Council withdrawing offer

Hga2021 · 2021-04-26T07:52:03+00:00

My son was offered 1st choice on offer day, but then the council phoned me on Thursday withdrawing the offer as there had been an error. I delayed my sons reception start so he is turning 5 in August a week before starting school. Throughout the processes doing that admissions have been totally useless and I'm now raising a complaint against them as they just don't seem to have a clue what they are doing. I'm appealing the decision to withdraw my sons offer, but not holding out much hope at all. Can anyone give any advice on anything at all that might help? Thank you

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Whinge · 26/04/2021 08:58

What was the error?

I was under the impression that a school place could only be withdrawn in very specific circumstances, such as using a fraudulant address.

Original poster

Hga2021 · 26/04/2021 09:09

3 children higher up the criteria didn't get offered places when they should have. So the 3 who got offered those places have had them withdrawn

OP posts:

Original poster

Hga2021 · 26/04/2021 09:14

I'm not entirely sure how it's actually happened as the school are their own admissions authority so they gave the council the list of children they could offer spaces to, yet somehow the council have mistakenly told 3 families the wrong thing?

I found out by letter the day after offer day, so as I was impatient I rang my 2nd choice to see if he was on their list as it would have been an indicator as to which school. He wasn't on their list but they has availability so I thought oh he's got 1st choice.

Yet I don't understand as he should have been on their list if 1st choice didn't have him on theirs?

Sorry if that doesn't make sense, it's a pretty complicated situation! 😅

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OhCrumbsWhereNow · 26/04/2021 09:57

Did you get a letter withdrawing the offer the day after offer day? Or did you only find out last Thursday?

Iirc, they only have a very limited amount of time to withdraw an offer.

Lougle · 26/04/2021 10:04

If I'm reading correctly, you didn't get the letter on offer day, so phoned 2nd choice school, who told you he wasn't on their list. Then you got the letter telling you he had first choice? That would make the date you were informed 17th April? Then you had your place withdrawn on 22nd April? I think that's on the verge of too late, but as there is a weekend in there, it makes it tricky.

Presumably, school found out the error on Monday and then the LA investigated and made a decision 3 days later.

prh47bridge · 26/04/2021 10:41

You need to be clearer about the timeline. When did you receive the offer for your first choice school? When did they withdraw the offer?

Original poster

Hga2021 · 26/04/2021 11:35

Sorry my mind is scrambled I will try and be a bit clearer!

My son is a summer born and is starting school out if cohort age 5. As I had to apply through paper application I then had to receive our offer through letter too.

The council sent the letter out with our offer on Friday 16th and I received it Saturday 17th.

I emailed on Monday 19th accepting our offer, I didn't hear anything so I rang on Wednesday 21st just to accept again and the lady on the phone accepted it for me no problem.

Afternoon of Thursday 22nd the head of admissions phoned me explaining they were withdrawing the offer and I sent my appeal through first thing on Friday 23rd.

I'm also complaining about admissions as in addition to this error, they spent in excess of 2 years telling me the wrong catchment school which became apparent when I was in the process of getting agreements for my son to be admitted out of cohort.

We have a local law Centre that usually offer free aid in situations like this but they are still furloughed and I can't afford a solicitor so no idea where I stand legally with it all 😔 it's all been incredibly stressful.

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SnowdaySewday · 26/04/2021 12:27

If the criteria had been applied correctly and you hadn't been given school preference 1, would you have then got a place at school preference 2?

You might have a case for appealing for school 2 if the criteria being applied incorrectly meant you didn't get offered a place that you should have had.

Have you been offered a place at any school now?

The advice is always:

Accept what you have been offered, unless you seriously would send your DC to an independent school or home-school instead. Not accepting doesn’t strengthen your appeal, it simply means the LA no longer has to find your DC a place.
Put your DC's name on the waiting lists of all schools that would be acceptable - check this procedure with the LA as there may be rules about when this can be done or how many waiting lists you can be on. There is often some movement as people move away, get places at independent schools, win appeals or get a place from the waiting list.
Appeal if you feel you have a good case.

SnowdaySewday · 26/04/2021 12:37

I'm also complaining about admissions as in addition to this error, they spent in excess of 2 years telling me the wrong catchment school which became apparent when I was in the process of getting agreements for my son to be admitted out of cohort.

What is the outcome you hope from this? Did the mistake contribute to you not being offered the correct school?

prh47bridge · 26/04/2021 13:02

That's marginal. and one through the courts, suggested that admission authorities had only 3 days to withdraw an offer made in error. Many admission authorities argue that this deadline no longer applies as it isn't mentioned in the current Admissions Code, but it wasn't in the old one either so I would argue that it still applies.

On the dates you have given, it seems they have taken 4 days to withdraw the offer, which is too long. You should appeal. However, you should be aware that there is no guarantee the appeal panel will agree that 4 days is too long. Even if they do, if the classrooms are very small as is suggested on another thread, the panel may decide that the school can't cope with all, or even any, of the children affected. So, to summarise, you definitely seem to have a case for appeal but there is no guarantee of success.

prh47bridge · 26/04/2021 13:05

Sorry - my first sentence doesn't make sense. Not sure what happened there. It should say:

That's marginal. Over a decade ago, two cases, one through the LGO and one through the courts...

Original poster

Hga2021 · 26/04/2021 14:40

@SnowdaySewday

I'm also complaining about admissions as in addition to this error, they spent in excess of 2 years telling me the wrong catchment school which became apparent when I was in the process of getting agreements for my son to be admitted out of cohort.

What is the outcome you hope from this? Did the mistake contribute to you not being offered the correct school?

Well it's more that it is the 2nd rather big error that admissions have made in my case.

The said school didn't agree to my out of cohort request and used the fact that I would be counted on distance criteria as a factor to not grant it. I took my complaint against them to the LGO who found fault with the school. I applied last year to the school on catchment criteria and got offered a place. It was never highlighted at the time that I wasn't in catchment. The whole process has been an absolute shambles 😂😥

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Original poster

Hga2021 · 26/04/2021 14:42

@prh47bridge

That's marginal. and one through the courts, suggested that admission authorities had only 3 days to withdraw an offer made in error. Many admission authorities argue that this deadline no longer applies as it isn't mentioned in the current Admissions Code, but it wasn't in the old one either so I would argue that it still applies.

On the dates you have given, it seems they have taken 4 days to withdraw the offer, which is too long. You should appeal. However, you should be aware that there is no guarantee the appeal panel will agree that 4 days is too long. Even if they do, if the classrooms are very small as is suggested on another thread, the panel may decide that the school can't cope with all, or even any, of the children affected. So, to summarise, you definitely seem to have a case for appeal but there is no guarantee of success.

Thanks, I might try and find this and bring it to admissions attention, anything is worth a try I guess!

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LIZS · 26/04/2021 15:25

Are you sure there are fixed Catchment areas rather than distance which can vary year on year depending on demand. Is distance used as a tiebreaker within Catchment applications if so. Was the last pupil admitted within Catchment or closer to school than you.