Schools adjudicator warns against over-simplification of admissions code

The chief schools adjudicator in England has warned against the government's plans to reduce the complexity of the school's admissions code, saying that simplifying the rules risked “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”.

Speaking on the launch of his office's annual report, the adjudicator Ian Craig said while the government's plans to remove the non-binding parts of the code would make the rules easier for parents to understand, going too far would leave the remaining rules pointless and unenforceable.

"I don't think it should necessarily be cut down in terms of its requirements, but it needs to be more accessible," he said. "I think we need to be very careful that while we're making it more accessible we don't simplify it to such an extent where it becomes a useless document."

The adjudicator's annual report said that 18 of the 152 local authorities covered by the adjudicator has reported that some of their schools were not complying with the admission code.

Ian Craig also said that some religious schools were “inadvertently” favouring white middle class parents through their selection criteria. In particular, he criticised points-based schemes aimed at determining whether parents were genuinely practising members of their religions, some of which rewarded “activities activities that are beyond those that could reasonably be expected as part of religious membership or practice" or were difficult for working-class or immigrant parents to fulfil.

"We have faith schools that benefit the white, middle-class areas but don't benefit the immigrant population," he said. “I don't generally think we've come across schools that have done that to skew their intake specifically, but our view is it has been skewing the intake."

Responding to the adjudicator's comments, the education secretary Michael Gove confirmed that  the government planned to carry on with its plans to simplify the code.

“It is absolutely right that every parent should want their child to go to an excellent school, so school admissions will continue to be a controversial and sensitive issue as long as there are too few good school places. I intend to make the school admissions framework, including the School Admissions Code, simpler and fairer, and I have asked my officials to start speaking with key stakeholders.”