Government proposes to lift cap on faith school places

The government is consulting on lifting the 50 per cent faith cap, which applies to new faith free schools.

The cap means that if a new free school with religious character is oversubscribed, it can only prioritise pupils based on faith for half of the available places. The other half must be allocated without reference to faith-based admissions criteria.

Introduced in 2010, the cap only applies when a school designated with a religious character is overbooked, otherwise all applicants must be admitted in line with standard admissions policy.

The Department for Education (DfE) said that this has caused some faith groups to feel unable to open new free schools and feel discouraged about bringing existing schools into academy trusts.

The consultation said: "We propose to amend the free school criteria to remove the 50 per cent faith cap.

"This would be delivered by removing restrictions on faith based admissions in the free school funding agreement and a subsequent update to the admissions code."

The consultation also seeks views to allow new and existing special academies registered with the DfE as having a faith ethos to apply to be designated as having a religious character.

Faith character allows schools to make certain decisions based on religion and over religious education, for example staffing decisions.

This would also apply to existing special academies that already have a registered faith ethos, and to existing maintained, independent or non-maintained special schools that want to become a new special academy.

The consultation also said: "Special academies designated as having a religious character would benefit from some, but not all, of the specific ‘freedoms’ that apply to mainstream schools designated with a religious character, including in relation to staffing, religious education, and collective worship.

"However, they would not be able to admit pupils based on faith."

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the school leaders’ union, NAHT, said: "Schools with a religious character play an important part of the education eco-system and are often popular with parents.

"Many such schools are made up of diverse communities and work hard to ensure that pupils mix and interact with children from a wide range of backgrounds and with different beliefs from their own.

“However, NAHT is concerned that the move to remove the faith cap is an unnecessary and potentially retrograde step.

He said they are concerned there is a danger that such a move could inadvertently lead to a "sense of selection through the back door" and could potentially make it harder for some pupils to get a place at their local school.

Whiteman said: "Such a change in policy feels inappropriate so close to an election and is something that should be incorporated into a manifesto.”