Government votes to allow 100% faith selection by new state schools

An amendment to keep the 50% cap on faith-based admissions in all new schools was voted down by the Government at Committee Stage for the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill after it wrongly claimed faith schools as ‘more diverse’ than other schools.

Tabled by Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson MP, the amendment would have required that new schools opening under the Bill’s new school organisation law be required to have an admissions policy that limited selection based on the religion of the pupil and their family to 50% of places when oversubscribed. This is the case with the existing law. The amendment was put to a vote with Liberal Democrat MPs and Green MP, Ellie Chowns, voting in favour, and Labour MPs and Conservative MP Damian Hinds voting against. Two other Conservatives abstained. 

Fellow Liberal Democrat MP on the Committee Ian Sollom welcomed that the changes in new school proposals would enable new specialist schools to be open, ‘however there is a potential loophole on faith-based selection. The amendment is to bring the current established principle on faith-based selection into line with all new schools. It’s a simple amendment and hopefully the Government can support it.’

Labour MP Lizzi Collinge, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group (APPHG), said:

‘The current cap was introduced by the Labour Government in 2007, and the cap limit in 2011 was supported by all three main parties. We have seen 100% faith-selective schools open, including a school in Peterborough in 2017. It has happened when the legislation has allowed for it. We heard from the Catholic Education Service that they would want to have 100% faith-selective schools.

‘The problem is 100% faith-selective schools are less socioeconomically diverse than those you would expect for their catchment areas, they are less socioeconomically diverse than schools that have the 50% cap, they are less ethnically diverse than expected. 100% faith-selective admissions in my view only exacerbate inequalities in the school system.

‘Many faith-selective schools operate a system of scoring for religious attendance and volunteering. This is easier when you have more economic or social capital. At least since the 1950s data shows that church attendance is higher in wealthier people. This religious activity is less easy to take part in if you work shifts and weekends. Faith selective schools encourage and embed educational inequalities and this is why I am concerned about any lifting of the 50% faith selection cap.’

Conservative MP Damian Hinds argued against the amendment. ‘I can counter what she [Lizzi Collinge] says with other statistics. In particular anyone who would argue the intake of a Catholic school would be higher up the socioeconomic scale than the average doesn’t know a whole lot about the demographics about the Catholic population in this country.’ Hinds didn’t support this assertion with any evidence and admitted: ‘There are all manner of data sets. I haven’t got my full Excel complement with me today.’ In fact, the Sutton Trust has found that Catholic schools are some of the most socially selective in the country.

What Mr Hinds is alluding to is a common tactic of Catholic lobbyists to describe Catholic schools as ‘more diverse’ than other schools because of the fact of where they happen to be based – and the particular historical tendency for Catholic schools to be basic in economically deprived areas. However every analysis of Catholic school intake shows that they in fact take fewer pupils on free school meals than their neighbouring schools – meaning that what Mr Hinds cites is an example of discriminating (whether deliberately or not) against the poorest students in favour of students who are better off, while boasting of their inclusivity. Catholic schools) also tend to be more racially selective than other schools (particularly when it comes to Asian pupils) and more likely to refuse to admit children who are or have been in care.

But the Minister for School Standards, Catherine McKinnell MP, argued that:

‘In practice it would only make a difference to new voluntary aided, foundation, and voluntary controlled schools with a faith designation. I recognise in bringing this amendment [Munira Wilson] is seeking to ensure that new schools are inclusive and that children have access to a good education and this is very much a mission that we share. The Government supports the ability of schools designated with a religious character to set faith-based oversubscription criteria. This can support parents who wish to have their children educated in line with their religious beliefs. But it is for a school’s admission authority to decide whether to adopt such arrangements.

‘We do want to allow proposals for different types of schools that will promote a diverse school system that supports parental choice. Our priority is driving high and rising standards so that children can thrive in whatever type of school they’re in. Whilst designated faith schools that are not subjected to the 50% cap are not restricted in the number of places they can offer in reference to faith, it is for the admissions authority to decide whether or not to adopt such arrangements.

‘In response to the concerns around socioeconomic diversity. Catholic schools are some of the most ethnically diverse schools. Faith schools draw from a much larger catchment area which can often create a more diverse intake. The Department doesn’t collect data about the admissions policies of schools with a religious character. [Therefore] there is no data to support extending the faith cap on the basis that students are unable to access the school of their choice.’

For most faith schools, including virtually all those that are 100% religiously selective, they are their own admissions authority. So to say that it is for these schools’ admission authorities to decide as to whether they will be able to 100% religiously select is in fact saying that it will be for the school itself.

The Bill will now move forward as written, paving the way for 100% faith-selective schools with a religious character to be opened. Humanists UK has campaigned to keep the cap for over a decade, including campaigning against the last UK Government’s proposals to remove it from free schools with a religious character. While this cap will still apply to free schools, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will permit other kinds of schools to open that are not covered by the cap.

The likelihood of new 100% faith-selective schools opened has been made clear to the Committee. The Director of the Catholic Education Service said during an oral evidence session that they would be supporting the repeal of the 50% cap and would like – when oversubscribed — ‘to continue to give priority to Catholic families’.

Humanists UK’s Education Campaigns Manager Kieran Aldred commented:

‘We are disappointed that MPs missed this opportunity to ensure in law that no new 100% faith-selective schools can be opened. The cap on faith-based admissions had been an agreed policy since the Brown Government and it is a shame that this amendment fell due to lack of support from the current Labour Government. Worse, it is dismaying to hear the Government claim that faith schools are more diverse when this flies in the face of clear evidence showing that this is not so.

‘Faith-based admissions are discriminatory, segregationist, and contribute to a less integrated and cohesive society. They drive ethnic, social, and religious division. The UK Government is wrong to change the law to allow this to expand further.’