Voluntary Aided - History

History

Prior to the 19th century, there were a variety of schools in England and Wales, from charity schools providing basic education for the poor to endowed schools (often grammar schools) providing secondary or all-age education. Early in that century, the British and Foreign School Society and the National Society for Promoting Religious Education sought to provide elementary schooling for poor children, setting up non-denominational British schools and Church of England national schools respectively. From 1833, the state began to provide grants to support these elementary schools and the less wealthy endowed schools. They were joined by the Catholic Poor School Committee, which established Roman Catholic elementary schools and received its first state grant in 1847. Secondary education also expanded at the same time, including a series of Roman Catholic secondary schools established by religious orders.

The state began to provide elementary education in 1870 and secondary education in 1902, but also continued to increase funding to the schools run by private organisations, now known as voluntary schools. In return these schools were increasingly influenced by the state, and were subject to jointly administered inspections. In 1926, voluntary secondary schools were required to choose between being "grant-aided" by the Local Authority, or receiving a "direct grant" from central government. Under the Education Act 1944, most of the direct grant schools became direct grant grammar schools. The Act also imposed higher standards on school facilities, and offered the remaining voluntary schools a choice in funding the costs this would incur:

• Voluntary controlled schools would have all their costs met by the state, but would be controlled by the Local Education Authority.
• Voluntary aided schools would be only partly funded by the state, with the foundation responsible for 50% of capital works but having greater influence over the school.

The Catholic Church chose to retain control of its schools, while more than half of Church of England schools became voluntary controlled. The state contribution to capital works for VA schools was increased to 75% by the Education Act 1959, and is now 90%.

By the 1970s, most local authorities were in the final stages of reorganising secondary education along comprehensive lines. Although the Roman Catholic hierarchy supported this change, many non-Catholic voluntary aided grammar schools opposed it. Local authorities could not compel voluntary aided schools to change any aspect of their admissions, but they could submit a proposal to the Minister to cease to maintain a school. This was done in cases where the local authority and school could not agree. Some of these schools became independent schools:

Direct grant status was abolished at the same time and over 40 such schools, almost all Roman Catholic, converted to voluntary aided status.

Many voluntary aided schools converted to grant-maintained status in the late 1980s, generally reverting to voluntary aided status when GM status was abolished in 1998. A few formerly independent faith schools that had become grant-maintained in the early 1990s also converted to voluntary aided status at that time.