Specialist Schools (Hansard, 8 July 1999)

§ 7. Mr. Ben Chapman (Wirral, South)
What support has been given to specialist schools to enable them to increase their links with the community. [88971]

§ The Minister for School Standards (Ms Estelle Morris)
The criteria for specialist school applicants provide clear guidance on their community role. From September, we will make available additional funding of up to £20,000 a year to support the development of links with other primary and secondary schools and the wider community.

§ Mr. Chapman
I join my hon. Friend in welcoming the expansion of the specialist schools programme, which includes Plessington high school in my constituency. Is not that evidence of the Government delivering on diversity, just as they are delivering on early years and on class sizes? What evidence is there of successful achievement by pupils in the specialist schools?

§ Ms Morris
I thank my hon. Friend for his comments and congratulate Plessington on being designated a 1166 specialist school. It is indeed an example of the Government modernising the comprehensive principle. There were 200 specialist schools when we took office and we have found additional resources so that there will be 800—one in four secondary schools—by 2002. We have ensured that they share their resources and expertise with other secondary and primary schools in the area so that we can raise standards for all children, not only a few. I know that all hon. Members will welcome that.

§ Mr. Michael Jack (Fylde)
The former Lytham St. Anne's high school in my constituency has taken on the specialist role of a technology college, but unfortunately it faces problems with its second round funding application. It was led to believe that £100 per capita would be available in the second phase, but it is now affected by a new policy that appears to impose a cap. Will the Minister assure me that an official from her Department will make early contact with the headmaster, Mr. Michael Payne, to review the situation and get a first-hand briefing on the problem?

§ Ms Morris
There are no new criteria. The financial arrangements for the second round were made clear some time ago. The specialist schools receive considerable extra money. There is matched funding of £100,000 for capital work and up to an additional £100,000 to provide for revenue work both for the schools' own students and for others. I have every confidence that the school in the right hon. Gentleman's constituency will use the money to good effect to raise standards for its students and those in the neighbouring schools.

§ Mrs. Anne Campbell (Cambridge)
Will my hon. Friend investigate the unwillingness of the Conservative-controlled Cambridgeshire local education authority to match the Government's standards fund to provide literacy classes for parents in my constituency? Those parents will miss out on a valuable source of funding that the Government want to use to raise standards.

§ Ms Morris
I share my hon. Friend's concern about that. In the drive to raise literacy standards for children, it is just as important to work with their parents. Much of the money made available by the Government for the literacy strategy should be taken up locally, and I very much regret the action of the Cambridgeshire authority. If it had decided to passport the money that the Government have made available for schools, it would not have had to make the decision that it has made.

§ Mr. James Clappison (Hertsmere)
Given that specialist schools involve a measure of selection, will the Minister take this opportunity to say whether the Government still believe the assurance given by the Secretary of State to the constituents of the hon. Member for Wirral, South (Mr. Chapman) in the by-election there in 1997? That assurance was given in a Labour publication and was headed "Grammars are safe with Labour". The Secretary of State said: There's no threat to the continuance of the grammar schools or to their ethos or their quality. I'm very keen to level up. Does that assurance stand?

§ Ms Morris
I look forward to the day when the hon. Gentleman asks a question that does not refer to the 1167 161 grammar schools, but is about the 24,000 other schools that make up the rest of the English state system. My right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State have made the Government's policy quite clear, both before and since the election. They have said that the decision about whether to change the admissions arrangements for grammar schools, in the Wirral and elsewhere, will lie in the hands of parents. The House knows that the last time that many grammar schools closed was under Baroness Thatcher. She did not allow parents to make that decision, but took it herself, in conjunction with local authorities. I should have thought that, on such important decisions, the House would welcome the fact that we are asking those whose lives will most be affected.