In Year School Admissions - Somerset County Council

(Cabinet Member Decision – 4 January 2012)The Authority remains statutorily responsible for in-yearadmissions and therefore the Authority must ensure that schoolsact in accordance with the agreements. To ensure this happensthe schools, through the ‘Compact’ have agreed to an escalationprocedure which will improve systems in schools where they donot meet the Admissions Code.Risk Assessment:ScrutinyRecommendation(if any):The Authority has less sight of parents who are moving pupils inyear which may lead to more children missing from education.To ensure that this does not happen, schools will keep a registerof all pupils that request an application form.Parents may not know their rights. To ensure that parents haveaccess to their rights the Authority will maintain its website anduse Somerset Direct to advise parents. Somerset CountyCouncil will also send out the refusal letters outlining the appealsprocedure.N/A1. Background1.1. The current Admissions Code introduced central Local Authority co-ordination ofin-year admissions in September 2010, which moved the administration of inyearadmissions from Somerset schools to the Local Authority. Although this hasproved beneficial to the Local Authority in terms of tracking and monitoring pupilmovement, especially vulnerable children, it did also remove an important linkbetween schools and parents. These proposals seek to re-establish this link.2. Options Considered2.1. Until September 2013 in-year admissions remain the responsibility of the localauthority, however head teachers have asked through the Compact if theprocess could be changed to allow schools to play a greater role in the in-yearadmissions process. As a local authority we can see the advantages ofdelegating parts of the process to governing bodies as it will strengthen therelationship between schools and parents.2.2. The Admissions Code is statutory guidance on the local authority and therefore ifgoverning bodies accept the additional delegation there must be simple recordsheld within the school which the authority can check to make sure that theprocesses followed within the school are as agreed and in line with the Code ofPractice.In order to help governors ensure that the admissions process is being followedcorrectly, if the authority becomes aware of any concerns about admissionpractices at a particular school then, in the first instance, we will write to headteachers and copy to the Chair of Governors. This will enable schools to takeaction to ensure the code is met.2.3. The process for In Year Admissions is set out in Appendix A and in principle,3 of 12