Faith primary schools admitting fewer children with special educational needs
Faith primary schools are admitting fewer children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) than local authority community primaries, according to new research from the London School of Economics (LSE).
In research funded by the British Academy, Dr Tammy Campbell analysed Reception year admissions to mainstream state schools from 2010-2020 in England using the National Pupil Database census.
She concluded that many faith primary schools ‘serve as hubs of relative advantage, seeming disproportionately to serve children from more affluent families and children less likely to have SEND’.
In 2020, Catholic schools admitted to Reception, on average, 24% fewer children with SEND recorded in pre-school than local authority community schools.
Church of England schools that administer their own admissions admitted, on average, 15% fewer children with SEND recorded in pre-school than local authority community schools.
And Church of England schools with centralised local authority admissions admitted, on average, 8% fewer children with SEND recorded in pre-school than local authority community schools.
Those with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), which is a higher-level SEND funded by local authorities, were also less likely to be admitted to faith schools.
In 2020, Catholic schools admitted, on average, 15% fewer children with higher-level, EHCP SEND than local authority community schools – with 11% fewer admitted to Church of England schools that administer their own admissions, and 6% fewer admitted to Church of England schools with centralised local authority admissions.
The analysis controls for other school-level factors, and the area in which the school is based.
Dr Campbell’s paper builds on previous research that suggests faith schools tend to educate proportionately fewer children from low-income families, following analysis of those in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM).
Her new analysis shows that when FSM and SEND are analysed together, there is a ‘double effect’. For example, in 2020, a child with SEND and FSM is estimated to have a 22% chance of attending a ‘faith’ school, compared to a 29% chance for a child with no FSM eligibility nor pre-school SEND recorded. Those with an EHCP had a 21% chance.
About 28% of state primary school children in England attend faith schools, predominantly Church of England and Catholic.
Dr Campbell said that faith schools have consistently been ‘positioned and protected’ by successive recent governments as a public ‘good’: firstly, in terms of providing parents with choice and diversity; and secondly, as superior to non-faith schools in academic provision and ‘raising attainment’.
Dr Campbell commented: ‘Faith schools have been supported and championed by various politicians, across parties. Their place in the system has been defended against challenges as offering a ‘public good’ and being essential to ‘choice and diversity.’ But this paper highlights the selectivity of many ‘faith’ primary schools in under-serving children with disabilities, as well as reiterating their known under-admittance of children recorded as eligible for FSM. So it emphasises the need to question properly the function of faith schools in contemporary England.’
However, a spokesman for the Catholic Education Service said: ‘Catholic schools educate a much higher proportion of pupils from the most deprived backgrounds than other schools, according to the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index, with ten times the catchment area of local schools so less reflective of immediate localities.
‘Free school meals are an inaccurate indicator for example, they continue after after household incomes exceed the threshold. Catholic schools welcome children with SEND, and parents will want to choose the school that is best for their children’s needs. For a child with an EHCP, it is the local authority, not the school, that makes the decision about which school the child will attend, based solely on the child’s needs.
‘If parents decide that the local mainstream Catholic school is not the best fit for their child’s particular needs, they might instead opt for another school, such as a Catholic special school or a Catholic school approved for SEN pupils, of which there are 26 in England and Wales.’
Image: Tim Mossholder
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