Clause 43
Education and Inspections Bill
11:00 am
Jim Knight (Minister of State, Department for Education and Skills; South Dorset, Labour)
In responding to these interesting amendments, Ihope that it will help if I make a few initial comments about theclause as a whole, to put it into context.
Clause 43 enacts our WhitePaper commitment to make pupil banding easier to implement and to giveadmission authorities the flexibility to adopt the most appropriate form of banding for their circumstances. To right a misunderstandingthat has been referred to in Lord Hattersley’s article, bandingis by no means going to be compulsory. The provision enables individualschools to band, or provides for two or more schools to adopt jointbanding arrangements. In addition, it enables them to band and securean intake that is representative of the range of abilities of allapplicants to the school, or an intake that reflects the local area orthe national ability profile. Provision in the 1998 Act already permitsadmission authorities for schools to introduce banding of the firstkind that I referred to, and we are looking to extend that.
Amendment No. 94 proposes thatwhere the admission authority for a school is a local authority, itshould be required to consult governing bodies before introducingbanding to admission arrangements. However, local authorities mustalready consult the governing bodies of community and voluntarycontrolled schools before making any changes to a school’sadmission arrangements. So, if the local authority wishes to introducebanding on the basis of applications made for an individual schoolalone, it would, under current legislation, have to consult thatschool’s governing body. We therefore believe that the amendmentisunnecessary.