Staffordshire County Council (05B00448, 05B00897)

School admissions                     Maladministration causing injustice

21 September 2006

‘Mr and Mrs Sheringham’ and ‘Mr and Mrs Harewood’ (not their real names for legal reasons) complained that the Council acted unreasonably by refusing to admit their children to ‘Newton Nursery School’ even though places were available, and that the Council’s policy on nursery admissions is unreasonable. The complainants consider that they should have the right to choose which nursery their children attend and that access to maintained nursery schools should not be limited to a maximum of three terms.

The Council introduced its new policy on nursery allocations in September 2004. This included a change in policy to allow a maximum of three terms in a maintained nursery. This was introduced to try to ensure that children born early in the academic year did not have a greater chance of being admitted to their parents’ preferred nursery as a result of the accident of their date of birth. The policy meant that the complainants’ children could not attend Newton Nursery School until September 2005, whereas the complainants wanted the children to attend from the beginning of the spring term.

There were 12 full-time places still available even after all those eligible under the criteria had been accepted. The Ombudsman says: “There is no suggestion here that other children would have been disadvantaged by the admission of these additional children and so I can see no good reason why the complainants’ chldren should not have been allowed two of the available places.”

The Ombudsman finds maladministration causing injustice. The Council has already agreed to pay each couple £500, as well as to keep its nursery admissions policy under review in order to minimise the possibility of other parents experiencing similar difficulties.

Date Published: 03/02/09