Contact: Alex Munro - Education Officer (Admissions & Special Projects), 01962 846462, [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 "Relevant areas" are a technical device which determines the extent to which local education authorities (LEAs) and admission authority schools (i.e. foundation and voluntary aided) must consult other authorities about their proposed admission arrangements for mainstream schools. The Education Act 2002 made significant changes to the framework for consultation and these were considered by the Education Policy Review Committee and approved by the Executive Member in January 2003.

1.2 The legislation requires "relevant areas" to be reviewed every two years. The Admission Forum has been consulted, as have all 76 Hampshire admission authority schools (56 voluntary aided; 20 foundation) and the nine neighbouring LEAs.

1.3 At its meeting on 1 October 2004, the Admission Forum recommended that the current arrangements should continue. The County Council must "have regard" to any recommendations from the Forum.

1.4 This procedure supports Aim 1 of the Corporate Strategy (maximising life opportunities) by ensuring that all admission arrangements are "clear, fair and objective" as required by the Code of Practice on Admissions (Department for Education and Skills, 2003).

2 Background

2.1 In 1999, the "relevant area" for Hampshire was set by using the county boundary, in consultation with Hampshire's nine neighbouring LEAs and all admission authority schools. New provisions in the Education Act 2002 would have required Hampshire's 15 secondary foundation and voluntary aided schools to consult every other mainstream school in Hampshire. This was clearly impractical so that a more local system of "relevant areas" was established, based on secondary catchment areas.

2.2 At present, therefore, admission authority secondary schools (15) consult as follows:

· Home LEA (statutory requirement)

· Any neighbouring LEA within five miles (statutory requirement)

· All maintained schools within a three-mile radius

· Any linked primary school beyond three miles

· Any neighbouring Hampshire secondary school beyond three miles which shares a catchment border with the consulting school

· 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.

2.3 Admission authority primary schools (61) currently consult as follows:

· Home LEA (statutory requirement)

· Any neighbouring LEA within two miles (statutory requirement)

· All maintained primary schools within a two-mile radius

· Any primary school beyond two miles linked to the same secondary school

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

2.4 Consultations have been carried out with Hampshire's nine neighbouring education authorities. Six authorities have responded, all of them approving current arrangements.

2.5 Consultations with schools were carried out via a letter sent in September 2004 to the chairman of governors of all admission authority schools reminding them of their responsibilities for consulting within "relevant areas" and asking for any comments on the present system. There have been very few responses, all in favour of the present arrangements. This is not unexpected given the fact that the present system seems to have worked well and has made the consultation exercise much easier for schools to carry out.

3 Legal implications

3.1 None

4 Financial implications

4.1 None

5 Personnel implications

5.1 None

6 Impact assessment

6.1 The Hampshire admission policies for community and voluntary controlled primary and secondary schools take into account all relevant legislation including the Education Act 2002, the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, legislation on sex discrimination, race relations, and disability, together with all relevant regulations and advice in Codes of Practice. Governors of admission authority schools are bound by the same legislation.

7 Crime prevention issues

7.1 No significant impact on crime prevention.

8 Views of the Local County Councillor

8.1 Not applicable

Recommendations

1 That the recommendation by the Hampshire Admission Forum that no change should be made to the current "relevant area" arrangements in Hampshire be agreed and that these should continue to be used as the basis for consultations in relation to school admissions in September 2006 and 2007

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have 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 in the Act.

List documents here or type `none'.

None.