The effect of Liverpool's schools admissions processes on Muslim children and those from ethnic minority backgrounds is set to be examined by councillors.
Liverpool Council' s education and children's social care select committee last night took steps to create a scrutiny panel examining how rules on admissions could disadvantage children from ethnic and religious minorities.
It comes after a meeting earlier this year, when a group of Muslim parents from Princes Park said admissions criteria for faith schools and academies nearby meant their children often ended up being placed in schools on the other side of the city.
In the same meeting, the parents said that during the journey from Princes Park to Holly Lodge School in West Derby, some of the girls had faced Islamophobic abuse on buses.
Committee chair John Price said there had been "lengthy discussion" about whether to move ahead with the panel due to the creation of a wider task force on racial inequality in the city but said the specific nature of the problem meant it needed its own scrutiny panel.
Councillor Price said: "My own view is that if it turns out that there will be duplication going forward then at that point we can abandon our own one because obviously at that point the mayoral task force will take precedence.
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"However, I also think it's highly likely that the mayoral one will be so wide ranging, looking at BAME representation across all levels of the council, that I think if we can take some of the more detailed issues of them then I think that will actually enable them to cover more ground in a wider sense."
It is expected that the panel will look at a range of issues, including a lack of representation for people from ethnic minorities in school governing bodies and the wider education system.
Councillor Price will likely be joined on the panel with Princes Park councillors Joanne Anderson and Tom Logan, as well as councillor Anna Key from nearby St Michaels.
The wider Race Equality Taskforce, announced earlier this year by mayor Joe Anderson, will be chaired by Tracey Gore.
Ms Gore, the director of the Steve Biko housing association, has worked in the social housing sector since the late 1970s and became Riverside Housing's first black housing manager at 27 years old.
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