Expert appeal advice needed! (Very long and boring...)

[LittleMysMum]

This will be a boring thread for those who don't like to read regulations etc...! My DS has been turned down for all 3 places listed on the common application form, but preference 1 was to an outside LEA (we live just over the border) and choices 2 and 3 to our home LEA - the form stated that the information would be shared and at no point in the application process have we been contacted to say we should never have initially applied to an outside LEA etc...

Last Tuesday was results day for the outside LEA but no results online - I contacted them by phone and they said because we lived outside the area our home LEA had been sent the results and we would find out from them. Someone rang me back to confirm he had spoken to our home LEA and that they had our results which had been sent out by post also on the 26th...

By the 28th still no results so I contacted home LEA by phone - they have no record of DS and have never seen any application form etc...so no offers. Contact with our first preference school (very helpful and distressed headteacher) reveals we haven't got a place there, but their LEA had then just never passed on our form. Headteacher and home LEA both contact outside LEA and both confirm they admit they didn't pass on the information.

As far as I can gather, School Admissions Code has mandatory status under SSFA (I used to be a lawyer in my pre-pregnancy days but doubt my own abilities nowadays...) and states inter-alia:

"3.7 The following paragraphs reflect the law as it applies to in-year applications for 2010 onwards, and to all applications for admission in 2011 onwards. While it is for each local authority to decide the scheme that best suits its residents and its schools, they must ensure that they:
a) comply with law and regulations, including all the procedural requirements (for example, the scheme must require a common application form to be completed, allowing at least 3 preferences, the scheme must provide for information sharing with other local authorities, and it must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the local authority sends out not more than one offer to all parents seeking places at its schools); and
b) do not disadvantage families resident in other local authorities who apply for schools in their area


Main obligations imposed by the Co-ordination Regulations
3.15 The Co-ordination Regulations prescribe national closing dates for primary and secondary applications and, in the case of primary applications, prescribe the date by which the exchange of information described in sub-paragraphs b) and c) below must be completed. Local authorities must include these dates in their co-ordination schemes. Aside from this, the main requirements of the Co-ordination Regulations with regard to schemes are:
a) A common application form must be completed, which allows parents to express at least 3 preferences in rank order of preference, which may be for schools within or outside their home local authority area, and to give reasons for their preferences. The common application form must allow parents to provide their name, their address (including documentary evidence in support), and the name, address and date of birth of the child.
b) Local authorities and admission authorities in the area must exchange information on applications made and potential offers by the dates specified in the scheme.
c) The home authority must pass information on applications to other local (?maintaining?) authorities about applications to schools in their area. The maintaining authority must determine the application in the normal way, and inform the home local authority if a place is available, by the dates specified in the scheme. The maintaining authority must not tell parents of the offer."

The situation we are in now is that home LEA has grubbed about and come up with an offer at one of the worst performing primaries - BUT we were always going to fail apparently even at preferences 1 or 2 on distance grounds - advisor at ACE, however, says that if the outside LEA admit they have breached the Code they won't even want it to go as far as Appeal and will hurriedly sort out a place...

Any expert opinion on whether the Procedural breach (obviously unlawful) changes our situation?

Thanks - and sorry for the length of the post!

[LittleMysMum]

Hi - thanks for replying!

In short, they didn't really communicate at all once they had decided he didn't fit the criteria for choice 1 - they didn't pass on choices 2 or 3 to the relevant schools/authority or communicate the refusal decision to anyone, just left it dangling...

Yes, that was my initial take on it - that if he would have been turned down anyway for preferences 2 and 3 it didn't really do anything beyond cause a week's extra distress to us as we weren't being told results at the same time as everyone else. It was only when the ACE advisor I spoke to said that actually, the maladministration was so extreme that the LEA would not want to have to defend it at an appeal and if I had evidence they accepted the situation was their fault I would probably just get offered a place to "shut up and go away..." (there isn't an infant class size issue by the way, there are 40 places going)

So really I'm interested to know if anyone knows whether the "shut up..." place is likely to be offered?

[admission]

The key question here is exactly what you did with the application form and what were you supposed to do.
Unless the LA booklets say something different the normal procedure is to send the CAF to the LA in which you are resident. They will then have logged the details and sent your preference to the appropriate LA for the school outside your LA.
Your posts seem to suggest that you actually sent the CAF to the school / LA that is not your home LA.
So the question becomes did you make a mistake or not and have the outside LA then compounded the problem by not bothering to send on your form to the home LA?
I do not agree with ACE in the context that the outside LA did get your form and did action it for the first preference school and you did not get an offer of a place. There has been no mistake by the outside LA in relation to the outside first preference school, so why would the outside LA or an appeal panel offer a place at the school?
When it comes to the second and third preference school then there is clearly a major case of maladminstration providing that you could send the CAF to the outside school / LA rather than your home LA. The maladministration is by the outside LA and not the home LA. If you would have been offered a place at either the second or third preference school then there is a very strong case for admittance. If you would not have been offered a place then even though there has been maladministration you would not get a place.
Whilst I do not agree with the advice of ACEover the maladministration i would say to you that you have nothing to loose by appealing for all three preference schools on the basis that the two LAs have completely messed it up, it is maladministration and that you want a place at one of the three schools and that you will be reporting this shambles to the LGO. I would agree with ACE that there will be a considerable amount of egg on face over this and it is just possible that they will "find" a place, if they realise that you are prepared to take it all the way. Normally I would suggest that saying you are a solicitor is not sensible but if you just happen to drop it into the letters you write, it just might make them realise you are not going away over this and they can't just give you a load of horse manure to absolve all responsibility.
But first please check that you are actually correct in where you sent the CAF to. If you got that wrong both LAs will simply just say not my fault, your fault.

[prh47bridge]

Agree with Admission.

[LittleMysMum]

Thanks so much for your help - I'll certainly give it a go!

[panelmember]

I agree with Admission too.

It sounds to me as if you have made a mistake by sending the form to the 'other' LEA rather than your own but if local arrangements actually permit you to do this, then there is an arguable case that the 'other' LEA have failed you by not passing the form back to your own LEA.