Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June 2016 to Question 39597, how many similar requests to intervene were made by local authorities to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator in each year from 2012.

Schools Adjudicators do not have powers to intervene in response to requests by local authorities regarding the admission of individual children. Local authorities (LAs) would not make such requests to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.

Under sections 96 and 97 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, a LA has the power to direct the admission authority for a maintained school to admit a child. Where a school wishes to appeal a local authority’s intention to direct it to admit a child, the governing body may refer the case to the Schools Adjudicator.

The Adjudicator may uphold the appeal, or not uphold the appeal. If the appeal is not upheld the school is required to admit the child. If the appeal is upheld, the Adjudicator has power (but is not required) to direct another school to admit the child.

If the school does not admit a child following a direction by a LA or Schools Adjudicator, they would be failing in a legal duty and the Secretary of State would be able to use her powers under sections 496 and 497 of the Education Act 1996. The Secretary of State is rarely asked to do this, and we do not record the number of such requests centrally.