§ Sir Rhodes BoysonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has reached any decision on the application by the London borough of Brent for a section 11 grant for the development programme for racial equality in schools.
§ Mr. Douglas HurdI have now received and considered the report of an inquiry which Sir David Lane carried out at my request on Brent's development programme for race equality. He is severely critical of the arrangements for the development and implementation of the programme in 1986. But he finds that, under a new director of education and on a much reduced scale, the programme has now been accepted in schools. Sir David Lane and Her Majesty's inspectorate of schools, in a parallel report also published today, find that the scheme is now making a useful contribution to tackling under achievement by ethnic minority pupils in Brent schools. He accordingly recommends that, subject to extensive undertakings by Brent and its acceptance that the scheme should be independently monitored, grant should be paid for a period of three years for a retitled programme. I accept Sir David Lane's recommendations. Copies of both reports have been placed in the Library.
Brent council has accordingly been informed that section 11 grant will be paid only on the basis of the reduced scheme and its acceptance of the undertakings and of independent monitoring. Baroness Cox has agreed to lead the monitoring panel.
I have also decided to set in hand a scrutiny of the whole basis for section 11 grant. It is time that we looked again at the criteria and procedures by which grants are made under section 11.