London Councils warn children risk missing out on education due to “complex” in-year admissions system

A report by London Councils has revealed that pupils who change schools during term-time have to navigate a “challenging system”, which leads to some children missing out on their education.

The organisation has called for greater guidance on how schools can handle in-year admissions, and for Ofsted to take in-year admissions practices into account when evaluating how a school is performing.

Across 27 London boroughs, more than 75,000 in-year admissions were received from September 2021 to July 2022.

The report found that a “considerable number” of families who have to apply for a school place for their children through this system faced “unnecessary delays”, resulting in some children missing out on education for weeks or months.

London Councils suggested that some of these delays were due to the time taken for referrals to Fair Access Protocols, and the Secretary of State in the more challenging cases, “which can sometimes have a detrimental impact on pupils’ wellbeing and results”.

In-year admissions in years 10 and 11 pose particular challenges as schools have less time to prepare these pupils for exams, the report added.

London Councils said: “Boroughs are not always told if a child is rejected by a school in-year, which means there is the potential for councils and other services to lose touch with them and their family, leading to greater safeguarding and wellbeing risks”.

Outlining the challenges of in-year admissions for schools, it noted that no immediate funding is made available by the Department for Education when these children join.

“Current funding is on a per-pupil basis, and for children who join the school after the census in October, the school will not receive any funding until the next October”, the group said.

The report made a number of recommendations to improve the current system for children, families, schools and local authorities, including:

• Greater powers for councils to have oversight of all in-year admissions, to allow “fair allocations of pupil numbers in schools by making sure that undersubscribed schools are not forced to admit an excessive number of pupils in-year”.
• An increase in powers for local authorities to direct any state-funded school to admit a child where appropriate, while being fully funded to do so.
• An adjustment in funding based on the January school census, instead of the October census, so schools receive funding for higher pupil numbers across all year groups. This process is currently only used for reception year school rolls.

Cllr Ian Edwards, London Councils Executive Member for Schools and Young Children, said: “London Councils shares the government’s commitment to ensure all children, especially the most vulnerable in our society, are safe and have access to an excellent education. But boroughs need greater powers to bring about the necessary changes to create a system that is faster, fairer and more simple to navigate.

“Not only is it unacceptable that some pupils are missing out on their education as a result of the complexities of this system, but it also poses unnecessary safeguarding risks as children missing education are less likely to have contact with statutory agencies. This means there is potential for them to fall off the radar if a council is not informed that a pupil has been denied a place via the in-year admissions process.

“We look forward to working with government and head teachers across the capital to ensure local authorities have oversight of all in year admissions to decrease disruption to children and schools, as proposed in the Schools White Paper last year.”

Lottie Winson