School Admissions and School Admission Appeals Codes

Thursday 1st December 2011 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Nick Gibb)]

I am today laying the revised “School Admissions and School Admission Appeals Codes” (“the Codes”) before Parliament as required under section 85 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Subject to the views of Parliament, these codes will come into force on 1 February 2012. A copy of these codes has also been published on the departmental website, so that schools and local authorities can take account of the technical changes that have been made to the codes since their publication on 2 November.

The White Paper, “The Importance of Teaching”, outlined the intention to

“simplify the code so that it is easier for schools and parents to understand and act upon, while maintaining fairness as the guiding principle”.

As part of the consultation process we consulted on a number of key policy changes that are set out below, all of which are intended to deal with issues which we believe create unfairness in the system, or which frustrate or confuse parents.

The current codes have evolved over a number of years with successive versions adding further regulations in a chaotic and unplanned fashion. As a result, the admissions system has grown unnecessarily complex and bureaucratic, comprising some 130 pages of densely worded text, with more than 650 mandatory requirements. These revised codes are less than half the size of the previous codes and are simpler, fairer and easier to understand. We have removed much of the repetition and unnecessary material, whilst retaining the key safeguards to ensure that school places can be allocated in a clear and transparent manner.

The Department consulted extensively on the codes from 27 May to 19 August and received more than 1,330 responses with 700 from parents, as well as a wide range of interested parties, including local authorities, dioceses and head teachers. Overall, respondents broadly welcomed the proposals to slim down the codes.

These codes make a number of changes to the current codes:

Giving greater freedom to schools to increase the number of places they are able to offer by removing the duty to consult locally and the ability to object when a school increases its admission numbers;

Ensuring that any child who leaves public care through adoption, a residence order or special guardianship order, will continue to be given the same priority although they are no longer looked after by the state;

Making the co-ordination of admissions to primary schools administratively simpler through a single date, 16 April, each year when offers of school places are made from 2014 onwards;

Allowing schools to prioritise the children of staff either employed at the school for at least two years, or who will meet a clear skills shortage;

Allowing infant classes to exceed the statutory limit to avoid separating children from a multiple birth, and for children of armed forces personnel admitted outside of the normal admission round;

Allowing schools to take direct applications from parents for in-year applications;

Prohibiting the use of random allocation as the principal method of allocating places across a local authority area;

Requiring admission authorities to consult on unchanged arrangements only every seven years, rather than three;

Reflecting changes in the Education Act 2011, allowing anyone to object to the schools adjudicator about admission arrangements, and enabling objections about academies’ admission arrangements to be referred to the schools adjudicator; and

Greater clarity on decision-making and related processes for appeals, to ensure greater uniformity and to reduce costs across the system.

In addition, as highlighted in the code, but achieved through individual funding agreements, we will be allowing academies and free schools to prioritise pupils eligible for the pupil premium.