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Education and Inspections Bill

Will the Minister clarify the position of support staff? I was a teacher for 22 years and I have been racking my brain trying to remember which of the support staff whom I worked with in those years would have needed to be of a particular faith to do the job. My colleagues tell me that things have changed and that the pastoral support side of the job that I did at various times—I was assistant head of year 10, and head of a sixth form for many years—has been given to what are now termed support staff. In a faith school such as a Catholic school, the head has to be a practising Catholic and the member of the support staff giving pastoral care must also be a practising Catholic. Are we therefore saying that when a child comes to that member of staff—as they used to come to me—to discuss their concerns about issues such as homosexuality, AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, contraception or abortion, they will not be given such advice because of the legislation that we propose to pass today?