The Education Funding Agency (EFA) - any experience?

[PermaShattered]

Yesterday was a good time for MNHQ to pull a couple of certain threads ;)

Today I have submitted a detailed application form to the EFA - the academy equivalent to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) - to look into the circumstances of the Admissions Appeal for my daughter which was both conducted and decided in breach of the existing legal framework.

I have a simple question: does anyone have any experience yet of the EFA which is a new body?

For the avoidance of doubt:

1. This is a genuine request for help/advice/useful information - nothing else;
   
2. The phrase '3 day rule' anything associated with it is banned. Look, I know I can't 'ban' it really but please, this thread is not about the legal issues.
   

Thanks in advance for respecting that.

[lougle]

Hi Perma, I was doing a bit of digging yesterday, as it happens.

I don't know who 'Kent Independent Education Advice are, but they have 'Peter's blog' and it seems that he's put in some FIO applications.

The link there shows the statistics for the EFA so far, for Kent, Medway and Nationally.

[PermaShattered]

Interesting. thanks - I shall take a look later. Perhaps a FOI to the LGO would also be productive ;)

[lougle]

Incidentally, the EFA and LGO seem to have the same level of 'success' for parents.

The figures released for the www.lgo.org.uk/GetAsset.aspx?id=fAAxADQAOAAzAHwAfABUAHIAdQBlAHwAfAAwAHwA0 LGO in the 2010/2011 cycle showed 1,195 complaints of which 28% got either a new hearing or a new hearing with a fresh panel.

The EFA released figures showing that 120 complaints were considered by them for the 2012/13 cycle, again with 28% 'success' rate for parents.

[PermaShattered]

Lougle I find 'Peter's blog's' view of the EFA's role worrying - hardly independent is it?

[lougle]

Yes, I'm not sure exactly who 'Peter' is, but the key difference between the EFA's Procedure and the LGO's Procedure is that the LGO states that it will send copies of information received (except when DPA applies) to the complainant, whilst the EFA makes no such statement.

Having said that, I was comforted a little by the Stats being comparable, albeit from different cycles.

[NotAroundTheEyes]

Yes but for veeee-ry slightly different reasons, eh

Good luck with all this Perma. It's all Greek to me but I wish you and your DD all the best.

Lougle I hope you rectified the chocolate situation.

[HabbaDabbaDoo]

The end result was the same though

[NotAroundTheEyes]

Actually, dear heavens, please don't answer that. I have SO much work to do. Over 'n' out.

[RowanMumsnet]

We've deleted posts that break our Talk Guidelines now - we'd appreciate it if you could stick within them from now on please.

[PermaShattered]

Thanks MN. Not quite sure how posting a definition of 'forum troll' breaks the guidelines but hey ho!

Back to the EFA. It will be interesting to see how they approach this.

[PermaShattered]

Ah, yes I do - MN say's it's troll-hunting sorry

[RowanMumsnet]

@PermaShattered

Thanks MN. Not quite sure how posting a definition of 'forum troll' breaks the guidelines but hey ho!

Back to the EFA. It will be interesting to see how they approach this.

It wasn't so much the definition itself as the direct statement that you had reported another poster for trolling. Troll-hunting is against our Talk Guidelines, we're afraid. (Although posting up a definition of 'troll' in a way that seems designed to imply that another poster is trolling would also fall foul of our no-troll-hunting rule.)

[RowanMumsnet]

Sorry about the x-post PermaShattered!

[PermaShattered]

Right, I get it! Thanks for clarifying :)

[LaVolcan]

Not quite sure why my post got deleted then, although I mentioned a poster by name, which is perhaps why.

In the innocuous bit which didn't mention anyone said that there were serious issues and I hoped that the thread wouldn't get pulled because these questions get lost: at what stage can you accept that an offer is valid, whether considerations of the type of school outweigh the time of the withdrawal, and whether the EFA will agree with previous rulings.

I said that I was pretty sure that next year some Admissions/Appeal authority somewhere will be sure to mess up and that this information will be useful for the parents concerned, even if it comes too late for Perma's family.

[PermaShattered]

Yes, these are serious issues which I hope the EFA will address and deal with in line with the LGO's remit. My concern is that though statistics suggest otherwise, the EFA appears not to be entirely independent in relation to complaints about misconducted appeals.

Should I be concerned, I wonder? I'm off now as I have loads of work to do!

[lougle]

Perma, I'll look around for other information sources. I'm not confident that the one I linked to is an impartial view either, to be honest, particularly as people pay that service to represent them in appeals, so he may well have a vested interest in making the system seem more 'difficult' for parents to win without his valuable advice.

If I get anything, I'll let you know by PM.

[prh47bridge]

HabbaDabbaDoo - As I've pointed out previously, the LGO takes a different view to you of the way its own decision should be interpreted. This is not MN folklore. This is fact. The only question is whether the EFA will take a different view to the LGO.