorities and other admission authorities. Their admission arrangements will be compatible with those of other schools in the area, and parents will have the same rights when applying for a place at an academy as they would in relation to maintained schools.
I have considerable sympathy with the aims of this amendment and I shall reconsider the involvement of academies in admission forums to see what could be done further to strengthen the provisions. I shall return to the issue, after discussion with the noble Baroness, if needed, at Third Reading.
The situation for city technology colleges is somewhat different. Although we also want to encourage CTCs to participate in forum discussions, and in regulations we will require LEAs to invite representatives of city technology colleges to attend meetings and to appoint members of the forum where nominations by the CTC are made, we have no power to require CTCs to take part or to have regard to the advice of the forums. Their funding agreements have been established for some time and their admission arrangements are required to be in line with their original principle: to provide education for children of different abilities drawn wholly or mainly from their local area. It is not possible at this stage to require them to have regard to the advice of the local forum, although we would greatly encourage them to do so—and, of course, there will be no more new city technology colleges. On that basis, I hope that the noble Baroness will not press her amendment.
I turn to Amendment No. 81A, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas. As he said, it would make an admission forum responsible for advising all schools, including those in the private sector, on admission matters. The noble Lord helpfully clarified that what he seeks is an assurance that if a forum wanted to involve the independent sector and the independent sector wanted, that would be allowed. I must say that I do not see great advantage in that. However, if the local education authority and the schools think that there would be benefit from such an arrangement, there will be nothing to stop them doing that. I hope that, on that basis, the noble Lord will be satisfied and not press his amendment.
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