Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Agnew of Oulton (HL10441 and HL10442) on 12 October, whether they have made any assessment of potential breaches of equalities legislation in any statutory differences to entitlement for priority schools admissions for children adopted from overseas compared with those adopted in the UK from care, in particular where both such groups of children are UK citizens.

Children in care are amongst the most vulnerable in our society and they should be admitted to the school that is best able to meet their needs. Since 2007, school admission authorities have been required to give looked after children highest priority in their admission arrangements. In 2012, this priority was further extended to previously looked after children.

The government also wants to ensure that children adopted from care overseas receive equal highest priority for admission into school as those looked after or previously looked after by a local authority in England. The department is committed to amending the School Admissions Code to achieve that aim.

The department is keen to ensure that looked after children are given parity for admission into school as soon as possible, and has asked admission authorities to use their current flexibilities in setting their own admission arrangements to grant children adopted from care overseas second highest admissions priority in their oversubscription criteria.