I process primary applications as part of my job. I'm also a present officer for admissions appeals. I work for a Multi Academy Trust.
The LA contacted me on Friday about a late application to delay and I turned around the response that day after speaking to the headteacher of the school in question.
Considering LAs have to verify all LAC/PLAC applications, calculate distances, exchange applications across LAs and provide MATs with their applications before they can start ranking, the process doesn't start properly until mid February.
Every application has to be ranked individually - in our area that means the same child being processed up to 4 times if all 4 preferences are used. Every catchment has to be verified by a human check, and then every sibling has to be verified as well. In the case of infant and junior schools, you may be asking for verification from the other school and sometimes addresses aren't up to date, so addresses have to be updated and matched too.
Following on from that, all applications are given a criteria by a human being, then they are ranked into a single list for each school. Once this is complete, their ranking has to be inputted onto the Capita system individually before checks are then implemented. In our Trust, we check each others work, then we have others dip test our ranking before we notify the LA the ranking lists are complete. The LA then have to do their own checks to ensure there are no mistakes.
Following on from that, the LA also have to consult all schools on a preference application when delayed entry is requested and we have to respond to that.
All of this doesn't take into account if there are any applications that appear suspicious or are contested by split parents. We have had a number this year where we have had to request proof of address to establish if there was fraud or not, but that is better than withdrawing a place, which we have had to do in the past.
Once all that is complete, the information is all fed in to a computer programme running an algorithm which provides a single offer to each parent, based on the highest preference available. After that, there is a second communication between all LAs to share the information and provide a single offer out to all parents on offer day.
Schools don't have a list yet - we receive an embargoed list only a day or so before.
Then on offer day, we receive several phonecalls from parents who may be looking for a school place or who are upset at not receiving their first preference and we provide advice accordingly. We start straight away with preparations for appeals.
We haven't stopped working since February and I cannot take leave at February half-term no matter what, because we have to ensure each application is processed by someone trained to do the job properly.
The only part of the process that is automated is the online application. Once it is submitted, everything else has a human checking and processing it at every stage.