HC Deb 12 July 1994 vol 246 cc823-4
14. Mr. Nigel Evans

To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many schools are grant maintained in the north-west.

Mr. Boswell

At present, there are 72 self-governing schools in the north-west region and a further 13 schools have been approved for grant-maintained status or have applications in the pipeline.

Mr. Evans

Will my hon. Friend send his congratulations to Salesbury primary school in my constituency which will become grant maintained in September, joining two other grant-maintained schools in my constituency, the very popular Clitheroe Royal grammar school and Archbishop Temple school? Does my hon. Friend agree that the best antidote to the scepticism of those who have not quite made up their minds about the success of grant-maintained schools, such as the hon. Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Blair), is for them to come to the north-west and the Ribble valley to see how those successful schools are operating?

Mr. Boswell

I am delighted to send my congratulations to Salesbury primary school alongside those for Clitheroe Royal grammar and Archbishop Temple school, a school which I have visited and by which I was immensely impressed; it is a good example of the benefits of grant-maintained status.

Mr. Miller

The Minister is fond of blaming local education authorities, but, in the context of the north-west, will he acknowledge that there is no greater trend towards grant-maintained schools in Tory and Liberal-controlled Cheshire than there is around the rest of the north-west? Does not that mean that parents have made the right judgment and that the Tory party has got it wrong?

Mr. Boswell

There is a growing demand for grant-maintained schools. I have already referred to the 13 in the pipeline in the north-west and I have every confidence that that overall number will grow.