Coopers’ Company & Coborn School, Upminster (05A03766 + 7 others)

School admissions                      Maladministration causing injustice

28 November 2005

Eight families complained that the School did not consider their applications for entry in September 2005 objectively, did not apply the admission criteria correctly, offered places to some applicants who had not provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate they met the relevant criterion, and provided inaccurate information to the appeal panel, which failed to consider their appeals correctly.

The Ombudsman concluded that the School had been at fault in the way it administered its admission process and had unreasonably departed from the government’s Code of Practice.
The School’s admission criteria were not ‘clear, fair and objective’ and were not applied fairly and reasonably:

• one criterion was not operated as published: a time period had been changed, but parents were not told about this, and a restriction was added that was not in the published definition;
• places were offered to applicants under another criterion who had not offered reasonable written evidence that they met the criterion; and
• information was not recorded properly and the School failed to provide adequate information in advance of appeal hearings.

The Appeal Panel that considered the families’ appeals against the decision not to offer places was also at fault, as it failed to test properly whether the admission criteria had been applied correctly.

Although the School had already made some changes following the Ombudsman’s previous report, fresh problems had arisen this year, and some concerns highlighted in the previous report were still apparent.

In the published report, the Ombudsman finds maladministration by the School and the Appeal Panel, and recommends that the School should:

• review its admissions criteria, ensure these are clearly defined and operated as published, with decisions based only on the evidence supplied;
• ensure information is recorded properly and accurate information is provided to appeal panels; and
• offer a place at the School to one family whose son was wrongly refused a place.

Mr Redmond said: “It is worrying that the School does not apply its published admissions criteria properly, and continues to offer places to some children who have not provided sufficient evidence that they meet the admissions criteria, whilst another who had done so was turned down.”

Date Published: 20/03/09