Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidelines her Department provides on the steps for admissions authorities to take to accommodate disabled parents' requests when engaging with the school admissions decision-making process.

The Department’s guidance for schools on the Equality Act 2010 makes it clear that it is unlawful to discriminate against a pupil due to the disability of another person with whom the pupil is associated, such as a parent.

It is for individual admission authorities to decide which admissions oversubscription criteria to specify within the parameters of the School Admissions Code (The Code). The Code allows admission authorities to prioritise applications based on medical and/or social need. It does not specify that this must include a parent’s medical needs or disability. Schools can, however, lawfully adopt admissions criteria that consider the disability of parents.

The Department is aware of case law which states that appeals about admissions will be successful if inflexible application of the published admission arrangements to the circumstances of a particular child results in an admission decision which is perverse. We are currently considering how to ensure that admission authorities and independent appeal panels are aware of the relevant case law.