Co-ordinated admissions - HELP!

[McTemp]

Right. We live in one LEA (a london one) lets call it authority A - our "home" authority. We are making an InYear application for a school in authority B (a London one) and authority C (not London).

Authority A ("home" authority) has sent our details to the other two authorities. Authority B, our 1st pref, can't offer and has added to the Continued interest list.

Authority C said they can't process our application unless our home authority sends them a copy of the application form. The details that were sent through via "data transfer" are not sufficient - authority C requires sight of the actual application form.

I don't want this, because I know the school in authority C (religious) have been known to penalise parents who put a non catholic school as 1st pref (as we have). I know they cant do this, but they do. Home authority has refused to send actual form, and has said all relevant information has been passed, and C needs to accept this. C are refusing. They acknowledge they have necessary information but want out form.

Whats the protocol here? Does authority C have any right to request the form? I can't find any agreed transfer rules regarding transfer or co-ordinated prefs in the code!!

There are no rules about this. However, the school is not allowed to see a copy of the form and must not know where you have put them on your preference list or what other schools are on the list.

You seem very certain that this school is penalising parents who put a non-Catholic school as first preference. If you believe the LA is giving the school information which is prohibited by the Admissions Code you should refer the matter to the Schools Adjudicator.

Grrr to no rules about this- seems to be stuck at a stalemate then! Home authority refuse to send copy of their form, (I think out of stubbornness, but they said they are required to send all information through "secure data" transfer, so can't fax/post/scan form like authority C wants). Can't see why C request form if it's not for info re: other prefs, IYKWIM. Will look into possibility of schools adjudicator, but that probably won't help move things forward in the short term! Bloody co-ordination!

In that case it is time to get imaginative. Whilst there are no direct rules about this I think their behaviour raises concerns of possible breaches of the Admissions Code so you should use that.

Contact the admissions team at LA C. Point out that they have all the information required to deal with your application and that paragraph 3.23 of the Admissions Code requires them to process your application without delay. Say that you believe the school is taking account of other preferences in determining the priority given to applications in breach of paragraph 2.16a of the Admissions Code and you believe the LA is facilitating this by breaching paragraph 1.76 of the Admissions Code which prohbits them from informing the school of the rank order of your preferences. Point out that, even if they are not informing the school of the rank order, information such as whether or not your first choice is a Catholic school cannot lawfully be used by the school when applying its oversubscription criteria and therefore the LGO is likely to take a dim view of any LA which supplies such information to schools. State that you can see no reason why they are insisting on a copy of the form as they already have all the information that can lawfully be used in determining your application. Their insistence on seeing the form therefore raises clear concerns that they intend to use information which cannot lawfully be used.

Tell them that if they continue to refuse to process your application you will refer the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman. I hope that won't be necessary but the good news is that the LGO prioritises school admission cases and generally deals with them pretty quickly.

prh47bridge I often lurk on these type of threads and am always astounded at your knowledge and experience

you are a real asset to this community

531800000008- I 100% agree.
prh47bridge- Thank you for all your great advice to me. We need more people like you. Will keep u posted.
Sorry Thread poster, have no advice for you.

Prh47bridge - thank you so much. Your advice worked perfectly- authority C had a change of mind and decided they did have sufficient information to process after all. Your knowledge and dedication to posting regarding admission issues really is an asset to this site, and so much appreciated by those like me who would have got confused and lost in this complicated system. Many Thanks.