School admissions fraud article

[CarlaJones]

I thought people might be interested in this article about school admissions "detectives" catching out people cheating the system and there's also going to be a Panorama programme about it that's mentioned in the article.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34014556

Judging by the article it seems it's quite common for fraud to be reported to the admissions authority.

Saw this earlier - I'm glad it's being tackled, but it seemed to be just one local authority I think. I'm interested to know what action other authorities (who don't have a special investigative team) do about suspected/reported cheats. Anyone know?

They have got away with it as well

If the boy starts in September they haven't got away with it yet. If they are found out the place can be taken away from their son even after he has started at the school. If he is still there at the end of the year he may be safe but not before. Have you reported this?

what action other authorities (who don't have a special investigative team) do about suspected/reported cheats

Most check applications against council tax records. Many have blacklists of addresses known to be used as short term lets by people seeking to fiddle the system. Applications from those addresses will be looked at carefully. Some will also check property ownership - if parents are renting they will look to see if they own a property in the area and, if so, use that address.

Wasn't there a telly programme about this s few years ago?

I have a vague memory of an enforcement officer saying her role was often to help people clarify where they are actually living.

The part about removing religious criteria is interesting, that would certainly make our secondary applications much much easier (all our closest secondaries are religious and we are not).

In our area people do report. Catchments are less than 1/2 mile so people tend to know where people live and when things don't add up. People openly ask other parents where they live.Parents also tend to know children who have missed out ( via local playgroups / nurseries) - often on the same road for exsmple. DC loose places every year post allocations - our LA investigates any that are reported

If the father watched Panorama last night he's probably regretting boasting about it now and wondering if anyone will report him!

You have to think about the devastated child and family that lost out. They will be desperately sad and yet powerless unless they have the info on who cheated... The parents may be hoping for a miracle

If they are over PAN they normally wouldn't offer the place until the school is back down to PAN. However, in this case I think the parents of the child at the head of the list may have a case for appeal if the place isn't offered to them on the grounds that they would have got a place in the initial allocations if the LA had taken adequate measures to detect fraud.

"You have to think about the devastated child and family that lost out. They will be desperately sad"

Well, not necessarily. Not everyone wants the same schools. There are people who wouldn't be particularly fussed. Friend of mine was allocated a local school that everyone is busting a gut to get their child into and she was fed up, as she'd preferred the one down the road, but didn't get in to that.

If a school is over subscribed, by definition there will be people who missed out and are fussed

If they are on a waiting list and a place becomes free they will be notified...I know this for actual fact as it happened to me. The place became free (not because of fraud), my DC was top of the list and I got a letter straight away to see if I wanted it.

This is interesting as we live in the schools designated catchment (and moved further in 2 weeks ago) but ds didn't get a secondary place from the waiting list or at appeal. We got to the top of the list but then appeals were held and 12 were successful (ours wasn't) and we are currently at 10th.

I rang up about a child who I know used a grandparents address (as his parents had split up) however they are now living as a family again out of catchment. I asked what would happen if this was proven to be the case and they said he would lose his place. They won't however confirm the outcome of the investigation to me so I wont get the opportunity to re-appeal even if he didn't get his place legitimately.

In my case house it was a primary place where appeals rarely get upheld I believe and the place became available before the appeal date anyway

If they are on a waiting list and a place becomes free they will be notified

If they are over PAN no places will become free until they drop below PAN again.