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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
The new school for Twickenham: What happens next?
September 17, 2011 11:58 AM
• [Sep 17]: The Education and Inspections Act 2006 requires a competition to be held where a new primary, secondary or special school is proposed, including a brand new school. The Catholic Church will need to ask Michael Gove for special permission to set up a new school without any form of competition. The fact that there is local opposition will no doubt influence his decision on that:
' . . 7. Where an LA or other proposer wishes to establish a new school without a competition, they must apply to the Secretary of State for consent to publish proposals for a new school, as provided for in Section 10 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006."
If he waves it through, then there will be a consultation process:
' . . 8. Where consent is granted, a five-stage statutory process will apply, i.e. consultation, publication, representations, decision and implementation, where approved (see paragraph 11) . . as follows:
1: consultation - with all interested parties by those intending to publish the proposal. Proposers must have regard to the Secretary of State's guidance;
2: publication - in a local newspaper and by posting at the school entrances and in some other conspicuous place in the area, e.g. library, post office;
3: representations - normally six weeks (or four weeks for an "excepted expansion") during which written comments or objections can be forwarded to the LA;
4: decision - the decision-maker will be the LA. If the LA does not decide the proposals within two months, the proposals must be passed to the schools adjudicator for decision. There is a right of appeal in specific circumstances (see details in paragraph 13) [by the local RC church but not by the general public];
5: implementation - of the approved proposals.'
If he doesn't, then the council will have the choice of either having an open competition for the site, or working with the Catholic Church to set up a Faith Academy. Academies are exempt from competition; however the Catholic Church may not be happy about going down the academy route because of the rules that say new faith academies can only select 50% of their pupils by faith.
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