Faith school places objections to be limited to local parents
By Sean Coughlan, BBC News:
Secularist campaign groups are to be stopped from making “vexatious complaints” against the admissions systems of individual faith schools.
The government says only local parents will be able to pursue objections against how popular, oversubscribed schools prioritise applications.
The schools admissions watchdog has said public money was being wasted by multiple objections by pressure groups.
The education secretary says it will be “easier for parents to have a say”.
Nicky Morgan says the changes will “unclog” the admissions system for individual schools, by limiting challenges to local parents and local authorities and excluding lobbyists and pressure groups.
‘Targeting’ faith schools
In particular the Department for Education says it will stop “secularist campaign groups” who have “targeted faith school admissions as part of a particular agenda”.
Schools Adjudicator, Elizabeth Passmore, has said in her annual report that handling challenges against individual school admissions policies from those with “no connection in terms of seeking a place for their child” is “not good use of an adjudicator’s time and public money”.
Such challenges meant that running the adjudication service was costing more than £1.1m per year.
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