Declining a space

[Farnhamparent]

If you decline the space you are offered, the local council are saying that it does not affect your position on the waiting lists. However, once you are out of the system, they are under no legal requirement to supply you with a space - the education of your child is then your responsibility.
A lot of parents would like to decline their space, but are feeling threatened by this.
Does anyone know whether this means you would not be able to apply again as a late applicant? Ever?

Are they declining the space because it is not the school they want, and would rather wait for another?

Do you mean apply as a late applicant for the school that you have just declined?

As far as I know, if you decline the place, it will not help you get a place anywhere else. The LA have fulfilled their obligation to give you a place, whether or not you choose to accept it is up to you. But if you decline, it doesn't mean that they automatically have to offer you somewhere else.

I don't see why you would not be able to re apply at a later date as a late applicant, but if by that time they have filled all the spaces, they do not have to reinstate your place if you chose to decline their original offer.

You can change your mind as many times as you like. When you ask for a place in a state school, the LA is obliged to provide one. I doesn't matter whether they've already offered a place and you've declined it.

But they can only offer a place where one exists. That could be in a different school to the one you were previously offered, probably farther away. They also may not be able to magic a place up instantaneously. If, say, you ask for a place in the middle of September and there isn't a place at any school where they could reasonably transport your child, the child might have to spend some time out of school while waiting for the LA to make arrangements.

I don't quite understand what you mean about parents feeling threatened? Doesn't it make sense that if parents decline the place they are offered, then that implies that they are willing to take on their child's education themselves? How else would you envision the system working?

The point, I think, is that if parents decline a place, the LEA isn't obliged to offer them an alternative. They can stay on any waiting lists they are on - or join others - but the fact that the child has no offer of a place doesn't in any way propel them up the waiting list. Nor does it give them any additional priority if they later submit applications for other schools.

Appeal panels too are very resistant to the argument that "you have to grant my appeal because otherwise my child has no school to go to". Appeals are decided on their merits and panels don't like to feel pressurised or manipulated.