Campaigners urge Welsh Government not to transfer new schools to Catholic Church

The Welsh Government is being urged not to transfer more than £120mn of publicly-funded assets to the Catholic Church by an organisation that campaigns to separate religion from state institutions.

The National Secular Society (NSS) has written to Cabinet Secretary for Education Lynne Neagle setting out its opposition to proposals from Welsh local authorities to invest in facilities at voluntary aided (VA) Catholic schools, which it says would hand millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money directly to the Church.

One of the proposals, from Vale of Glamorgan Council, involves developing the buildings at St Richard Gwyn RC High School with an allocated budget of £64.9mn.

The second, from Flintshire County Council, would amalgamate four existing schools to create a new all-through Catholic school at an estimated cost of £55.5 million.

In both cases, 85% of the funding would be provided by the Welsh Government with 15% by provided by the respective councils.

The NSS states that, despite being 100% funded by the public, "due to conventions of ownership regarding VA schools, the newly developed facilities would be handed over in their entirety to the Catholic Church".

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Review

The NSS has urged the Welsh Government to review the policies and practices surrounding public investment in VA schools with a view to ensuring facilities which are publicly-funded remain in public hands.

The NSS also said the plans entail significant public money being directed towards the promotion of specific ideologies and discriminatory practices that undermine the principles of secular and inclusive education.

Both schools are able to select 100% of their pupils on the basis of religion – an allowance granted to faith schools that has been shown to put less well-off families at a disadvantage, lead to social segregation, discriminate against pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, and perpetuate unfairness experience by children in care.

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Public ownership

National Secular Society spokesperson Jack Rivington said: “Publicly funded facilities should remain in public ownership, not handed over to enormously wealthy religious institutions like the Catholic Church.

“Practices around the investment and ownership of voluntary aided schools are long out of date – and should be reconsidered with a view to protecting public investment.

“Instead of expanding and funding exclusionary and discriminatory schools that have been shown to perpetuate unfairness against those experiencing disadvantage in our society, the Welsh Government should prioritise secular, inclusive education that treats all pupils and families equally, regardless of background.”

Match funding

In response to a request for comment on the letter sent to Ms Neagle, the Welsh Government set out its position as follows: “To successfully secure funding, any investment cases received by the Welsh Government for education infrastructure investment are subject to the Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme’s business case scrutiny process and Ministerial approval.

“Funding will be subject to match funding from the governing body, diocese or local authority.

“Voluntary Aided schools are operated, and in most cases owned, by the diocesan authority. The Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme supports investment in education infrastructure across Voluntary Aided, Voluntary Controlled and Local Authority maintained schools. In all cases, the asset remains in the ownership of delivery partners following the investment.”