Schools Adjudicator hits out at "unnecessarily complex" admissions arrangements

Admission arrangements for too many schools that are their own admission authority are “unnecessarily complex”, the Chief Schools Adjudicator (CSA) has said.

In her report for September 2013 to August 2014, Elizabeth Passmore suggested that the arrangements appeared to be “more likely to enable the school to choose which children to admit” rather than simply having oversubscription criteria as required by paragraph 1.8 of the Schools Admission Code that were reasonable, clear, objective and procedurally fair.

The CSA’s other main findings from the cases considered by her office during the 12 months were:

• Too many admission authorities of schools that were their own admission authority did not comply fully with the Code in respect of consultation about, determination of, and publication of their admission arrangements. “Paragraphs 1.42 to 1.49 of the Code set out very clearly what an admission authority must do for itself and also do to enable its local authority to meet the requirement set for it in respect of publication of admission arrangements.”
• Admission arrangements for admission to the sixth form were frequently found to contravene the Code. “They are, for example, difficult to find, lack an admission number, do not include oversubscription criteria and have application forms that request information prohibited by the Code.”
• Schools that were their own admission authority often had arrangements that lacked the required information and requested prohibited information in their supplementary information forms. “They do not meet their responsibility for having admission arrangements that comply fully with admissions law and the Code.”
• The practice of some primary schools of giving priority for admission to the reception year to children who have attended particular nursery provision had again been found to be unfair to other local children, constrain parents’ preferences for child care and pre-school provision and not comply with the general requirements of the Code.

Passmore said: “The main findings from the cases considered this year are, unfortunately, not significantly different from those reported last year. The OSA only becomes involved when there are differences of opinions and the findings are, therefore, mostly of continuing problems.”

The CSA’s report noted how the Education Act 2011 and the associated new admissions regulations and School Admissions Code (the Code) had already brought changes to the work of the OSA and during 2013/14 there had been new regulations and guidance concerning statutory proposals.

The School Organisation (Discontinuance and Establishment of Schools) Regulations 2013 and the School Organisation (Prescribed Alterations to Maintained Schools) Regulations 2013 with the associated guidance had meant that adjudicators had had to check carefully whether a case had to be considered against the old or the new regulations, she said.