Summary: We found fault on Mrs Y’s complaint about the Council’s refusal of her request to allow her summer born daughter to start Reception at school after her fifth birthday in September 2026. The Council failed to properly consider her request and decided it was in her best interests to start school in 2025. The complaint procedure also failed to identify this failure. The Council agreed to send Mrs Y an apology, reconsider her request, and review its published arrangements police and online guidance to ensure its legally correct. It will also provide guidance to Delay Panel members about the correct approach for deciding this type of application. It will also ensure her daughter does not lose a place at the preferred school for September 2026.

The complaint

1. Mrs Y complains the Council wrongly refused her request for her summer born daughter to start Reception class at school in September 2026 after her fifth birthday; as a result, this will impact on her education, as it decided she should go to school in September 2025. This places her at a huge disadvantage and has put the family all under a great deal of stress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(1), as amended)
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)

Relevant law and guidance

4. 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)
5. 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 1 with their ‘chronological year group’.
6. Parents can request their summer born children are admitted to Reception class in the September following their fifth birthday rather than Year 1. This means they are educated outside their normal age group.
7. Parents decide when their children start school. The admission authority decides whether they start in Reception or Year 1.
8. The School Admission Code (September 2021) is statutory guidance which states admission authorities must make clear in their admission arrangements the process for requesting admission out of the normal age group. (paragraph 2.17)
9. Parents of summer born children may choose not to send the child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request they are admitted out of their normal age group, to Reception rather than Year 1. (paragraph 2.18)
10. Admission authorities must make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned (paragraph 2.19). 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 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; and
• the views of the head teacher of the school concerned.
11. When informing a parent of their decision on the year group the child should be admitted to, the admission authority must set out clearly the reasons for their decision. (paragraph 2.19)
12. The government issued ‘Guidance on handling admissions requests for summer born children’ (November 2024). This is non-statutory guidance to help councils respond to parents’ requests for summer children to be admitted out of their normal age group. We expect admission authorities to follow the advice given in non-statutory guidance or explain their reasons for not doing so.
13. A request for admission out of the normal age group is separate from an application for a school place.
14. It is for local authorities and admission authorities to decide what their process should be for requesting admission outside the normal age group in their admission arrangements.
15. The guidance noted it is rarely in the best interests of a child to miss a year of school.
16. An admission authority may not decide that a child should start school before compulsory school age as that is the parent’s decision.

The Council’s admissions policy

17. If the child was born in the summer, they will be young in their normal school year. Parents may choose not to send the child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request they are admitted outside of their normal year to Reception, rather than Year 1.
18. When considering a request for delayed entry to primary school, the admission authority of the school must:

• decide whether the child’s circumstances make this appropriate on educational grounds;
• take account of the child’s individual needs and abilities and consider if these can be best met in Reception or Year 1;
• consider if it is in the child’s best interest to miss Reception and go straight to Year 1; and
• consider the impact on the child being admitted to Year 1 without having completed the Reception year.

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How I considered this complaint

19. I considered evidence provided by Mrs Y, information received from the Council, as well as relevant law, policy, and guidance. I sent a copy of my draft decision to Mrs Y and the Council. I considered their responses.

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What I found

20. In January 2025, Mrs Y applied to the Council (as admissions authority) for her daughter to delay the start of school until September 2026, rather than start in September 2025. She explained why she considered it in her daughter’s best interests to start in Reception, not Year 1, in September 2026. This was because: her daughter would only just have turned four if she started in 2025; she believed her daughter was too young to start in 2025; her daughter was already at a disadvantage because of disabled family members; she was not toilet trained; she received help with her speech.
21. Requests to the Council for delayed start to school are decided by the Delay Panel (the panel). The panel considered Mrs Y's request in February 2025. The minutes show the panel noted while her daughter did not have to start statutory school until the summer after her fifth birthday, she would not automatically get a place in Reception. A panel member also noted her daughter had no significant Special Educational Needs and Disability needs and ‘did not see an issue with [her daughter] starting school this year’. Another panel member said she felt it was possible for the daughter to, ‘enter into reception this year’.
22. The minutes record the panel deciding, ‘it was not in [her daughter’s] interest to delay the start to [the primary school]’. The panel refused Mrs Y’s request for a delayed entry to Reception until September 2026.
23. The panel sent Mrs Y its decision letter. This said it fully considered all the evidence presented but decided, ‘On balance the panel did not feel that there were compelling reasons for [the daughter] not to start reception in September 2025 with her peers and felt that the benefits of her starting school with her peers outweighed the concerns about her readiness for school’. A school place for September 2025 would be offered on ‘national offer day’ in April. This is the day parents find out which school has offered their child a place.
24. In March, Mrs Y complained to the Council about this decision. She said the panel had not applied the correct test when deciding her application.
25. The following month, the Council sent her its stage 1 response which said the panel had considered the request and told her its decision. Mrs Y asked for her complaint to go to stage 2 of its complaints process. Towards the end of the month, the Council sent her its stage 2 response. This wrongly referred to the panel deciding she should start in Year 1 in 2026, not 2025 which is what the panel decided.

My findings

26. Mrs Y’s daughter was a summer born child who would not reach compulsory school age in 2025.
27. Parents of summer born children can ask for their child to start school at age 5 in Reception. The Council must then decide if, after reaching the compulsory school age, it would be in the child’s best interests to start in Reception or Year 1. When reaching this decision, it must take account of all relevant considerations. It must consider the potential impact on the child of being admitted to Year 1 without first completing Reception.
28. When the Council considered her application for a delayed start to school, it went on to consider whether it was in her best interests to start Reception in 2025. It decided it was in her best interests to do so. This view was upheld under the complaint procedure. What the Council failed to do was consider what was in her daughter’s best interests when she started school in 2026. The Council applied the wrong test.
29. The Council needed to consider the potential impact of her daughter being admitted into Year 1 without first completing Reception in 2026 and why it would be in the child’s best interests to miss Reception. I am satisfied the evidence does not show the Council properly considered this. This was fault.
30. The complaint procedure failed to identify this error at either stage 1 or stage 2. The stage 1 response merely told her the panel had considered the request and told her of its decision. The stage 2 decision confusingly referred to the panel deciding her daughter should start Year 1 in 2026. What the panel had decided was she would start school in Reception in 2025.
31. I am satisfied the identified failures caused Mrs Y an injustice. She suffered frustration and uncertainty as she felt the Council had ignored her when she brought this to its attention. She also lost the opportunity of having the panel properly consider her request.

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Action

32. I considered our guidance on remedies.
33. The Council agreed to take the following action within four weeks of the final decision on this complaint:
1. Send Mrs Y a written apology for the injustice caused by the following fault: failing to properly consider her request; failing to identify any problem with the process when it dealt with her formal complaint about it.
2. Reconsider Mrs Y’s request for her daughter to be admitted out of the normal age group to Reception starting in September 2026. The Council should consider whether it would be in her best interests to start in Reception or Year 1. If it does not agree with her request, it should clearly explain why it considers it is in her best interests to miss Reception.
3. To review its published admission arrangements policy and online guidance to ensure this reflects the School Admissions Code and the non-statutory guidance about making decisions on requests for delayed entry.
4. To provide guidance to panel members about the correct approach to follow when deciding delayed entry applications for summer born children.
5. Ensure her daughter does not lose a place at the preferred school for September 2026 due to the identified failings.
34. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

35. I found fault on Mrs Y’s complaint against the Council. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman