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.

Well...you said 'PErhaps I should' so I took that at face value! Gove AND your MP. And like I said, the wider story of the fact that the EFA's remit seems qualitatively different from the LGOs and that parents as a result may find themselves effectively with fewer rights might be worth proper journalistic investigation, from a proper newspaper (so, the Guardian or the Telegraph - not the Times - Murdoch way too cosy with Cameron and also with Gove himself). But not your specific case.

I know. MP too? I was chatting with him just 6 days ago actually - and I have a lot of respect for him. But what could he do? Just take it further up.....? A journalist's in depth investigation would be good. Why not the Times?

Because - as I said in my last post - Murdoch is way too cosy with Cameron and Gove. The Times and Gove form a stomach turning mutual admiration society on a regular basis - and the connection through his wife is another reason to avoid them.

If your MP is a Tory or a Lib Dem then he won't do anything. If he is not representing a coalition party then you have more chance of him going in to bat for you. My MP (with whom I was texting this morning, although not about education, since we are sharing anecdotes about friends in westminster :) ) has put Gove on the spot several times and was part of the (to be fair, widespread) pressure that got him to retract on his original English Bacc plans.

The issue here isn't whether your DD should have a place at the Grammar school - for what it's worth I don't think she should - but the fact that parents now seem to have fewer avenues to effective redress as a result of Gove's changes.

No, Xoanon, you're wrong. This isn't about whether she should have a place at the grammar school. It's whether she should have had the place that was offered, reinstated - when it was accepted - then withdrawn by the local authority after 7 days. I'll reiterate - the fact that it's a grammar school is not the issue: if it involved our 2nd choice school we would have still appealed. And gone to the EFA for the same reasons.

No perma, I'm right, the wider issue, the one that it's important to resolve, and that may interest MPs, journalists etc is the reduction in the rights of parents as a result of Gove's changes.

Anyway I definitely think you should pursue it and our disagreement over which element of the whole saga constitutes the public interest bit is irrelevant really - at the end of the day, there was an LA fuck up and you can't get redress.

You're right in your opinion Xoanon.

I would say it's more about the rights of the child, over and above the rights of the parents. It's my DD who has really gone through the mill with is - not us, her Mum and Dad. But she has had no recompense for it. Not even an apology. So yes, you're right about the lack of redress.

I don't know what I'll do yet - I'm waiting for an expert education/public law solicitor contact to let me know if the firm can take the case on a conditional fee agreement basis. For that to happen, the firm will have to be very very certain we have a very good case. Otherwise JR would financially be out of the question.

But Gove and my MP - yes, I think I should so. I'll keep you posted.