Appeal on Monday for son with no school place at all for 6 months. Help pls!

[badgermama]

Hello lovely folk, all help appreciated. We moved at the end of March this year to an area where all the primary schools are full. The council have been no help and offered no school place so I have had my 5 year old year R son at home for 6 months trying to educate him whilst taking care of his two year old sister. During this time we have gone from no 2 on the waiting list for our catchment school to number 9. The Head told me it would probably be Juniors before he gets a place.

We have an appeal on Monday and any hints would be appreciated. We spoke to the admissions dept at the council today who gave us lots of information I am sure is wrong eg we think he may fit under fair access protocol as he has been unplaced and the council said FAP doesn't apply to secondary. They also said that he had not been out of school for 6 months as it counts per year so he has only been unplaced for one day (?!).

They also said that the council are setting up a room in a school four miles away till Xmas where all the year R and 1 children who are unplaced in the area can go, with no plans for after Xmas. I can't drive due to a visual problem and would struggle to get him there and feel reluctant to put a nervous 5 year old in a taxi. My son is also very able and was taught on his own for much of the time at his last school as his literacy especially was so far in advance of the other 90 children in the year so the thought of him being in a class with possibly mostly younger children concerns me. He used to come home weeping with boredom from the last school and I can't help feeling that stimulation might not be great in this interim holding classroom. The council official also told me they did not have him on their list as unplaced for some reason so had not got him on the list for this temporary classroom set up, I have no idea why they would not class him as unplaced as we have all the documentation in place to show we applied and are unplaced and an appeal date.

I am sorry to ramble. It had been an exhausting year and I really want to do right by my son and feel pretty hopeless about the appeal at the moment.

thank you to anyone who has stuck with this!

PRH we have forwarded the information to you if you would like to see it x

Oh Badger, they are just unreal.

Have you actually been to visit the Ombudsman : as in gone to where they are and sat in reception and refused to leave until they go through the file with you face to face - in front of DS - and justify their thought process with you and he and the documents in front of them?

Could you and your DH take it in turns to visit the school mid morning, most days, to politely ask how things are progressing?

Have you been up to the offices of the LEA and refused to leave until the people come and see you face to face?

Enough of playing by the liars rules, time to park your tanks on their lawn.

Oh badger, how awful for you - but DON'T give up. You are doing wonderfully by your son and you will be vindicated in time. Hope the others can help who know lots about school admissions. Thinking of you all. (Where are you? If only you were in SE London your son could come and be friends with mine...even if you're not, if he would like a pen friend let us know!)

This has probably already been suggested, but have you gone in person to your MP's advice surgery? In my experience, this gets much faster action than writing letters or the like. Or, just call up the MP's office.

Badgermama your response sounds very like the one from the LGO case worker who dealt with my complaint. She decided that she found no fault in the LA breaking the law and ignored all of my evidence, choosing to believe their version instead. It stinks .

Thank you again for your support and time folks.

We have had numerous communications with the MP, phone calls and mails backwards and forwards and he has made it astoundingly clear that despite using school places as a campaign issue he thinks the council do a great job and agrees with how they have handled our case.

I really thought the LGO were bothered about evidence and duty of care.

I have said it before but seriously, I am at a loss to see why anyone would be having to fight to go to school in the UK.

It took me three readings of the LGO covering letter to even understand it and I have a Post Graduate level education. What hope is there for children who have parents with literacy problems or another language.

After a week of 15+ hour days we are back again to scraping together arguments again to try to convince the LGO we need a place we can get to. It is obscene. The real victim in this is my son. I can't help but feel I have done something seriously wrong even thought logically I know we have only ever tried to get him a good enough education.

Have been to actually see them, so that you are real people, not just one of many case files.

They are based in Wolverhampton I believe, not near us, and we were given impression they aren't an organisation to visit but will check that next week.

Coventry.

Thank you.

Badgermama your experience of the LGO pretty much echoes mine. Our LA lied and broke the law (SEN related) and yet the LGO believed the LA without proof and didn't understand the law or how it should be applied either. I am so sorry.
We had minor success through pursuing a complaint through the ICO (information commissioners office) by making subject access requests and so proving LA lied but in all honesty it was only the involvement of an educational law solicitor, a barrister and leave for Judicial Review that actually forced the LA to meet their statutory duty.

Badger
How can the MP say the LA are doing a good job when your son does not have a school place?

Check his diary - turn up to every single one of his surgeries and talk either to him or to everybody waiting to see him about it.

Stop paying your council tax - as the LA have not provided you with a school place - and point out that if they DO take you to court you'll have the press there to hear why.

LGO do not like visitors - they like files because they can close the drawer on files.

LEA school admissions team ditto

part of your son's education for the rest of the term :
1.01 in "how to get authorities to do their job"
followed by
1.02 in persistence and stubbornness
and if possible
1.03 in public speaking - if HE asks at reception to talk to people and points out that he is not in school due to their incompetence they will deal with you out of embarrassment

stop thinking the English way - get loud, get stubborn

Badgermama, could you formally notify the County that you are no longer home educating? Then they would be breaking the law by not giving your ds a school place. It all seems kafkaesque.

We have written repeatedly to the LA I and local school to stress that we are not home educating. We wrote again straight after the appeal where they were insisting we were. Nobody responds to these letters or calls. They literally ignore them.

The joke is we are in a catch 22 where if they did respond I can imagine they would start pursuing us with EWOs and court threats...I can on,y imagine this as I have no idea any more. I thought if your child didn't go to school you got into trouble. That seems to only be the case if a council are on top of their paper work or have a school place to offer you. If they don't it seems they are happy to let you do whatever you want.

I am reluctant to involve the media even though because if this thread we have been approached by highly reputable people as I really don't want to subject my son to the coverage. I have also seen articles in papers on similar topics with literally thousands of comments underneath with gross, judgemental comments about the families concerned. I am unconvinced it would make any difference.

Similarly I have taken a more low scale, conformist approach to this as I really don't want my son to be disturbed any more than he has to be. Just the few trips to the school we have had and the appeal has left his asking questions and upset about what is going on. He is very bright and perceptive, very sensitive and only a little thing (he was IUGR and is only the size of a child a few years younger) and my overwhelming urge is to try to shield him as much as possible whilst trying to sort this out. Possibly wrong, I don't know.

Insanity...would you be prepared to tell me roughly how much the people you hired charged for their services? Was it successful? I an sorry you had such a bad time, you must have been exhausted x

Badgermama, it may be worth checking with your home insurer if you might have legal protection cover included and if so will they include this sort of situation? There is a chance you may be able to fund a solicitor this way?

I suggest you write formally to the council referring to your son's entitlement to full time education and their duties under section 19 of the Education Act 1996. Say that they know perfectly well that you are not home educating DS, and that if they don't come up with proposals for full time education for him within one week you will be consulting solicitors with a view to taking judicial review proceedings in his name.

I think you need to focus on his right to education rather than what went wrong with the appeal for the very practical reason that judicial review proceedings relating to school admissions have to be in the parents' names and therefore it is their income which will be taken into account for legal aid purposes. However, the right to education is your son's right, and he can take action in his own right to enforce that.

If that doesn't work go to solicitors with education expertise who offer legal aid. You might have to pay for the formal pre-action letter but if that doesn't resolve matters they should be able to take action under legal aid

This wouldn't necessarily get your son into the school you want, but at least it should get him back into a school. If it's too far away the council will have to pay for transport.

A judicial review of a decision was covered by Legal Aid because in our case action was taken in the child's name. In our case the decision made was irrational, so LA named a school that had already on three separate occasions informed the LA that they couldn't accommodate him. LA lied that they hadn't said they couldn't whilst at the same time quoting directly from the correspondence saying just that.
Our costs were incurred getting to the point of Judicial Review tbh because I suspect the LA time wasted and blocked us at every corner (such as supposedly exploring options that didn't even exist or were in the pipeline in three years time) in the hope we ran out of funds to pursue the action. As it was it cost in excess of £10,000 although some of that went on independent reports. But to put it in perspective because we "won" LA were forced to place ds in an independent specialist school costing them £50,000pa.
I'll pm you the law firm we used, they have a free helpline and so it would probably be worth your while giving them a ring.

Thank you again folks for your time and effort. Insanity, your son or daughter is a very lucky child to have such determined parents. I am so pleased you got the school you needed and deserved x

Just popping back to give you moral support, sorry I can't add much at this stage that would be helpful. In awe of your reliance though, you and others are trailblazers for your DC and society needs such people. Bureaucratic rigidity is a scourge and it is so difficult taking it on.

Your DS has the right to education and the LA the duty to provide it. The way all this is being handled (not least by the MP) shows no concern for either. Truly disgraceful!

The legal affairs topic may give you some help. If you are writing to the LA asking for a school place I recommend that you include the history of ypur case and copy your letter to the Secretary of state for education.

I'm flabbergasted by the whole thing tbh. Your child has a right to education and that right is being breached, it seems.

Sorry -meant to say in awe of your RESILIENCE!

Also been musing on how self serving these public officials appear to be.

Want to keep this on the ''front page''. Keep at it badger. This is so unbelievable!

So what are they actually offering your son education wise?

I continue to be appalled at your ongoing battle.

School places were a nightmare where I used to live, and a neighbour who was unable to get a school place was given a tutor by the LEA for several hours a week. A teacher came to their house and set up work etc. and this went on for 6 months or so while a school place was found. I would imagine that the cost of this focused the minds of the LEA somewhat! Is something similar available to you? It would at least take some pressure off you and you would be "in the system".

Alternatively, could/would you report yourself to Social Services? DD1 is under a private fostering arrangement, and I (since I had to contact SS when we moved anyway) found them quite helpful in getting us a local school place. She was child 31 in a junior class without needing to appeal. Different for you as your DS is KS1, but still someone else (hopefully) working on your side from within the combine.

Wishing you fortitute and a school place soon!