| Summary: | England schools in the 43 Anglican dioceses in England within the period 1972-1975 and of questionnaire responses from some 2,000 bishops, clergy, headteachers and other lay people in those dioceses, tögether with examination of post-1944 Church Assembly, General Synod and diocesan documents, reveal wide variety in individual diocesan policies concerning voluntary school provision and in the nature and extent of that provision, but little diocesan involvement with the Anglican independent schools. In the absence both of national direction and of diocesan authority the pattern of Anglican voluntary aided and controlled school provision which has developed in England since 1944 owes more to parochial decision than to diocesan policy and administration. The extent of that provision has declined markedly since 1944 and conditions exist for continued decline. A national Church of England policy for the future of its schools is unlikely to emerge but continued financial stringency has in recent years led to a movement within the dioceses towards acceptance of the concept of the selective retention of aided schools so as to perpetuate a Church presence at strategic points within the maintained schools system. A presence in terms only of aided schools raises the question of the future of the controlled school. There is considerable evidence within the dioceses of misinterpretation, whether or not intentional, of the responsibilities and limitations imposed by controlled status and it is suggested that, if the rate of grant aid to managers and governors of aided schools were again to be increased, controlled status be withdrawn, with appropriate safeguards, and the acquisition of aided status then be seen, in retrospect, to have been a process of selection leading towards a permanent solution to the problem of dual system reform
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