Contact: David Robotham (ext 6209).

1 Summary

1.1 The following decision is sought:

(i) That the membership of the Hampshire Admissions Forum be confirmed as that proposed in the attached report

2 Reason

2.1 The changes anticipate proposals likely to be confirmed by the recent DfES consultation on admissions.

2.2 The changes reflect the review carried out by the Admissions Forum itself following the completion of the current Forum's two-year term of office.

3 Other options considered and rejected - not applicable.

4 Conflicts of interest declared by the decision maker or a member or officer consulted - not applicable.

5 Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee - not applicable.

6 Reasons for the matter being dealt with if urgent

6.1 The re-constituted Forum is required to consider the outcome of the statutory consultation on admission arrangements at its first meeting ion January 2002.

Approved by Date of decision

Councillor D Allen

Contact: David Robotham, Principal Admissions Adviser (01962 846209)

1. Summary

1.1 This report summarises the changes to the membership of the Admissions Forum agreed by the Forum at its meeting on 3 October 2001.

2. Background

2.1 Paragraph 4.5 of the Code of Practice - School Admissions strongly recommends that LEAs establish Admissions Forums, although they are not specifically mentioned in the legislation. Not all LEAs set up such forums. Hampshire set up its Admissions Forum in July 1999 and it has proved a very useful body in advising the County Council on school admissions matters and, in particular, has played a key role in the simplification of the County's admission policy and in developing co-ordination between the admission authorities within the `relevant area'.

2.2 The membership of the Hampshire Forum was based on that recommended in paragraph 4.7 of the Code of Practice. DfES is currently consulting about changes to the legislation and regulations covering admissions and included is the proposal to make the Admissions Forum a statutory requirement. The consultation documents also contain amended guidance for the membership of forums.

2.3 The Hampshire Admissions Forum has now completed two cycles of the admission process and completed the tasks it initially set for itself, thereby gaining considerable experience of its role and functions. In combination with the likely changes to the status of the Forum, it was considered an appropriate time to review the membership.

3. Membership

3.1 The current and proposed membership of the Forum is set out below:

Group Current Proposed

LEA Representatives - County Councillors 3 3

School Governors 5 4

Parents 5 4

Primary phase headteachers 2 2

Secondary phase headteachers 2 2

Foundation school headteachers 1 1

Aided school headteachers 1 1

Dioceses 4 4

Early Years 1 1

SEN 1 1

Ethnic Groups 1 1

Armed Forces 1 1

Neighbouring LEAs 0 3

Total membership 27 28

3.2 Representatives of parents had been recruited from outside governing bodies, but the attendance of those initially appointed has been extremely sporadic. The DfES consultation document suggests that parents should be recruited from parent-governors. This would significantly increase the representation of school governors on the Forum. Reducing their total to 8 (four of whom would be parent governors) from a possible 10, maintains a very significant presence for them, but also creates space for an additional category of representation without unduly increasing total membership.

3.3 The experience of officers from Hampshire attending the forums set up by neighbouring authorities (Dorset and Wiltshire, in particular) suggests that it would be valuable to include other LEAs within the representation on the Hampshire Forum. The Forum agreed that full membership should be offered to the three LEAs with whom there is either a specific working agreement or with whom the working relationship is necessarily strong - Dorset, Southampton and Portsmouth. It was also agreed that the other neighbouring LEAs - seven in all - could be invited on an informal basis when particular issues arose.

3.4 The DfES consultation document includes Social Services in its list of suggested members for admissions forums. This has not been the practice in Hampshire to date and there is no proposal to change this. This is because the issue in which Social Services would be involved in relation to school admissions is the placement of looked after children - where there is a `corporate parenting responsibility'. Since members of the admissions team are involved in the Corporate Action Group - Looked After Children and the Children Looked After Support Panel (CLASP) the lead officers for which are in the Social Services Department, the Admissions Forum will be duplicating the functions of groups already more closely involved and responsible. However, The Forum would wish to invite Social Services representatives to its meetings if there were relevant issues to discuss.

4. Conclusion

The Admissions Forum unanimously agreed, at their meeting on 3 October 2001, to recommend changing the membership of the Forum to that listed under the `proposed' column in the table in 3.1 above.

Recommendation

That the membership of the Hampshire Admissions Forum be ratified as that agreed by the Forum at its meeting on 3 October 2001.

Section D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it. is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

N.B. the list includes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

None