Waiting List LEA Mistake - Help!!

82wells

Hi I was wondering if I could get any help or advice.

I will try and keep this as short and to the point as I can, leaving out my sons specific needs as I don’t think they are relative to this situation we now find ourselves in.

We moved to are current town in 2009 and saw a school (School A) that we thought was amazing and would be great for our son. We had moved over 80 miles due to work commitments. We moved into a flat above a shop that virtually overlooked the school as we thought that this would put us in a good position to secure a place for are son who would have been entering reception.
However we missed the deadline and didn’t get a place.

Our son was given a place at another school (School and we put him on the waiting list for the school he didn’t get a place at.

So we carried on with life making the best of the situation with the hope that at some point someone might leave and he would get a place at school A. We re-registered each academic year for the waiting list.

However as time has gone by our son has found it increasingly hard at school B for reasons I won’t go into.

So last year my daughter got a place in reception at school A. We had moved house since we first arrived , but the new house was still very close less than two minutes walk from door to school.

We thought we had good grounds to appeal for school A with our new sibling status for a place for our son as it suited his need much better than the school B.
He would be entering year three (Juniors) where we knew it is possible to increase the class size above 30.

We went to the appeal but lost on the grounds that the Reception year was having a bulge year and that the school did not know how it would be effected by this.

We were told upon refusal that we would be placed on the waiting list and would be at the top.

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago my partner phones up the LEA to check we are still in first position and to see if there is any movement. She is told that there is no record of our son , he doesn’t exist on there computers!!?? Amazing they lost him. My partner in disbelief and frustration asks them to find him and put him back on. They do and he is in first place.

Last night my partner hears from some other partners that there has been movement in year three since September. Someone has left and someone has taken there place! It is highly unlikely that this person can live closer to the school than us. If so then I can understand why they got a place. But to me the odds are that this child got the place due to are son not being on the LEAs system.

In the last three years at that school there has been no movement and the time there is are son is missing from the LEA computer. Are frustration and anger is unbelievable. If he had been on the system I am almost certain that our son would be there now!

So basically I would much appreciate any advice or help anyone could give in us trying to make some good out of this situation. Do we have grounds to appeal as the LEA have made an error? How we will establish for sure if a mistake has been made? I have a feeling the LEAs response is unlikely to be helpful.
Who could we contact for specialist educational legal advise?

He has been on the waiting list for all that time and we have done are best and fought to get him into school A. It feels like we have been hugely let down.

Thanks for any feed back.

mountainofdebt

Have you any paper record of him being first on the list prior to this other child being given a place? Are you positive that another child has entered the school and that it isn't just heresay?

Personally if you have this then I would ask to see someone at the LEA for a face to face meeting to give them the proof and to discuss the issues that your son is having at his school and why a move would be beneficial.

TeamLowe

You can appeal each time your are refused a place at your chosen school- usually once per academic year. If they lost your child off the system then you should have been refused a place again to get him back on the waiting list. Bit of a convoluted way of saying you should be able to appear but they may get off on a technicality- speak to the appeals team, usually the council's democratic services team.

When you get an appeal you are arguing maladministration- your son's application had not been processed correctly and if it had you would have been granted place. Which is one of the grounds you can win an appeal

Keep all correspondence with the lea, you need to prove the maladministration. If needed, write to make an official complaint then at least you'll have a reply saying 'yes we did x which was wrong and we're sorry'

TeamLowe

mountainofdebt wrote: »

Have you any paper record of him being first on the list prior to this other child being given a place? Are you positive that another child has entered the school and that it isn't just heresay?

Personally if you have this then I would ask to see someone at the LEA for a face to face meeting to give them the proof and to discuss the issues that your son is having at his school and why a move would be beneficial.

The lea are not legally allowed place children in a school above numbers apart from permitted exceptions which doesn't sound like the OP's case is. Only an independent appeals panel has the power to grant places based on the appeals code

So whilst you can go see the lea and they can say we messed up, he should have a place, they can't give him one

For reference, permitted exceptions are children with a statement of sen, children for whom it is unreasonable send to a school further away, children under the care of the local authority, and I'd have to check when the new admissions code came in but pretty sure it's now in force adding children of serving armed forces personnel, multiple birth siblings if one has a place and adopted children

Sky_

What is their allocation process?

Where I live, children in care and a couple of other categories are always given priority, so it may be that your son would not have been given the place anyway. That is if another child has actually been given a place and it is not just hearsay.

82wells

Since my post I have established that one child had left the current year group and one child has filled that place.

I have also established that following our appeal our son should have then been automatically placed on the waiting list.
So far the only response I have had (Via voicemail) has said our son was not on the waiting list because they didnt receive a request in writing.

We wrote to them, had numerous telephone conversations with them and appealed all confirming that we wanted our son to attend that should from September!

What I still dont know is that the child admitted didnt have special grounds or live closer than us but I really dont think either of these things apply.

The LEA are being ovassive so how can I establish for sure that these dont apply and then how do I proceed if as I suspect my son should have been offered the place if they hadnt made an administrative error there end?

Any help or advise would be gratefully received - thank you!

TeamLowe

I'd suggest appealing- then someone from the admissions authority will have to sit there and explain what happened. if it was a mistake, then your appeal should be granted.

If it was legitimate- ie the child was a permitted exception or no1 on the list- then at least you'll know. In the past in appeals i've clerked if a parent has questioned positions on waiting lists then the waiting list has been shown to the panel (but not the appellant) with names blocked out

there's nothing to lose by appealing and everything to gain

FBaby

Maybe you could do a Freedom for Information? Ask how many children on the waiting list were offered a place, and on which grounds they were at the top, and if distance, what was it.

In theory, they could tell you they can't give you that information as providing it could potentially allow you to identify the children, which is against the rules of FOIs, but you have nothing to lose trying. The only problem is that they have almost a month to respond (but they have to)

82wells

TeamLowe wrote: »

I'd suggest appealing- then someone from the admissions authority will have to sit there and explain what happened. if it was a mistake, then your appeal should be granted.

If it was legitimate- ie the child was a permitted exception or no1 on the list- then at least you'll know. In the past in appeals i've clerked if a parent has questioned positions on waiting lists then the waiting list has been shown to the panel (but not the appellant) with names blocked out

there's nothing to lose by appealing and everything to gain

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I don't think we are able to appeal as we have already appealed during this academic year. It is my understanding that only one appeal is allowed per academic year?

securityguy

82wells wrote: »

What I still dont know is that the child admitted didnt have special grounds or live closer than us but I really dont think either of these things apply.

You know that they don't have a statement naming the school, that they aren't currently subject to care proceedings, that they aren't the child of a serving member of the armed forces, that they aren't a "child looked after" in private foster care or guardianship and that they haven't recently been adopted? My, the bush telegraph is informative round your parts.

TeamLowe

82wells wrote: »

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I don't think we are able to appeal as we have already appealed during this academic year. It is my understanding that only one appeal is allowed per academic year?

You can appeal every time you are refused a place. Most lea will only take an application once per academic year. However if they're saying your son was not on their records then maybe they'll refuse a place again this academic year. Worth a go,no harm in asking

Alternatively, you could ask the clerk to the independent appeals panel when you can have your appeal for the next academic year, some authorities allow it the term before, so you could appeal in May for a place in September.

Or try arguing that there has been a material change in the circumstances of your case that warrants another appeal, which is at the discretion of the clerk to the independent appeals but again worth a go

Unfortunately whatever mistakes have been made only an appeal panel can put a child in a school above numbers where they are not a permitted exception