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State Schools (Independence)

My hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and I, and all others who advance the point of view that we have expressed, accept that there have to be special measures under the statementing procedure. We are critical of the present statementing procedure. I have my own experience of it. We believe that it is overly bureaucratic and could be simplified and that a financial value should be attached to the statement. However, we all accept that there will always be under any system a financial subsidy—whether or not it is called a statement and whether it is run centrally or by local authorities—to assist children with special educational needs. Yes, I take that completely on board, but I believe that if we moved to a system in which head teachers were free to set their own admissions criteria, we would have a vast range of schools catering for different abilities, and most schools, as happens in the private sector, would cater for all abilities. I know that Labour Members cannot philosophically accept that—it is anathema to them—but I urge them to have more confidence in head teachers and not to believe that all head teachers would simply go ruthlessly for the brightest 10 per cent. of children. There simply are not enough of those children to go round. My hon. Friend and I are talking about the money following the pupil. We are arguing that instead of the money being siphoned off by central and local government, it should, through a small funding council, go direct to schools. That would allow each child to have, under the present set-up, £6,000 or even more, and there would be a school for everyone.