Summary: Mrs D complains the Council failed to properly consider her request for her daughter to be admitted to reception at compulsory school age when she starts school in 2024. We have ended our investigation because we cannot achieve the remedy Mrs D wants.

The complaint

1. Mrs D complains Council, as the school admissions authority failed to properly consider her request for her daughter E, to be admitted to reception at compulsory school age when she starts school in September 2024. She says the Council has not considered what was in her daughter’s best interests if she delayed starting school until compulsory school age.
2. Mrs D says she felt forced into starting E in reception in September 2023. She says the summer born request process was lengthy and stressful. She asks for an apology and significant financial compensation.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. We may decide to discontinue where:
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants; or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

Relevant law and guidance

Compulsory school age

5. Children are not required to start school until they reach ‘compulsory school age’ (CSA). A child begins to be of CSA ‘following the prescribed day following the child’s fifth birthday, or if it falls on a prescribed day. The prescribed days are 31 December, 31 March, and 31 August. (Education Act 1996, section 8, and The Education (Start of Compulsory School Age) Order 1998)

Summer born admissions

6. Summer born children are children born between 1 April and 31 August. These children are not required to start school until the September following their fifth birthday. Ordinarily, they would then start school in year one with their ‘chronological year group’.
7. Parents can request their summer born children are admitted to a reception class in the September following their fifth birthday rather than year one. This means they are educated outside their normal age group.
8. Parents decide when their children start school. The admission authority decides whether they start in reception or year one.

The School Admission Code (2021)

9. This statutory guidance states admission authorities must make clear in their admission arrangements the process for requesting admission out of the normal age group. It also says that Admission authorities must make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. This will include taking account of
• the parent’s views; information about the child’s academic, social, and emotional development;
• where relevant, their medical history and the views of a medical professional;
• whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group;
• whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely.
• They must also take into account the views of the head teacher of the school.
10. The admission authority must set out clearly the reasons for the decision.

Advice on the admission of summer born children (July 2022)

11. The government issued non statutory guidance for admission authorities deciding which year group a child should be admitted to.
12. Non-statutory guidance is intended to support councils in decision making. We expect admission authorities to follow the advice given in non-statutory guidance or explain their reasons for not following it.
13. Admission authorities must set out clearly the process for requesting admission outside the normal year group, including what information and evidence parents should provide and when. There is no prescribed process admission authorities must follow, although the guidance notes some authorities use decision making panels to consider requests, and some invite parents to attend panel meetings.
14. The guidance said that:

“Parental requests for summer born children to be admitted to reception rather than year 1 at the age of 5 are different from any other parental request for admission out of the normal age group. This is because parents have the right to decide whether their child will start school before compulsory school age and these parents must be able to make this decision confident that, if they decide not to send them to school until age 5, the decision about the year group they should be admitted to at that point will be made in the child’s best interests.”

15. The guidance noted, “In effect, this means that the authority is making a decision about whether it would be in the child’s best interest to miss the reception year.”
16. When making a decision the guidance said the admission authority must:
• make decisions in the best interests of the child; and
• take account of the child’s individual needs and abilities and consider whether these can best be met in reception or year one; and
• take account of the potential impact on the child of being admitted to year one without first having completed the reception year.
• must give reasons for its decision.
17. The government revised its guidance in April 2023. It added that “It should be rare for an authority to refuse a parent’s request.” It also stated “the government believes it is rarely in a child’s best interests to miss a year of their education, for example, by beginning primary school in year one.”
18. The advice notes that “There is no expectation that children who were admitted out of their normal age group should be moved to their normal age group. As with other children, they should remain in the age group to which they were admitted unless there are sound educational reasons to do otherwise.”

The Council’s admissions policy

19. The Council’s primary admissions policy states that parents of a summer born child may request that the child is admitted out of their normal age group – to reception rather than year one in September 2024.
20. Decisions will be made on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned taking into account:
• the parent’s views
• any available information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development
• the child's medical history and the views of medical professional if relevant
• whether the child has previously been educated out of their normal age group
• any evidence that the child may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely
• the views of the head teacher of the school concerned
• If the child enters school for the first time at statutory school age, would it be in the child's best interest to join Reception or Year one.
• Parents and carers will be informed of the decision in writing setting out clearly the reasons for the decision.

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

21. I have discussed the complaint with Mrs D and considered the information provided by the complainant. I have made enquiries of the Council and considered the documents it provided. Mrs D and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered their comments before making a final decision.

Back to top

What I found

22. In November 2022 Mrs D requested that her daughter E should be admitted to reception rather than year one, when she reached compulsory school age in September 2024. She asked the Council to consider her three preferred schools.
23. Mrs D said that E was not ready to start school in September 2023. She said she knew her child very well and all the headteachers and educators agreed that starting school in year one was not beneficial for any child. She said she was aware of the consequences of starting school at CSA.
24. In March 2023 a panel of three Council officers refused Mrs D’s requests. The minutes of the panel’s meeting acted as its decision letter. This set out Mrs D’s grounds and the head teachers’ recommendations.
25. The panel’s decision letter to Mrs D referred to “The best interests of E” and said that teachers adapted provision to meet the needs of children including those who had not met their early learning goals. Therefore, it considered E could start in year one. It said it was not in E’s best interests to be educated out of cohort because it could not be sure of any emotional impact on E.
26. It said the impact of missing a year of school either upon transition to secondary school or ceasing to be statutory school age prior to completing Year 11 would have a greater detrimental impact on E than the impact of joining Year 1.
27. It noted the head teachers’ views “do not support the admission authority’s decision.” But whilst the reception year was important, the school could assist E to adapt to education if she did join Year 1.
28. Mrs D asked the Council to reconsider its decision. She said that she would be moving abroad and so the issue of secondary transition was not relevant.
29. The Council reconsidered Mrs D’s request. But it did not change its decision.
30. Mrs D complained to the Council and then Ombudsman that the Council did not consider her child’s individual best interests.
31. Mrs D has advised us that she applied for and obtained a school place for E starting in reception (her normal year) from September 2023. Mrs D says she thought she must get a place at her nearest school because there is a lack of nearby school places. She said that she did not want to be in a position next year where she might not be able to get a place in year one for E.

Findings

32. As E has started in Mrs D’s preferred school, we do not consider we should continue our investigation. This is because matters have moved on and it is not appropriate to recommend a new consideration of Mrs D’s request now. In addition, we cannot achieve the remedy of a significant financial compensation that Mrs D was seeking.

Final decision

33. We have ended our investigation because we cannot achieve the remedy that Mrs D wants.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman