THE
P RTAL
October 2016
Page 12
The Catholic
Education Service
Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane met with the Director, Paul Barber
Once we
were settled in Paul’s Central London Office, he told us about himself. “I was a product of
Catholic education. I suppose, reflecting on it afterwards, I realised that I’d been given something very
special. I did a law degree and practiced at the Bar for a number of years.
“Then a new post, that of Legal Officer at the
Catholic Education Service, was advertised. Two
people independently sent it to me, and said that it had
my name on it. Indeed it had. I came here for the first
time and I was Legal Officer for five years. Then I was
offered a job doing something similar in the legal team
in the Westminster Diocese.
“When my boss, the Director of Education, retired,
I got his job. I was there for thirteen years. Then my
present post came up and I was encouraged by various
people to put my name forward. I took over here as
Director in April 2013, so I’ve been here just over three
years now.”
We knew that the Catholic Education Service is very
highly thought of by the education profession and
others.
poor was becoming a real cause of concern.
“Those with money had always had education
available; the richest people had tutors and there were
the grammar school. But the education of the poor was
the thing. There were several reports in the early 19th
century leading to the first state funding for education
for the poor which came about in 1833.
“The government set up an education committee
of the Privy Council which in many ways was the
precursor of the Department of Education. An
annual grant was distributed to organisations which
would found and run schools. It’s interesting that the
understanding was that education was primarily a
responsibility of parents and not of the State.
“This was fundamental, and it’s still part of the
story now. Nobody thought it was any business of the
Paul agreed and continued, “Yes. It is important State to do education. It was the business of the State
to start with a little bit of explanation about the role to ensure that parents were helped to educate their
of the CES. It is not always widely understood, both children. That’s why the solution was to help to enable
within and outside the Catholic Church. We are an State funding to support those who would actually run
agency of the Bishops’ Conference but we’re older than the schools.
the Bishops’ Conference. We predate the Hierarchy, by
three years.
“Obviously the churches collectively were first in the
queue because they were the people actually doing it at
“We go back to the time of the Vicars Apostolic, before the time. The National Society, the CofE’s educational
the restoration of the Hierarchy. It was the advent of wing, had started in 1811. The other one was the
public funding for schools that was the starting point. British and Foreign Schools Society which funded
It was evident to everybody, including the government the non-conformist Protestant schools. So there were
in the early 19th century, that the education of the National Schools and British Schools competing