Contributions
1,058 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)My hon. Friend makes an important point. Clearly, it is really important that we have good schools available to every child in every local area. That is clearly a challenge. A…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)My hon. Friend puts it very well. Indeed, that is the case that we are making. That means having good and great schools, and that is the ultimate aim of all these provisions: to…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)No, that is not what I said. I was responding to the specific question asked by the hon. Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston. These measures are being introduced to support…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)I recognise the challenge of falling rolls in some London boroughs, which the hon. Member rightly identifies. It just goes to make the case even more strongly: partners have to…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)The guidance will set out how local authorities will determine their published admission number. It will also support local authorities with effective place planning, which will…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)The hon. Gentleman has made his concerns known. I do not think he is making any new assertions. It might be helpful if I continue setting out why we do not accept the proposed…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)Local authorities make decisions about place planning within their local area. There will be a duty on all schools within a local area to co-operate with the local authority on…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)Where the adjudicator upholds an objection to the published admission number, I cannot foresee a circumstance where that might be the case—06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)It will very much depend on the local context. Obviously, it will be for the adjudicator as an independent professional to take that decision for maintained schools. To be clear,…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)I cannot hear.06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. She makes powerful and important points relating to the challenges she has experienced in her local area. That is why the changes are…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)Can I finish making one point? Adjudicators do that when schools seek to vary their admission arrangements once they have been determined. I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)It is a hypothetical prospect of a published admission number being set at zero. That will be dealt with as part of regulations and we will set out more detail in those, but we…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)I can get back to the actual substantive response to the amendment, or we can carry on with this debate in the meantime.06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)To deal with the issues that the hon. Gentleman raises, he is wrong that this is a new power.06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)If the hon. Gentleman will let me a finish a sentence, he will see. The hon. Gentleman is repeatedly putting words in my mouth by taking snippets of sentences without listening to…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)That is what the hon. Gentleman just said, did he not?06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)That is the point I am making. These challenges affect local authorities right up and down the country. The research the previous Government undertook into this matter…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)Absolutely, and it is right that where an objection is put to the adjudicator about a published admission number and the adjudicator upholds it, they consider the wider impact on…06 Feb 2025HANSARDChildren's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eleventh sitting)I cannot envisage a scenario where an adjudicator would adjudicate on the opening of a new school. If it adjudicates on the published admission numbers of existing schools, I…06 Feb 2025