Education and Inspections Bill
10:30 am
Nadine Dorries (Mid Bedfordshire, Conservative)
On a point of order, Mr. Cook. I beg your indulgence in making a point of order at the start of our discussions. During our last sitting, on Tuesday, the then Minister for Schools may unintentionally have misled the Committee. As recorded in Hansard, when the Minister was asked whether city academies had a responsibility to take children with special educational needs, she answered,
“yes they do have to.”—[Official Report, Standing Committee E, 2 May 2006; c. 638.]
In fact, city academies do not have to take children with special educational needs. They have the right to refuse to take such a child; a parent does not have the right to name an academy and neither does the local education authority.
The DFES sent a letter to all chief education officers on 15 November which stated that where the academy is of the opinion that
“the child’s attendance at the school would be incompatible with the efficient education of the other children”
there are no reasonable steps that could be taken to prevent that incompatibility, and consequently it does not consent to its being named in the child’s statement, the local authority should not name the academy. That is because academies have the right to say no to any child with special needs. Therefore, the Minister’s answer to the question should have been “No.” City academies do operate selection; they need to take only those children with special educational needs whom they choose to take.