Chief Schools Adjudicator calls for random testing of school applications

Local authorities should routinely check – as a minimum – a random 10% sample of applications for school places in a bid to reduce fraud, the Chief Schools Adjudicator said this week.

In a report to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Dr Ian Craig estimated that 4,200 fraudulent applications were made in 2009. Of these, 1,400 were identified cases.

The Schools Adjudicator made 15 recommendations overall, including that:

• The Schools Admission Code should require local authority admissions booklets and forms to have clear statements on them to say that in signing the parent is making a truthful application, and clearly pointing out what can happen if it is not found to be truthful
• Local authorities should consider follow-up letters from their legal teams asking for additional signed confirmation of accuracy of information where there is a suspicion that it is fraudulent
• Local authorities should be put under a duty to search out, and follow up any reports they receive of misleading or fraudulent applications
• Local authorities should be encouraged to publicise a “whistle-blowing” telephone number in their admissions booklets and elsewhere
• In cases where deception is proved, there should be a duty on local authorities that places must be withdrawn
• A fast-track appeals panel should convene to hear suspect applications.

The Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, has already accepted the main recommendation in Dr Craig’s first report, published in October 2009, which suggested that parents who obtained a place by deception (but where the child had not been removed) would be prevented from gaining priority for their other children over other applicants by using a “sibling link”.

In his response to the report, Schools Secretary Ed Balls said: “It has not been and is not our intention that parents should be criminalised. It is clear that there is no single answer to this issue and that a co-ordinated approach is necessary. I believe it is important for local authorities to examine their local practices, to consider where they can deter dishonesty and ensure early and consistent enforcement so that families are not unfairly deprived of a rightful place."

Balls said that where deception is found after the child has started school, the default position – that places are withdrawn – should be firmly linked to [the Adjudicator’s] proposal for fast-track appeals to be heard within two weeks of the deception being found, and with the child remaining in school until the appeal panel is held.

However, he added: “It will be for the independent appeal panel to decide whether the child should retain a place within the school.”

The Schools Secretary also described the random checks of 10% of applications – along with further information in the Code on detecting fraudulent applications and how they can be addressed, with letters being sent to parents whose applications are suspect – as “a reasonable approach”.