Place guarantee for founders of free schools

Parents who set up the Government's flagship free schools would be guaranteed places under new admissions proposals being considered by ministers.

The move is set to be announced in a new admissions code published later this month. But Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said it "paves the way for pushy middle-class parents to set up a school so their children don't have to go to school with the great unwashed".

The argument is that the parents may have spent up to 60 hours a week planning the new school – and therefore should be entitled to a place.

The move marks a U-turns from a commitment given by Education Secretary Michael Gove just after the election that free schools would have to abide by the national admissions code.