Minutes:
The Chief Executive reported that three questions had been received under Standing Order 7(3) and 7(5) from Mr P. Lewis CC.
Mr Lewis CC asked the following questions:
“Context:
Leicestershire County Council currently
administers all admissions and appeals to schools in the County, including
Academies. While the schools administer
the process, the County Admissions Office inform the schools of the number of
applications following the closing date.
Following this, parents either give up or
move to their second or third choice, or they go on a waiting list for their
first choice. If that is not open to
them, or they are too far down the waiting list so as to appear pointless, they
may then decide to proceed with appeals.
It should be noted that, when a school is
informed it is full but there are numbers on the waiting list, there is no
certainty those offered a place will arrive.
They have time to consider before accepting such offers.
Schools rarely know how many have gone to formal
appeal. Nor does a school know why or on
what evidence decisions have been made to uphold or reject an appeal. They are simply informed that X numbers have
been successful and which children must be admitted.
Each appeal - successful or not - is charged
to the school and costs the school £460 on average.
The appeal cost has to be paid by Academies
out of their budget, unlike in County run schools where it is a paper
accounting transfer, not an actual charge to the budget. As Academies have no knowledge of the numbers
involved, planned budgeting becomes very difficult.
Academies are increasingly concerned over
this charging when they have no control whatsoever over this process prior to
them receiving a bill.
Question:
(i)
Is the
above an accurate reflection of the current process and costs?
(ii) Would it not be fairer to levy a charge only
if the parents appealing are successful?
(iii) Is it considered fair that the cost of
indeterminate numbers of unsuccessful appeals should fall upon and penalise
individual schools?”
Mr Spence CC replied as follows:
“(i) In accordance with the national
coordinated scheme, the Authority administers all admissions, but only
administers appeals for those academies that elect to buy into our service
level agreement. Not all academies have
bought in.
The process
outlined in paragraph 2 of Mr Lewis’ question is broadly correct, but it will
vary depending on each individual circumstance.
It is incorrect that
schools rarely know how many have gone to formal appeal or on what evidence
decisions have been made to either uphold or reject an appeal. Schools are advised of the number of appeals
as part of the appeal preparation process. The Academy as Admission Authority
is entitled to reasons for the decisions of the appeal panel and copies of
decision letters can be provided.
In respect of the
cost detailed in paragraph 5 of Mr Lewis’ question the current charge made by
the County Council to schools is the Department for Education’s (DfE)
recommended rate of £180 (plus on costs).
This cost covers the costs of the appeal presenting officer and legal
support for the clerking of the appeal. Panel members are all volunteers and
there is no charge for their time.
It is correct
that the above charges have to be paid by Academies out of their budget and
academies are free to choose who to engage to run their appeals. Academy business managers can always contact
the Authority’s admissions service to assess how many appeals were lodged,
heard, etc., in the preceding year in order to budget plan.
The Authority’s
School Admissions Service only charge to recover its costs and it works closely
with several school business managers to ensure value for money.
(i)
The Authority charges academies the standard
recommended DfE rate of £180 per appeal plus on costs, i.e. refreshments, panel
training, room booking, etc., which are incurred by the Authority in providing
this service. If an academy has more
than 20 appeals, it can apply to the Education Funding Agency to assist with
such costs. It should be noted that there is no mechanism
to charge parents for appeals.
(ii)
As
detailed above, the current operating model seeks only to recover costs. It is the responsibility of the Academy, as
its own Admissions Authority, to make arrangements for appeals. It would not be appropriate for this to be
funded by the Authority and there is no budget to meet these costs.”