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Theresa May warned be 'slow and careful' over faith school admissions changes

Prime Minister Theresa May has been warned over faith schools: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Prime Minister Theresa May has been warned over faith schools: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Senior Tory MPs today warned Theresa May to go “slow and careful” before allowing faith schools to take fewer pupils from other religions.

Robert Halfon, the chairman of the Education Select Committee, said schools must always be obliged to offer places to “a significant minority” of people with different beliefs.

At the same time, a former Conservative minister who supports more faith schools urged the Government to make any changes gradually to avoid the risk of the “ghettoisation” of some schools. The warnings follow a signal from new Education Secretary Damian Hinds that he is ready to scrap a cap which forces new faith schools to offer half their places to people of different faiths or none.

The rules were brought in under David Cameron in 2010 to force children of different backgrounds to mix and to counter extremism.

But Catholic bishops say they cannot open new schools while the cap is in place, putting a brake on the Government’s flagship free schools programme.

Mr Halfon said faith schools were hugely successful and popular but cautioned that parents of other faiths expected their children to have a chance of getting in.

“I am a supporter of faith schools given their academic record,” he said. “Catholic schools have amongst the highest success in the country.”

The warning comes over faith schools (AFP/Getty Images)
The warning comes over faith schools (AFP/Getty Images)

He said the cap could be eased “as long as there is opportunity for a significant minority of non-faith pupils to go the schools”.

“On the whole faith schools should be supported given their success,” he said, adding that the education watchdog, Ofsted, should be tasked with cracking down on extremism and failure to teach the national curriculum.

The former minister said: “I think if we want more free schools we need to look again at the cap. It hasn’t worked as intended. I suspect with slow and careful handling a change could be made, but I am not sure it’s a priority for Damian.”

Dame Louise Casey, the Home Office adviser on social cohesion, issued a strong warning against scrapping the cap in a landmark report in 2016, saying that mixed intakes were vital to integration. Allowing more Catholic-only schools would also mean more Muslim-only schools.

But Mrs May inserted a pledge to lift the cap into the Conservative manifesto, reportedly at the instigation of her former aide Nick Timothy.

Mr Hinds, who attended a Catholic grammar school, is seen as more keen on the change than former Education Secretary Justine Greening.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We want to go further to ensure all young people have access to a good school place and we are keen for faith groups to play a key role in this. Many faith schools are high-performing and are more likely to be rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted than non-faith schools.”