FAITH schools in Camden are being urged to open up their classrooms to more pupils who do not worship in a bid to help ease the borough’s strained admissions process.

An independent consultant has reported that greater access to schools run by the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church would ease problems in areas of high demand.

The recommendations were made by education expert Graham Carter, who was brought in by council chiefs to run through how the annual admissions process works in fine detail.

After interviewing officials and school staff, he said that Camden would benefit from schools run by religious organisations offering at least a third of their places on an open basis. 

He said half of the Church of England schools already did this, but seven would need negotiations to change their individual rules. No schools sponsored by the Catholic Diocese offered open places and Mr Carter said change was unlikely because it was a stipulation of their “trust deed” to reserve places for Catholic children.

Of the Church of England schools, however, he said: “The governing bodies of the seven remaining schools should carefully consider whether to provide a proportion of open places, balancing the need to provide sufficient places for those living within a reasonable distance from the school who meet the faith criteria with meeting the demand for places for others in the community.”

The issue is thought to have taken on greater significance around Kentish Town Church of England School, where in recent years there was a high demand from parents not attached to the church. Families have missed out on places to children living a greater distance away. After discussions with the council, the school is now moving to a 50-50 admissions policy.

Luca Salice, a governor who recently stood for Labour in the local council elections, has highlighted the issue of faith school admissions.

He said: “It is reassuring that an increasing number of Christian faith schools in Camden have agreed to open up a percentage of their places to local children irrespective of their religious affiliation. The events surrounding the Trojan Horse investigations in Birmingham have convinced most people, I think, that it is beneficial for our society if children are brought up in an environment that is culturally and religiously mixed.”

Labour’s schools chief Councillor Angela Mason said the council would continue to press for religious schools to be more flexible.

“The reason that we asked for an independent report was to make sure that we were doing all we can to help parents at a time when there were concerns in some areas about admissions,” she said. 

“It did recommend that Church of England schools offered a proportion of open places and that we talked to the governing bodies. We did that and I’m  pleased to say three schools have moved to offer open places. We will press on with the issue. The Church has suggested it is happy to move towards this model of a mixed intake.”

The Catholic Education Service did not respond to telephone calls and emails from the New Journal yesterday, but there is a general acceptance at the Town Hall that there will not be a change in policy there. 

A spokesman for the Church of England's London Diocese Board said: “The Board encourages all C of E schools in London to move towards a 50 per cent open places policy and indeed some C of E schools in the Diocese operate 100 per cent open places policies.”