Children with special educational needs are more likely to attend a non-faith-based primary school than one run by a Church or England or Catholic diocese, research shows.
The findings have been produced by Dr Tammy Campbell, of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), who analysed Reception year admissions to mainstream state schools from 2010 to 2020 in England using the National Pupil Database census.
The analysis compared the intakes of both Church of England (CoE) and Catholic primary schools with those of non-faith community primary schools.
Dr Campbell also carried out an analysis of the number of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in all faith state primary schools, compared with all non-faith state primary schools.
“We can say - on average, nationally, non-faith schools are more likely to admit children with SEND to Reception than faith schools. Or, more specifically in terms of the pupil-level analyses: nationally, children with SEND are more likely to attend non-faith schools than faith schools,” Dr Campbell told Tes.
The research, funded by the British Academy, provides a series of breakdowns based on 2020 Reception year data. Figures were produced based on two categories: children recorded as having SEND in pre-school and those with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) in place.
In 2020, Catholic schools - including academies - admitted to Reception, on average, 24 per cent fewer children with SEND recorded in pre-school than local authority community schools.
CoE schools that administer their own admissions - voluntary aided schools and academies - admitted, on average, 15 per cent fewer children with SEND recorded in pre-school than local authority community schools.
Faith schools ‘serve as hubs of advantage’
And CoE schools with centralised local authority admissions admitted, on average, 8 per cent fewer children with SEND recorded in pre-school than local authority community schools.
Those with an EHCP were also less likely to be admitted to faith schools, according to the findings.
In 2020, Catholic schools - including academies - admitted, on average, 15 per cent fewer children with EHCPs than local authority community schools.
CoE schools that administer their own admissions admitted, on average, 11 per cent fewer children with EHCPs. CoE schools with centralised local authority admissions admitted, on average, 6 per cent fewer children with EHCPs than local authority community schools.
The analysis controlled for “other school-level factors, and the area in which the school is based”.
Dr Campbell concludes 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”.
The analysis does not include special schools and has also not included primary schools of other faiths, as the latter numbers were deemed too small to include.
A spokesman for the Catholic Education Service said: “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.”
The Church of England’s chief education officer, Nigel Genders, said: ”The Church of England is committed not only to meeting its legal obligations but to providing schools which prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable through ambitious and expansive visions for SEND and alternative provision.
“While the research gives no strong evidence that arrangements by admissions authorities for CoE schools are a barrier to SEND applications, the Church is taking active steps to promote equal educational opportunities through our National Professional Qualification (NPQ) programmes, which train leaders in evidence-based SEND practice, and supporting schools through trauma-informed practice and SEND networks for leaders.”
