Leicestershire County Council

1. Consultation on admission arrangements must be completed by 1 March 2008 by all admission authorities, with the arrangements determined by 15 April 2008.  The consultation and publication requirements are summarised in the School Admissions Code (2007) Appendix 4.

2. The Local Authority is the admissions authority for community and voluntary controlled schools.  It is seeking views from schools, neighbouring authorities and other interested parties on its policy.

3. For voluntary aided and foundation schools the governing body is the admissions authority.  The precise requirements for such governing bodies to consult are listed in the School Admissions Code (2007) Appendix 4 paragrahs 1 – 5.

4. Consultation consists of the admissions authority informing relevant parties of the proposed arrangements for the year 2009/10 and inviting comments.  The relevant consultees are listed in the school Admissions Code Appendix 4 paragraph 2.

5. The Local Authority’s admissions policy is contained in Administrative Memorandum No. 28, last reissued in September 2007.  This is available on the County Council website here. Comments on the Local Authority’s current policy are welcomed, as well as on the following matters. If agreed, proposed changes will have effect for admissions from September 2009.

(a) Policy on 6th form admissions

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It is proposed to replace the current wording in the local authority’s policy to match the School Admissions Code 2007 (paragraphs 1.35 – 1.38), as follows.  Please note that some of the wording is taken from the Code itself.

(i) Schools have delegated control of their own sixth form admissions.  However, this is within the broader context of the local authority’s policy and role as the admissions authority.

Schools must make clear their arrangements for sixth form admissions.  An admission number for 6^th form must be set if external candidates are to be considered.  The admission number must relate only to those being admitted to the school for the first time.  It should be based on an estimate of the minimum number of external candidates likely to be admitted, although it would be acceptable to exceed this if demand for available courses can be met.

(ii) The school must make clear and publish any minimum entry qualifications, which can include a level of attainment in GCSE and must be the same for internal and external applicants and any over-subscription criteria.  Entry requirements may vary from course to course.  Entry requirements and over-subscription criteria must be notified to the local authority.

(iii) Children already in the school need not apply formally for places in the 6^th form.  Any applicant refused a place has the right to appeal to an independent appeal panel.  The local authority will not be able to present cases in appeal if the conditions of the School Admissions Code, the local authority’s policy and the school’s entry requirements or over-subscription criteria have not been applied properly.  Where the local authority cannot present a case in appeal it will normally instruct the school to admit the child.

The local authority’s policy is not specific about this.  It is proposed that if a child does not take up an offer of a place within 20 school days of the expected start date then the offer will be withdrawn, after consideration of the circumstances.

Concern has been expressed that the local authority allocates catchment area requests for mid-term transfers on demand (as long as proof of residence is satisfied), even if a school’s admission number has been reached.  (There are limits on this for infants, because of the infant class size limit.)  To alter this would be a fundamental change for Leicestershire.  However, comments are invited on the following proposal:

When a request is received for a child who has moved into a school’s catchment area and the school’s AN has been reached in the relevant year group, a place in an alternative school within walking distance, via an available walking route, is sought.  Walking distance in Leicestershire is 2 miles for primary-age children and 3 miles for secondary-age children.  If no alternative place is available then a place is allocated at the catchment school as requested.

Comment: the above may need some qualification, e.g.

Implications:

The current policy states that for admissions purposes the home-school distance is measured by direct line from the point at which the home meets the public highway to the main school entrance.

The local authority’s new computer system may not be able to measure precisely this way, so it is proposed to amend the policy to be less specific as follows:

Paragraph 2.6 of the School Admission Code 2007 states that all governing bodies are required to admit a child with a statement naming the school, that this is not an oversubscription criterion, and that schools must admit such children whether they have places or not.  The Schools Adjudicator has advised Leicestershire to remove mention of Statemented children from its first priority criterion.  It is proposed to do so, but have clear text above the priority criteria to the effect that all statemented children will be admitted.

The Adjudicator has criticised Leicestershire’s distance criterion as unclear, and he drew attention to paragraph 2.9 of the School Admission Code 2007, which gives the example of random allocation of places as the example of an effective tie-breaker.  It is not proposed to adopt random allocation in Leicestershire, but comments on the clarity of the local authority’s present criteria are requested during this consultation.

Relevant Areas” define the scope of consultation, for voluntary aided schools and foundation schools in particular.  The current statement in the policy is as follows:

Paragraph 9.1 of the Admission Policy states:  “At the time of main admissions/transfer decisions, if there are more requests for in-catchment children than the admission number (AN), the AN will be exceeded to accommodate the catchment children”.

Further to a query from the local government ombudsman it is proposed to change the word “will” in the above sentence to “may”, to comply with paragraphs 2.35 and 1.21 of the School Admissions Code.

    

“Relevant Areas” for Consultation Purposes

It is not proposed to alter this, but comments are welcome.

6. Schools’ admission numbers are published in the prospectus for parents entitled “Your Guide”.  These numbers can only be changed with the Local Authority’s agreement, and in some cases the publication of statutory notices and the approval of the Secretary of State are required.  In normal circumstances the admission number is the maximum for admissions to a year group, although the Local Authority’s admissions policy does describe circumstances in which an admission number might legitimately be exceeded.  A school must contact the Learning Environment Team if any change to the admission number is being considered or requested.  For queries please contact Alison Stanley (0116 305 6399) or Maxine Cansick (0116 305 6358).