Issue - meetings

[Report of the Interim Deputy Chief Executive. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Children and Families.]Following public consultation held between October and December 2017, Cabinet is asked to determine the admission arrangements for admission to community nursery, primary, junior and secondary schools and to St Aidan’s Voluntary Controlled school and for sixth form admission for the year 2019/20.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Families introduced the report, which sought approval to proposed admission arrangements for the school year 2019/20. These arrangements were in respect of the borough’s community and voluntary controlled (VC) schools.

This year the proposed admission arrangements for community and voluntary controlled (VC) schools included a proposal to introduce an additional oversubscription criterion for children of teaching staff to follow after the sibling criterion (such a criterion to be limited to permanent teaching staff who have been employed at the school for at least two years at the time of application, and limited to one place for each form of entry in any year.

This criteria had been added following consultation with parents, teachers and schools as set out at part 6 of the attached report and reflected in the consultation findings at appendix 8. The aim of this additional criteria was to support schools facing increasing challenges in recruiting and retaining teachers.

RESOLVED

1. To consider and take into account the feedback from the consultation undertaken which is set out in summary at paragraphs 6.6-6.23. All the representations are set out in Appendix 8 of this report.

2. To consider and take into account the equalities impact assessment of the proposals on protected groups at appendix 7.

3. To agree the recommendation set out in this report to proceed with a material change to the oversubscription criteria for all Haringey community and VC schools for the 2019/20 year of entry. This change proposes an additional oversubscription criterion to prioritise children of staff after the sibling criterion.

4. To determine the Council’s admission arrangements for the academic year 2019/20 as set out in Appendices 1 – 4.

5. To agree the in-year fair access protocol (IYFAP) as set out in Appendix 5 to come into force from 1 March 2018.

6. To agree that the determined arrangements for all maintained primary and secondary schools in the borough are published on the Council’s website by 15 March 2018 with an explanation of the right of any person or body, under the School Admissions (Admission Arrangements and Co-ordination of Admission Arrangements) Regulations 2012, to object to the Schools Adjudicator in specified circumstances^[1].

Reasons for decision

The School Admissions Code 2014 requires all admission authorities to determine admission arrangements every year, even if they have not changed from previous years. Regulation 17 of the School Admissions Regulations 2012 also requires admission authorities to determine admission arrangements by 28 February in the determination year.

In addition, the Regulations require the admission authority (in this case the local authority) to publish on its website by 15 March in the determining year the determined arrangements of all maintained primary and secondary school and academies in the borough, advising the right to object to the Schools Adjudicator, where it is considered that the arrangement do not comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code 2014.

The Council consults on its admission arrangements annually irrespective of whether or not there is a proposed change to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 171