The Roles of the Diocese, the LA and the LSC
Catholic parents have the duty to educate their children in their faith and the Church has a right and duty to provide schools for this purpose. The relevant parts of Canon Law are as follows.
- Parents are to send their children to those schools which will provide for their Catholic education. If they cannot do so, they are bound to ensure the proper Catholic education of their children outside of the school.
- The Church has a right to establish and direct schools.
- Christ’s faithful are to promote (establish and maintain) Catholic schools.
- The diocesan Bishop has the responsibility to ensure that ‘Christian’ schools are established.
- The diocesan Bishop has the right to watch over and inspect the Catholic schools situated in his territory, even those established or directed by religious institutes.
The Bishop seeks to provide forms of schooling which are in keeping with the social policies of the Catholic Church, as interpreted by the Bishop’s Conference. This means that, under the leadership of the Bishop, all diocesan schools are expected to (1) promote the common good of society, and (2) promote the inclusion in education of all sections of the community, especially the poor and disadvantaged.
The Trustees of the Diocese maintain an oversight of the proportion of pupils and staff who are Catholic in each school, as part of the process of preserving and promoting the Catholic character and ethos of the school, and in order to ensure that the resources of the Diocese are deployed effectively in pursuit of the aims of the Diocesan Trust. (It is acknowledged that the school’s Catholic character is not guaranteed simply by the proportion of its pupils and staff who are Catholic.)
The Catholic Education Service conducts an annual survey of pupils and staff in every Catholic school. The results are made available to dioceses in due course. However, schools need to ensure that the diocese has the most up to date information at all times. Schools which propose to increase or reduce their established admission number should consult with the Schools Service and the LA at the earliest opportunity. Schools should also consult with the Schools Service before deciding to admit pupils temporarily in excess of their admission number in any year. Additional requirements attach to changes that require the publication of statutory proposals (see below).
LAs are under increasing pressure to allow popular schools to increase their admission numbers, even where surplus places are available in local schools. This has both potential benefits and dangers for diocesan schools. Initially, a non-diocesan school may seek a temporary increase in its intake beyond its admission number. As this arrangement is not meant to persist, a proposal may follow to increase the school’s admission number for future years. For this reason, the Schools Service needs to be alerted to any local developments that might result in the undermining of the roll of a diocesan school, either through temporary increases in admissions or through proposals to increase admission numbers.
The LA is responsible for ensuring that there are sufficient school places in each area, for providing a diversity of schools and for meeting individual parental preferences. The LA’s plans must show how it will secure sufficient provision, increase diversity, encourage collaboration, promote community cohesion and raise standards. The LSC is responsible for planning post 16 provision.
The Diocese and the LA work together to establish priorities for building projects, including those involving changes to pupil numbers and new school premises. The LA submits the agreed priorities to the DfES for funding.
The Schools Service will seek to ensure that, before the LA proposes introducing new schools, full consideration has been given to the possibility of expanding existing schools, including Catholic schools where appropriate. New schools can distort parental preferences, especially if they bring facilities which are significantly better than those of existing schools. The Schools Service works to ensure that a fair proportion of improvement funding from all sources is put to diocesan schools. It is important for Catholic parents to have the choice of Catholic schools that have the most up to date buildings and facilities. Schools are encouraged to work closely with officers of the Schools Service to ensure that local plans for collaboration, and any plans for reorganisation, take their interests into account.
The Schools Service is represented on local early years partnerships. Schools are encouraged to work with officers of the Schools Service to ensure that they can participate in the provision of nursery places if appropriate.
LAs and school governors have to publish notices of certain proposals. The Schools Service needs to be involved when a diocesan governing body proposes a change to the LA. It is also vital that schools contact the Schools Service when other schools or the LA publishes notices that affect their interests, so that representations, and formal objections if necessary, can be made. If a proposal is against the interests of a diocesan school, it is vital that the Schools Service is made aware of the issues, so that diocesan representatives can support well-founded cases.
Making Changes to School Organisation (statutory proposals)
SECTION IN REVISION
Diocesan Planning Principles and Strategy
In making decisions about the establishment, location, size and character of Catholic schools in the Diocese, the Trustees will apply the following principles.
- Provide maintained primary schools with places for all baptised Catholic children of parents living in the parishes of the Diocese.
- Support priority for admission being given to children living in the parishes that the school has been nominated to serve.
- Provide maintained secondary schools in strategic locations within the deaneries of the Diocese.
- Provide secondary school places for all baptised Catholic children of parents living within the deanery that the school has been nominated to serve.
- Provide sixth form places within diocesan secondary schools where possible and look for innovative alternative solutions where it is not.
- Provide for primary age children and those with complex special educational needs through the non-maintained schools operating under the Diocesan Trust.
- Promote pre-school education by cooperating where appropriate with parishes, schools and early years development partnerships.
- Work with independent Catholic schools in the Diocese to support them in providing their pupils with a sound education in the tradition of the Catholic Church.
- Support Catholic chaplaincy within institutions of higher education.
- Enhance the range of provision in each sixth form by encouraging collaboration among diocesan school sixth forms, and also collaboration with other partners whose ethos is compatible with theirs.
- Take account of established patterns of cross-border attendance involving neighbouring deaneries and dioceses, and of attendance at independent schools.
- Offer priority for any surplus places to children of other Christian denominations and then to children of other faiths.
- Aim to ensure that the buildings and facilities of diocesan Catholic schools are at least as good as those of other schools in their area.
- Maintain access to Catholic schools for Catholic families living in rural communities.
- Promote, and defend where necessary, the provision of home to school transport so that parents can enrol their children in the Catholic school of their choice without undue financial hardship.
- Encourage schools to implement, where possible, provision for extended schools, which allows governors to offer a range of facilities and services for the benefit of pupils and their families.
- Where demand for Catholic school places in an area falls to levels that are insufficient to sustain the existing provision, explore any opportunities that may exist of co-provision with schools of similar ethos, as an alternative to complete removal of Catholic provision.
Diocesan Planning Procedures
This section describes how, in future, the diocesan school organisation plan will influence decisions on proposals from schools, including those which involve changes to pupil numbers and/or major capital investment. Even though proposals may not involve changes in number, they may be competing for priority with others that do.
- The Diocese maintains a school organisation plan based on information about baptismal trends, school numbers, projected and target numbers, school performance and information from school asset management plans.
- The school organisation plan supports the planning of school places to meet the needs of the Catholic community.
- When it is necessary to consider a reduction in school places or school closure, the Diocese takes account of the proportion of children on roll that are baptised Catholic.
- Considerations of Catholic pupil numbers are not based on an arbitrary minimum percentage but on an individual assessment for each school of an appropriate target proportion that reflects local circumstances and assumes that the school has good overall performance.
- Diocesan officers provide individual schools and deanery groups with an opportunity to contribute to the school organisation plan.
- The Diocese gives priority to projects which reflect the needs identified in the plan.
- The Schools Committee confirms the school organisation plan and annual priorities.
- Each school is responsible for providing the Diocese regularly with up to date information on school numbers, including projections and targets, and performance.
- When making proposals to the Diocese, each school should lodge an up to date profile of its trends in pupil numbers and performance.
- Schools should show how their proposals reflect the needs identified in the diocesan school organisation plan.
- Schools should provide evidence that their proposals are being supported by other schools in the deanery, after appropriate consultation, and should show how deanery provision will be enhanced.
- All schools have the same opportunity to put proposals to the Diocese for consideration.
- Each school is responsible for putting its own case. However, diocesan officers support schools in preparing their proposals.
- The Diocese works with LAs to ensure that the LA school organisation plans reflect the needs of Catholic schools.
- The Diocese works with LAs to prioritise and support the projects which are most likely to meet the current DfES requirements for funding.
- Cost effectiveness is a major consideration in prioritising proposals. The Diocese will seek an independent assessment where necessary.
- All schools should pursue the funding available from the DfES and other public sources. Only in exceptional circumstances, where other sources have been exhausted, will the Trustees permit ‘off programme’ developments which depend solely on the sale of diocesan assets.
