Children in care will be helped to gain private school place
Minister reveals plan to offer bursaries to the disadvantaged
GIFTED children in care will be given discounted places at private schools from next September, ministers will announce this week.
Nadhim Zahawi, the children’s minister, said scholarships and bursaries would be made available for disadvantaged children from the start of the next academic year.
Ten regional hubs comprising councils, social workers and public schools will be established in the new year to start placing the children with private schools. Bursaries provided jointly by councils and schools on a 40/60 split will be used to pay for their full-time education.
Other cared-for children will be able to enrol in debating clubs, take part in drama classes, get help with university applications or have sports and music coaching, while remaining at their state schools.
The plans are a significant expansion on work by the Royal National Springboard Foundation, a charity that has placed hundreds of children in boarding schools on fully funded bursaries, and build on successful trials in Norfolk.
Mr Zahawi told The Sunday Telegraph: “It is the first time it has ever been done. The ambition is big but I want to get going. State schools, independent schools and the local authority working together – it is a first in our country. It has never been done – everyone works in silos but now we are going to put them together and say ‘right come on’.”
Mr Zahawi added: “It could be that the child stays at the state school but that they get additional support on violin, piano, sport or whatever it is from the independent school.
“They could get help in writing their Ucas statement so we get more of them to university. Only 6 per cent [of children in care] get to university at the moment. That is a terrible number.”
He added: “I want the hubs to be teaching the independent schools as to how they sell themselves to these kids.”
The Department for Education will advertise for charities to run the hubs in the new year. Official figures show that on March 31 this year there were 75,420 “looked after” children in England. However, ministers could not confirm exactly how many pupils would be eligible to apply for the scheme.
Barnaby Lenon, the chairman of the Independent Schools Council, welcomed the plans which he said will allow the state to fund chil- dren’s places in day private schools for the first time.
He said: “It has got to be a proper process by which children are identified as being suitable. The machinery for that has yet to be put in place.
“Independent schools are keen to help but it is very important that we don’t damage children by putting them in the wrong school – so the process of pairing up children with schools has got to be done by people who know what they are doing.”
In October Mr Zahawi said he wanted to see all of the country’s 1,000 private schools offer support for “looked after children”.