ISC welcomes plans to widen access to ISC school

6 October 2003

The Independent Schools Council (6 October) welcomed Tory proposals put forward by their spokesman Damian Green at the Conservative Party Conference today.

The ISC said:

"Damian Green has made clear that the Tories' "Passport to Better Schools" would enable parents to spend the money provided for their child's education on a place at an independent school.

"This is a major break with the old assisted places policy, which was confined to academically talented children.  It would represent the first stage of an entirely new approach by the state to independent schools which would make them accessible to families who at the moment cannot secure places at them.

"This is the approach which the Independent Schools Council has been commending to politicians of all parties for some time. It would create challenges for independent schools; in many cases they would need to consider how the state scholarship might be topped up.  But the rich new opportunities would interest them greatly.

"Here is a policy that the other major parties would do well to copy."