| SPOTLIGHT |
A campaign group that supports free schools has claimed that there has been a surge in fraudulent applications for school places.
Freedom of Information requests made by the New Schools Network found that parents and carers unable to secure their first choice school for their child have made at least 1,250 fraudulent applications since 2011.
This was based on responses from 115 out of 152 local education authorities.
In 83 of these there had been a 50% increase in false claims over the period.
Network interim director Sarah Pearson said: “It is a worrying sign that parents and carers feel forced to go to these extremes to get their child into a good local school.”
The network said figures supplied to it showed that in 2015 there were 353 fraudulent applications, made up of 308 uses of a false address, 42 claims involving a false family member claim and there were three false religion claims.
It said that 76,381 applications did not receive offers for their first preference of school.
Department for Education figures in June indicated that 84.1% of pupils were offered a place in their first choice school.
