Comments to: Felicity Roe, 01962 846374; [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 Following consultation in Autumn 2006 a new School Admissions Code, allied to the Education and Inspections Act 2006, came into effect on 28 February 2007. The Code advises that all authorities should offer a choice advice service.

1.2 The Code states "There are also a small number of parents who, for one reason or another, are unable or unwilling to engage with the process (of transition from primary to secondary school). This tends to happen more frequently in the most deprived communities and puts the children affected at a significant disadvantage." It goes on to say " In order to ensure that these children are able to attend a school that will meet their needs and have the opportunity to realise their full potential as all children should, the Government has provided funding for local authorities to establish an independent Choice Advice service in their area. Choice Advice will enable those parents who find it hardest to engage with, and navigate, the admissions system to make informed decisions about which schools will best meet their child's needs."

1.3 This paper has been written to advise the Executive Lead Member about a Choice Advice Service for Hampshire. It will discuss options within the model for delivery as well as proposing methods of identifying families who will gain most from the service. It was agreed at the Executive Member's briefing for the 2 April Decision Day that a paper would be prepared for the Executive Member's July Decision Day to brief him on the proposals.

2 Recommendations

a) That the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services (Education) approve the proposed model for Hampshire's Choice Advice service

3 County Council Priorities

3.1 The proposals in this report are expected to support the following Hampshire County Council priority:

"Maximising well-being" - by promoting parents opportunity to express a preference for a school place and enabling children to attend a preferred school and so have a sound start to their schooling.

4 Children Act - the five outcomes

4.1 It also supports the following outcomes of the Children Act

· enjoying and achieving: (getting the most out of life and developing the skills for adulthood) - by encouraging an appropriate educational placement for children wherever possible;

· making a positive contribution: (being involved with the community and society and not engaging in anti-social or offending behaviour) - more informed decisions at the time of secondary transfer can lead to a more appropriate school place and so make it more likely that a pupil will achieve all that they can both at school and beyond that in adulthood.

· economic well-being: (not being prevented by economic disadvantage from achieving their full potential in life) - more informed decisions at the time of secondary transfer may give pupils a more sound start to their secondary schooling and future ability to provide both for themselves and their families.

5 The DfES proposals.

5.1 The new School Admissions Code devotes an entire appendix to Guidelines for Local Authorities on Choice Advice. A summary of their expectations are:

· Local authorities should provide choice advice for families in their area who need it.

· Local authorities have the flexibility in deciding how best to deliver their choice advice service locally but must provide an independent service that is focussed on the needs of children in the transition between primary and secondary schools whose families find this process difficult to negotiate provide an independent Choice Advice service.

· The DfES anticipates that authorities will employ Choice Advisers to help empower parents to make informed and realistic choices in the best interest of their child.

· Choice advisers will offer one-to one support

· Choice advisers do not take decisions for parents and cannot guarantee a place at a particular school.

· They prescribe the content of a Choice Advisers knowledge, (see Appendix 1).

6 Funding

6.1 An initial standards fund grant of £48 722 for each of the financial years 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 has been awarded. That figure was subsequently increased to £55 843. To date monies have been spent releasing admissions team staff to research Choice Advice and to commission the work on resources. No funding is identified for this service beyond August 2008.

6.2 Section 42 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 requires the LA to provide advice and assistance to (all) parents of children in the area of the authority. The choice advice service is, as described in Section 5, an expectation presented in the School Admissions Code.

7 Hampshire's Preferred Model

7.1 Hampshire's geography means that a single individual cannot successfully deliver choice advice to all Hampshire's needy families. It is proposed that any professional (e.g. Education Welfare Officers, social care worker, home school liaison worker) can discuss secondary transition with appropriate families.

7.2 To support these workers centrally compiled, straightforward admissions advice must be available in paper and electronic form. This must be supported by locally maintained information packs containing schools' prospectuses, details of open evenings etc.

7.3 Other opportunities to deliver Choice Advice to groups, for example through the Parenting Classes delivered by Adult and Community Learning Unit, should be identified and utilised.

7.4 It is proposed that a post be established to co-ordinated the Choice Advice Service, working with locality teams and key colleagues in the central team, to ensure the quality of Choice Advice . To preserve the independence of the service this post will need to be located in the Performance and Resources Branch. This post will initially be for a 1 year period to be funded by the standards fund grant.

7.5 A senior admissions officer will be identified to liaise with the Choice Advice co-ordinator to ensure the quality of central resources and admissions advice used by the Choice Advice Service.

8 Hampshire families targeted for Choice Advice.

8.1 Hampshire's Children & Young People's Plan identifies vulnerable groups all of whom will be appropriate for receiving support from a Choice Advice service. These are: children looked after, black and minority ethnic and traveller children and young people, children and young people in relative deprivation (child poverty), children and young people with special educational needs and with disabilities, young parents and young carers.

8.2 Also the service can be available to other families with whom the Children's Services has already established some interaction, for example a family that is being supported by Home School Liaison staff.

8.3 It may be possible to identify particular children for whom the service can be appropriate, e.g children who have experienced fixed term exclusions during year 5.

8.4 It should be possible to quantify demand and seek to exploit existing services and their interactions with the targeted family groups to deliver timely choice advice.

9 Transport Implications

9.1 There are legislative changes affecting school travel in the 2006 Act. There will be enhanced transport entitlement from September 2008 for pupils aged eleven to sixteen in receipt of free school meals or their maximum level of working family tax credit who will be able to receive free transport to any of the nearest suitable secondary schools where the distance travelled is more than two miles but not more than six miles from home.

9.2 Families for whom the choice advice service is appropriate may be those to whom the new entitlement applies. The service will need to be advised, on a case by case basis, of a particular child's free transport entitlement.

10 Consultation

10.1 The expectation of a Choice Advice Service comes from the DfES, the Local Authority is advised by the new School Admission Code on a possible model of delivery. Also the DfES are providing ongoing support for Local Authorities via Centra, a training consultancy employed to assist in the rollout of Choice Advice services.

11 Legal implications

11.1 None

12 Financial implications

12.1 The start up costs can be met by the DfES funding.

12.2 A new fixed term post will be developed in the Performance and Resources Branch. This has been included in the workforce plan.

13 Personnel implications

13.1 The post above plus the need to identify which posts will be in the network of people who may deliver Choice Advice. They will need support to be able to deliver an appropriate service to families.

14 Impact assessment

14.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified.

14.2 Families that receive the support of a Choice Advice service will give greater consideration to identifying schools that best meet their child's needs. It is intended, (by central government), that Choice Advice along with new transport entitlements can ensure that these children have the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

15 Crime prevention issues

15.1 The County Council's arrangements for admissions to schools aim to ensure that, as far as possible, children can attend a local school of their parents' choice. The Choice advice service helps particular families as they take decisions about their preferred school(s).There is no direct link to crime prevention.

16 Views of the Local County Councillor

16.1 This is a countywide service for particular families. The service will impact in all areas.

17 Conclusion

17.1 A Choice Advice Service for Hampshire must be configured so that it meets the needs of families and overcomes the difficulties of delivering such a service in a large rural local authority with some urban areas. The proposal outlined focuses efforts on a service delivered by a variety of professionals each with a `toe in the door' of the recipient's world supported by suitably tailored resources. Also there will be a need for a focus on the identification of recipient families, making delivery opportunities, central and localised resources and service quality matters.

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