Education: Grant Maintained Schools (Hansard, 12 July 1991)

§ Lord Cavendish of Furness
My Lords, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science has approved applications for grant maintained status at 96 schools and is minded to approve a further three. A further 57 applications are being considered following ballots in favour of grant maintained status. There are some 23,000 maintained primary and secondary schools in England. All are eligible to apply for grant maintained status.

§ Lord Dormand of Easington
My Lords, as those figures show that only 2 per cent. of schools have chosen to opt out after all the time, trouble and money spent on promoting the scheme, how can the Government justify their continuing boasting about the success of it? Secondly, will the Minister confirm that opt-out schools engaged in building projects are receiving an allocation two-and-a-half times greater than that available in the local authority sector? They receive £240 per pupil compared with the £100 per pupil available in the local authority sector.

§ Lord Cavendish of Furness
My Lords, the aim of the policy on grant maintained schools is to extend parental choice, enable resources to be used for the benefit of pupils and so raise standards and give parents and governing bodies the opportunity to have much more say in the running of their schools. The local control of schools should raise parental involvement and staff morale. We are not disappointed with the results of our policy. We are delighted that parents and governors in all kinds of schools are considering the option of grant maintained status.
With regard to the noble Lord's second question, I shall need to check the figures. The noble Lord's figures do not match mine.

§ Lord Pearson of Rannoch
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that educational change is always slow, and that although it has taken two years for the first 100 grant maintained schools to come into operation, it actually took eight years for the first 100 comprehensives to do so? Does my noble friend agree that one of the unfortunate reasons why more grant maintained schools have not come into operation has been the vicious intimidation of parents wishing to do so by some of the nastier elements of our education establishment? Therefore I wonder whether my noble friend will concur that, when the Conservatives win the next election, the present flow of applications for grant maintained status will turn into a veritable flood?

§ Lord Cavendish of Furness
My Lords, my noble friend makes an interesting comparison with regard to comprehensives which had not previously occurred to me. We are aware of the considerable disquiet expressed by a number of parents over the conduct of a local authority during a ballot earlier this year. We deplore any kind of behaviour which impedes the conduct of an open and informed debate on grant maintained status. Parents should be able to choose the best course for their school in an atmosphere free from pressure, threats and misleading statements. With regard to my noble friend's other point, he may agree with me that there may be some outside who do not know what my noble friend and I know; which is that we shall win the next election. There may be some who prefer to see that outcome confirmed rather than risk their new-found freedom being wrenched away and replaced by suffocating control.

§ Baroness David
My Lords, is it correct that if the Secretary of State approves some of the applications now before him, 55 per cent. of Hillingdon's secondary schools and 40 per cent. of Kent's 1595 secondary schools—both, incidentally, Tory authorities—will become grant maintained? Does he not consider that, if that happens, the local education authority will have a difficult time because of what will happen to its central administrative services? Is it not likely i hat there will be a breakdown of such services as school meals, education welfare and so on?

§ Lord Cavendish of Furness
My Lords, the process is evolutionary. The size of the sector will depend on the number of schools choosing to apply for grant maintained status. In time we expect grant maintained status to become the natural organisational model, at least for the delivery of secondary education. But not all schools are ready to assume that. We shall need to watch and monitor the situation and act in the circumstances.

§ Lord Ironside
My Lords, can my noble friend tell the House which counties are now in the lead in giving grant maintained status?

§ Lord Cavendish of Furness
My Lords, I am afraid that I cannot do that this morning. However, I shall write to my noble friend on the matter.

§ Lord Campbell of Alloway
My Lords, can my noble friend the Minister say if, when an application for grant maintained status is refused, a reasoned refusal is given stating the grounds? Further, can he say whether such a refusal is open to public inspection?

§ Lord Cavendish of Furness
My Lords, my understanding is that reasons are given and that the information is made public. It is certainly made available to the applicants, who are then free to make what use of it they wish.

Bareness David
My Lords, with due respect to the Minister, he did not really answer my question. I asked what the effect would be on a local education authority if a large number of schools suddenly become grant maintained? How will it maintain its other services when a large portion of its work will have gone? It is the effect on other schools and on the services, such as education, welfare, school meals and so on, that worries us. Have the Government any advice for those authorities?

§ Lord Cavendish of Furness
My Lords, the pattern changes every year. Nothing stands still in this or in any other field so far as concerns local authorities. However, the various circumstances are taken into account by my right honourable friend in the annual settlement.

§ Lord St. John of Fawsley
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that the ultimate responsibility for grant maintained status must rest with members of the party opposite who, by their wanton destruction of grammar schools, made it necessary for this new status to be invented?

§ Lord Cavendish of Furness
Yes, my Lords; I must agree with my noble friend. It is hard to envisage that 1596 we would be having this discussion if the old arrangements for grammar schools were still, happily, in place.

§ Lord Peston
My Lords, I am sorry to have to intervene in the discussion. I did not expect the House to become engaged in a kind of political argy-bargy this morning. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the Minister's earlier replies on the matter. Nevertheless, I thought that we were dealing with an education Question. Is the Minister aware that the 1988 Act, under which this process takes place, does not allow these schools to change status? Therefore, the noble Lord's question about grammar schools is completely beside the point. Such schools are not in a position to change their status; this is not a method of introducing grammar schools. Will the Minister confirm that that is the case?

§ Lord Cavendish of Furness
My Lords, I think that the noble Lord probably knows the regulations better than I do. However, if he wants politics kept out of the debate, then he should, as a member of that party, say that he will refuse to confirm that grant maintained status will be abolished under any future Labour Government.

§ Lord Peston
My Lords, I am supposed to put what I say in the form of a question and so does not the noble Lord understand that quite the reverse is the case? These schools are a blot on the educational landscape and we shall do our best to remove them.

§ Lord Dormand of Easington
My Lords, in dealing with the first part of my supplementary question, the Minister simply stated the aims of opting out. However, he did not say anything about the fact that only 2 per cent. of schools have opted out. Can he give the House some indication of what percentage the Government will consider in this respect? Further, rather strangely, he said that my figures did not agree with his. Will he now give me the figures as regards the percentage of building development in schools?

§ Lord Cavendish of Furness
My Lords, I shall have to read the noble Lord's question. I must say that I did not quite understand it. I am not sure whether it is easy to compare like with like. However, so far as concerns the first part of the noble Lord's question, there is no target and there is no deadline. We want to give a choice.