School admission appeal goes in favour of council
An appeals panel backed a school’s decision to refuse one boy a place because the year-group was full, but admit his sibling into a younger class, a report says.
An anonymised Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report says the children’s mother, “Mrs X”, withdrew “B” from his previous school and tried to get him and his younger sibling into Years Four and Three at “School Z”.
An appeals panel backed the school’s decision, ruling that adding B to an already full class would harm education and resource use.
Mrs X complained to the LGO about Telford and Wrekin Council, who decide admissions for the school, but the watchdog declined to investigate, saying the panel reached its decision legally.
“Mrs X wanted B to attend School Z because of problems at B’s previous school,” the report says.
“Mrs X also applied for a Year Three place for her younger child, C, who was offered a place.
“But, because there were no places in Year Four, the council could not offer B a place.”
Independent appeal panels “need to decide if admitting a further child would ‘prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources'”, the report explains.
If a panel believes it would, the onus then falls to the appealing family to make a case that outweighs that prejudice.
Notes from the appeal, the report says, show the school representative outlined the difficulties admitting B would cause.
“In her appeal, Mrs X explained why she wanted B to attend School Z,” it adds.
“She referred to B’s diagnosis of autism and ADHD and the problems she had experienced with B’s previous school.”
She had withdrawn B from that school and was home-educating him at the time.
The report adds that the appeal notes “decided the evidence put forward by Mrs X was not strong enough to outweigh the prejudice admitting another child would cause the school”.
It adds that the LGO is not an appeal body and cannot criticise decisions by local authorities unless there is evidence a fault occurred while making them.
“I understand Mrs X is disappointed with the panel’s decision,” the report author writes.
“But, without evidence of fault in the decision-making process, there are no grounds for us to get involved.”
