Agenda item

[Report of the Director of Children's Services. To be introduced by the Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Families]

Following public consultation held between November 2020 and January 2021, 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 2022/23.

 The Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Families introduced the report which set out the statutory requirements to determine the proposed admission arrangements for the school year 2022/23. These arrangements were in respect of the borough’s community and voluntary controlled (VC) schools.

Cabinet was asked to agree to their publication on or before 15 March 2021 on the Council’s website with such details to include advice on the right of objection to the Schools Adjudicator.

This year there was no change proposed to our admission arrangements for community and voluntary controlled (VC) apart from a slight alteration to the In-year fair access protocol as set out in the report.

In response to a question from Cllr Brabazon, it was noted that, in the Covid period, lots of families had moved out of the borough. It was estimated that, in London, the equivalent of two medium sized London boroughs of residents had left and this would have an impact, not just on school admissions, but on other services used by children and families. There was a year to work out the impact and continue to assess the changing situation and how to adapt and change Council plans for school admissions in the coming year.

RESOLVED

1.         To approve the Council’s admission arrangements for the academic year 2022/23 as set out in Appendices 1 – 4.

2.         To agree the in-year fair access protocol (IYFAP) as set out in Appendix 5 to come into force from 1 March 2021.

3.         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 2021 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 the arrangements. This is to ensure transparency and openness on the contents of the admission arrangements and to allow all stakeholders to make representations which can then be considered as part of the determination of the arrangements.

Alternative options considered.

This year we did not propose a change to the oversubscription criteria for community and VC schools. While there are other ways admission arrangements can influence the allocation of school places set out in the Schools Admissions Code 2014 (e.g., designated catchment areas, identified feeder schools or giving priority in our oversubscription criteria to children eligible for the early years premium/ pupil premium), no alternative option is being considered at the time of writing this report.