Contact: David Robotham, Principal Admissions Adviser 01962 846209

1. Summary

1.1 This paper reports on consultations held with governing bodies and neighbouring local education authorities in relation to proposed school admissions arrangements for community and voluntary controlled schools for 2003 - 2004. Approval is requested for minor revisions to the current admissions arrangements to take effect from September 2003. The proposed admission policy is attached as an appendix to this report.

1.2 The Hampshire Admissions Forum met on 24 January 2002 to consider responses to the consultations and their views are incorporated in this report. The Forum includes representatives of the LEA, governors, parents, headteachers, the Church of England and Roman Catholic dioceses, the armed forces, special educational needs, ethnic minorities, early years and neighbouring LEAs.

1.3 The proposals in this report have no additional resource implications.

2. Background

2.1 The County Council is the admissions authority for all community and voluntary controlled schools within the County and is therefore responsible for determining the admission arrangements for these schools. Regulations require all admission authorities (i.e. LEAs and the governing bodies of voluntary aided and foundation schools) to have determined their school admission arrangements for 2003-2004 by 15 April 2002 and published the arrangements within 14 days of this date..

2.2 Consultation papers were sent to all community and voluntary controlled schools, and to all aided and foundation schools in Hampshire and to the nine neighbouring LEAs, in October 2001. Once the County Council has determined the admission arrangements for 2003-2004, the governors of aided and foundation schools and neighbouring LEAs have the right to object to any aspect of the arrangements and, if the matter cannot be resolved between admission authorities, the Admissions Adjudicator can be called upon to give a ruling. Previous rulings of the Admissions Adjudicator have been taken into account in the preparation of the proposals for 2003-2004.

2.3 Substantial changes to admission arrangements were made for 2001-2002 and consolidated for 2002-2003. These changes ensured that Hampshire's school admission arrangements are `clear, fair and objective' and `as simple as possible for parents to use' as required by the Code of Practice on School Admissions issued by the Department for Education and Skills.

2.4 For this reason, no substantial changes have been proposed for 2003-2004. There are some minor changes either to simplify and clarify wording or, in the case of matters concerning the management of waiting lists, to give more specific guidance to both schools and parents. The consultation did not therefore raise specific issues with governors but simply invited comment on the main body of the policy and on the additional, more detailed statement on waiting lists.

3. Responses to the consultation

3.1 Governors were asked to respond by 14 December 2001. The following table indicates the rate of response and includes all responses received by 21 December 2001.

* Compared to previous years, the response rates are generally somewhat lower. This was expected in view of the fact that only minor changes were proposed.

(These figures do not include nursery schools or special schools for whom separate admissions arrangements are made.)

3.2 Specific issues were raised in 9 responses, all from primary phase community and controlled schools. These were:

a. The need to reserve places for families moving into a catchment area after the closing date for applications - current DfES guidance does not allow this arrangement to be made.

b. Co-ordination issues with a neighbouring LEA - this is an on-going issue especially where there are differences in dates and is regularly reviewed by the Admissions Forum: the new Education Bill strengthens the LEA role in matters of co-ordination.

c. Request for additional guidance on the `medical, physical, psychological' category - this is covered in the LEA's consolidated guidance for headteachers and governors published in June 2001.

d. Clarity of the wording of the more detailed explanation of waiting list arrangements. This has been incorporated in the revised policy included in the appendices to this report.

3.3 The Hampshire Admissions Forum considered these responses at its meeting on 24 January 2002 and approved the revisions to the policy as proposed.

3.4 In addition, the Admissions Forum considered two matters that arose after the consultation materials were compiled and sent out.

a. The revised Code of Practice for Special Educational Needs establishes 15 February as the date by which the review of statements of children due for transfer either from infant to junior or primary/junior to secondary must be completed. The wording of the paragraph referring to special educational needs in the policy has been adjusted to allow for this to be achieved and to reduce the likelihood of schools being approached for places above their admission limits after places have been allocated.

b. The judge's comments in a recent judicial review (South Gloucestershire) raised potentially important issues with regard to `discrimination on the basis of residence' and the priority of school place allocation to siblings. Both issues relate to the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), now incorporated into the Human Rights Act. The comments did not form part of the formal judgement in the case and in a subsequent judicial review (Hounslow), where the issue was considered more carefully, the judge came to the conclusion that the use of residence to determine priority for admission was perfectly acceptable and did not contravene the provisions of the ECHR. However, the Admissions Forum agreed that it would be prudent nevertheless to provide a robust statement in the policy to make clear the guiding principles underpinning the admission criteria. This statement, in the introduction to the policy, builds upon and exemplifies principles previously agreed by the County Council.

4 Recommendation

4.1 That the Executive Member for Education be advised as follows:

That the revised school admission policy be adopted by the County Council for community and voluntary controlled school admission arrangements for the school year 2003-2004.

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

Code of Practice School Admissions - DfES, 1999

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

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