PARENTS have been accused of forging ministers' signatures to ensure a place for their child at church schools.

Now senior clergy have warned vicars to be on their guard against unscrupulous parents lying to get their children into high-achieving church schools.

Canon Peter Ballard, director of education for the Church of England Blackburn diocese, wants clergy to check young people's attendance at services and Sunday school before filling in school application forms.

The warning came after some parents have raised fears that some forms for entry into church schools may not be legitimate -- and want those in charge to put tighter procedures in place to check applications.

To get a place at a church school parents need to complete a council form and a supplementary form produced by school. And they need to be able to show a commitment to the Church to be considered for admission.

Many Church of England schools, like St Wilfrid's CE High School and Technology College, Duckworth Street, Blackburn and St Christopher's CE High School, Accrington, are known for being over-subscribed and consistently top league tables. They have also tapped into major funding streams, winning specialist status from the Government.

Canon Ballard said: "Schools do their best to check information but if people put bare faced lies, it is difficult to check. We rely on trust.

"A minister verifies church attendance and I would hope they all check Sunday school records or ask other lay people and church wardens to be witnesses. They need to be on their guard.

"The procedures for church school entrance are constantly under review but we do have to accept that absolute fairness is just not an achievable goal."

But disappointed parents want more to be done.

One Blackburn parent, whose child has been refused a place at St Wilfrid's CE School, declined to be named but said: "I can understand that over-subscribed schools have to put criteria in place but my concern is when those rules are being bent. It seems wholly wrong that parents either forge ministers signatures, or that clergy fail to authenticate the parents' attendance or that clergy are not prepared to challenge blatant lies.

"The school needs a system in place to monitor accurately the forms that are returned so when a genuine application is received it is not turned down in the place of one that is false."

Lisa Dixon's daughter Emily, of Bolton Road, Ewood, was also turned down. "The system is too easy to abuse," she said.

"Our priest was not even permanent so he didn't know anyone. I could easily have lied."

Dave Hollings, executive member for education in Blackburn, said: "We do receive complaints about admissions. If people are being devious about the admissions policy we are clearly going to be the last people to know.

"But I have checked with our team in school admissions and they are not aware of any greater problems than normal, such as signatures being forged but it is very difficult to monitor effectively.

"Many schools are oversubscribed and not everyone gets their first choice."