The inclusive schools coalition Accord has responded to research presented at the Royal Economic Society today showing that faith schools increase social segregation and fail improve local results overall.

A report by two academic institutions, to be published later this week, argues that faith schools fail to improve standards and create "social sorting" of children along lines of class, ability and religion.

The Accord coalition for inclusive schooling has welcomed plans by the National Union of Teachers to campaign for an end religious discrimination in school admissions.

The head of Ireland's largest Protestant church has said it is time to consider the creation of joint Catholic-Anglican schools in Northern Ireland.

A growing number of people from different religious communities are speaking out for the reform of faith schools in Britain, countering accusations that the call for change is just a secular fad.

If we are to have publicly funded faith schools, then they must serve the whole community, says Anglican vicar Jeremy Chadd. They mustn’t exist to prop up one community, nor to offer escape routes from a more diverse real world to those who already have all the advantages in life.

The Liberal Democrats have become the first mainstream political party to acknowledge that many faith schools currently pursue unnecessary practices in admissions and employment which work against inclusion - and pledge to challenge them.

The Liberal Democrats have become the first mainstream political party in Britain to admit that many faith schools currently pursue unnecessary discriminatory practices in admissions and employment, and to pledge to challenge them.