Summary: Mrs J complains about the way the school admissions panel considered her appeal against the decision to refuse a school place for her daughter. There was fault due to the panel failing to keep an accurate record of the hearing. The School has agreed to arrange for a fresh appeal and for service improvements to be implemented.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs J, complains that there was fault in the way a school admissions panel considered her appeal against the decision to refuse a school place for her daughter, whom I shall refer to as X.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. We cannot question whether a school admissions appeals panel’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider if there was fault in the way the decision was reached. If we find fault, which calls into question the panel’s decision, we may ask for a new appeal hearing. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and information received from Mrs J; and
• reviewed and considered information received from the Council; and
• spoke with Mrs J about the complaint.
6. I also sent a draft version of this decision to both parties and invited their comments.

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What I found

7. The admission authority must supply the clerk to the appeal panel with all relevant documents needed to conduct the hearing in a fair and transparent manner. This must include details of how the admission arrangements and the co-ordinated admissions scheme apply to the appellant’s application, the reasons for the decision to refuse admission and an explanation as to how admission of an additional child would cause prejudice to the provision of efficient education or efficient use of resources.
8. School admission appeals have two stages. At the first stage, the appeal panel considers whether the admission arrangements were lawful and properly applied to the case. The panel then considers if admitting another child would prejudice the provision of efficient education or use of resources. The panel must uphold the appeal at the first stage where:
• it finds that the admission arrangements did not comply with admissions law or had not been correctly and impartially applied, and the child would have been offered a place if the arrangements had complied or had been correctly and impartially applied; or
• it finds that the admission of additional children would not prejudice the provision of efficient education or efficient use of resources.
9. Whilst the panel must take into account the school’s published admission number, the admission authority must be able to demonstrate prejudice over and above the fact that the published admission number has already been reached. If the panel finds the admission arrangements were lawful and properly applied and the admission of additional children would prejudice the provision of efficient education or efficient use of resources, the panel must proceed to the second stage.
10. At the second stage, the panel must balance the prejudice to the school against the appellant’s case for the child to be admitted to the school. It must take into account the appellant’s reasons for expressing a preference for the school. If the panel considers that the appellant’s case outweighs the prejudice to the school, it must uphold the appeal.
11. The clerk must ensure an accurate record is taken of the points raised at the hearing, including the proceedings, attendance, voting and reasons for decisions.

What happened

12. Mrs J made an application for a place in year 7 for X. She expressed a preference for five schools, with The Radclyffe School (the school) being her second choice.
13. The school is a foundation school and it responsible for its own admission and appeals processes. There were no vacancies in the year group, so the school refused Mrs J’s application and the Council offered X a place at her fifth choice school.
14. Mrs J appealed against the school’s decision. She provided a written statement in support of her appeal in which she set out the reasons she felt the school was appropriate for X.
15. The clerk’s notes of the appeal recorded who attended and an outline of the cases put forward from Mrs J and the school. Finally, it recorded that the appeal had been dismissed.
16. The clerk’s notes did not record any questions raised during the appeal, or how the panel came to its decision whether Mrs J’s case outweighs the prejudice that would be caused to the school or not.
17. The clerk wrote to Mrs J to inform her of the outcome of the panel hearing. The letter explained that the school was oversubscribed with applications, and not all applicants could be offered a place, and due to the distance between the school and Mrs J’s home it was unable to offer a place to X.
18. The clerk explained the panel found it would prejudice either the provision of efficient education, or the efficient use of resources if more children were given places at the School. Having considered Mrs J’s reasons for appeal, the panel found they were not strong enough to outweigh this prejudice.
19. The clerk said that numerous other people had appealed with similar reasons to Mrs J, and that it would not be feasible to admit them all without causing serious prejudice to the school.

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Analysis

20. The clerk failed to ensure an accurate record was taken of the points raised at the hearing, including the reasons for decisions, as required by the School Admission Appeals Code. The minutes of the hearing are incomplete and only list the details of both party’s cases and that it had dismissed the appeal.
21. Without a proper record of the panel’s decisions and reasoning it is unclear how the panel considered the appeal and what it based its decisions on. Therefore, Mrs J cannot be confident her appeal was properly considered. This is fault.
22. The decision letter to Mrs J mentioned the high amount of similar appeals and the difficulties this brings. However, like the clerk’s notes, it also did not adequately explain its reasoning, or address the points Mrs J had raised in her appeal request. This is fault.

Agreed action

23. The School has agreed to offer Mrs C a fresh appeal for Z with a different panel and different clerk within four weeks of my final decision.
24. The school has also arranged with the Council for the clerks to be reminded of the importance of keeping a full and accurate record of the points made at the hearing and full reasons for the panel’s decision, and that these reasons should be included in decision letters.

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Final decision

25. I have concluded my investigation with a finding of fault which caused injustice. The School have implemented a suitable remedy.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman