§ Mr. Roger EvansTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he has had to take action in respect of any local authority in Wales which has issued misleading information about grant-maintained status.
§ Sir Wyn RobertsThere have been several instances where it has been suggested that the information being made available by local education authorities to schools that were considering grant-maintained status or where parents were about to ballot on grant-maintained status, was incorrect and misleading. There has, however, been only one instance to date where there has been sufficient firm evidence that the information was misleading, to justify intervention by the Welsh Office.
Some schools in Dyfed have been advised by their LEA that should a school successfully apply to become grant-maintained, both teaching and non-teaching staff working at the school would have no security of employment and would be required to apply 10 the grant-maintained governing body for their own jobs. That is clearly incorrect. The contracts of employment of staff who work only at the school transfer automatically from the former employer to the school's governing body on the day the school takes on its new status. Officials wrote to Dyfed county council to correct this misunderstanding and the letter was copied to all head teachers in Dyfed as well as other directors of education.