Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department plans to take to aid the development of the Integrated Communities Strategy.

Education has a crucial role to play in promoting integration, and widening opportunities for all communities. Schools, in particular, are at the heart of our communities, bringing families from all walks of life together. We know that many schools already successfully create inclusive environments but we want to ensure this is the case for all schools and other types of education settings.

As part of the Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper, we announced a strengthened package of support for schools, and measures to deliver quality education across all settings, for all groups. We will support schools to increase the diversity of their pupil intakes, by developing model admission arrangements; and will strengthen expectations for all new free schools to show how they improve integration further. Our measures aimed at boosting local capacity to identify and tackle concerns in out-of-school settings; and our consultation on strengthened guidance and wider call for evidence on issues connected with elective home education, will support better quality education provision outside of schools.