Archived decisions

Contact: Alex Munro, Education Officer (Admissions and Special Projects)

01962 846462

1 Summary

1.1 `Relevant areas' are a technical device which determine the extent to which LEAs and admission authority schools (i.e. foundation and voluntary aided) must consult about their proposed admission arrangements. The Education Act 2002 increases admission authority schools' consultation responsibilities to the extent that, if no change were made to Hampshire's current `relevant area', the consultation burden for such schools would become unrealistic. This paper sets out a new structure for determining `relevant areas' in Hampshire.

1.2 The Admission Forum has considered the proposals in this paper and recommends adoption. Consultations with all Hampshire mainstream schools were carried out in November and December 2002. 27% of schools responded overall which included 39% of admission authority schools. 95% of responses were in favour of the proposals. It was clear from some of the responses that a number of schools found the complexity of this issue difficult to assimilate. Full details of the responses are given in an appendix.

1.3 It is expected that, once the new framework has been established, consultations can be carried out both by the LEA and schools within existing resources.

2 Background

2.1 The Education (Determination of Admission Arrangements) Regulations 1999 require LEAs to consult the governing bodies of all their schools and also neighbouring LEAs. Similarly, the governing bodies of admission authority schools (56 voluntary aided and 20 foundation in Hampshire) must consult all other admission authority schools in the `relevant area', the host LEA and any other LEA within a 5-mile radius (secondary) or 2-mile radius (primary).

2.2 In 1999, the `relevant area' for Hampshire was set by using the County boundary, in consultation with Hampshire's nine neighbouring LEAs. This meant that all admission authority schools within Hampshire were required to consult the other 75 similar schools each year about their proposed admission arrangements. The new regulations require such schools to consult all other schools within the relevant area, not just other admission authority schools. If no change were made to the current `relevant area', secondary schools, for example, would have to consult all the other 507 mainstream schools in Hampshire. The Admission Forum felt that this was unrealistic and unnecessary and therefore proposed that smaller relevant areas be established. Governing bodies of community and voluntary controlled schools have no consultation responsibilities. All schools are consulted each year by the LEA which will continue to use the county boundary to define its own `relevant area'.

2.3 Consultations with the Department for Education and Skills and neighbouring LEAs have indicated that `relevant areas' based on individual schools would be both legally acceptable and more practicable. The following structure is, therefore, proposed for Hampshire's 15 admission authority secondary schools and 51 admission authority primary schools.

Secondary schools

2.4 It is proposed that admission authority secondary schools should consult as follows:

a) Home LEA (statutory requirement)

b) Any neighbouring LEA within 5 miles (statutory requirement)

c) All maintained schools within a 3 mile radius

d) Any linked primary school beyond 3 miles

e) Any neighbouring Hampshire secondary school beyond 3 miles which shares a catchment border with the consulting school.

f) Any other Hampshire school likely to be affected by the consulting school's admission arrangements as agreed by the LEA and the two schools concerned.

2.5 As part of the consultation process, schools were asked to indicate whether they felt they should be included within the consultation arrangements of a nearby admission authority school if not covered by any of categories c) - e). Six requests have been received although only two seem not to qualify for consideration under c) - e). These are being assessed by the County Education Officer in liaison with the schools concerned.

2.6 There is no requirement for Hampshire secondary schools to consult schools in other LEAs. Admission authority schools have a responsibility to consult any LEAs within defined distances and it is felt that this mechanism, coupled with the statutory requirement on all LEAs to consult neighbouring LEAs, will pick up any admission arrangements which might cause concern.

2.7 Secondary schools are, of course, situated in a wide variety of locations. The above suggested structure could mean that some secondary schools would be required to consult approximately 40 other schools, particularly in urban areas. Schools in more rural areas would have a substantially reduced consultation commitment.

Primary schools

2.8 The following consultation framework is proposed for admission authority primary schools (i.e. 4 - 11 infant and junior):

a) Home LEA (statutory requirements)

b) Any neighbouring LEA within 2 miles (statutory requirement)

c) All maintained primary schools within a 2 mile radius

d) Any primary school beyond two miles formally linked to the same secondary school

e) Any other primary school likely to be affected by the consulting school's admission arrangements, as agreed by the LEA and the two schools concerned

2.9 There is no statutory requirement for primary schools to consult any secondary school but it would be good practice for a primary school to consult its linked secondary school.

2.10 The Admission Forum felt that the above proposed structures for both secondary and primary schools represented a realistic and relevant framework for consultation which is manageable and both within the letter and the spirit of the new legislation.

3 Recommendation

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

3.1.1 That the recommendations made by the Hampshire Admission Forum relating to a revised structure for `relevant areas' be adopted by the County Council and, as required by the legislation, implemented with effect from the consulting period leading up to September 2004 admissions.

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.

NB The list excludes:

1 Published works

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

Code of Practice on School Admissions - DfES (revised version effective from 20^th January 2003)