School placement in year transfer. Applied 9 weeks ago

[JVentura]

Hi everyone ☺️

I hope someone can help me or point me in the direction of where I can complain.
Trying to keep it short.
We recently moved about 5 weeks ago..but we knew earlier when we moved and as soon as we had our tenancy agreement i applied for school places for my children. that was nearly 10 weeks ago!
They offered my eldest daughter a place in secondary school about 4 weeks ago which is great, but I have still heard nothing about my 2 younger kids and a placement in primary school.
We are a military family and my husband is in his 1 year cooling off period before he is out of the army for good. We decided to live married unaccompanied so the kids can start the new school year with everyone else. Ever since my kids started school they have been military kids. Which meant they moved schools almost every year. They always joined schools at a later point due to the military posting orders never aligning with new school years. They have always massively struggled to join a new school, especially when joining later after everyone else got to know eachother. For that reason they got into schools via the fair access protocol due to needing extra support as a military child and needing support in settling in etc.

It's been nearly 10 weeks and I had no outcome from the LA about a school place. Every time I email or call I get told that it isn't necessary to call or email as they are processing the applications and will let me know the outcome ASAP.
And they also keep telling me that they have a high number of in year school applications. Most of these applications are children who attend a school but simply want to switch for whatever reason. When questioned if kids with absolutely no school place and officially out of education should be prioritised over kids who have a school place but want to switch they said no and told me that all applications are treated equally? Is that right?
I just want my kids to go to school.

Most of my emails to the school admissions team are now being ignored.
Where can I complain about the whole process?

Sorry for the long post

Am I correct in assuming all the children were in school until the end of the summer term? If so, and if the local authority has not offered any place then the Fair Access protocol, category L, sounds like it will apply if they can’t offer a place by approx. the end of the month. I hope it won’t get that far and you get an offer soon. Google the Fair Access Protocols to review if it applies yet.

Speak to your MP. That will probably move things along.

Look on the council website for any mention of the Armed Forces Covenent or support for the Forces. They may have a different department that can help.

Alternatively, find the relevant bit in the Covenent about the responsibilities of not disadvantaging children from the military community, including timely school admissions.

Good luck... this is what helped us with our school appeal a few years ago (successfully!)

Yes they have finished their last day of school and then we moved a few days later. I just don't understand why they take so long...even if there was nobody at the school for the admissions team to communicate with for thosen6 weeks ..they had 2 weeks before the summer holidays and now weeks after. We are nearing 10 weeks in total and I literally feel fobbed off by them.

Thank you I will email them in the morning.
My husband is also currently in London for the Queens funeral and is right next to to the department for education. He said he will go see them tomorrow too and see what can be done...so fed up.
My kids are bored out of their mind and I can't work because they are both at home and I could simply not afford childcare for 2 kids full time. Hubby can't help pit either as we live married unaccompanied...I just feel so drained

I heard that the MP won't have much power in regards to this?

I am going to email the armed forces covenant tomorrow morning. I think that's my best chance.

Your MP will contact the admissions team manager about your issue and I usually find that this significantly speeds up their response to you.

I work for a local authority and we continually monitor and measure MP enquiries and a senior member of the team usually handles the query and response which is why they tend to get sorted quickly.

Not that this is right, but for cases where you've exhausted all other avenues, it tends to work. Good luck.

Where are you living? Some LAs have had a new admissions system over the summer and there have been huge IT issues. In our LA it is about sorted now but it has caused a big backlog

Oh really?
We are in Northamptonshire, Corby

I have to disagree with @LadyLapsang Your children don't fall into Fair Access Protocol category L - at least, not yet. That is for children who have been out of education for four weeks where there are no schools in a reasonable distance with places. Since they were at their previous school until the end of the summer term, the clock only started ticking at the start of the autumn term, so it isn't four weeks yet.

According to North Northamptonshire's website, they have received a high number of in-year applications so there is a backlog. They say that parents shouldn't contact them until at least 20 school days after the application as doing so will cause further delay! At the moment all you can do is wait. However, you should chase them if you haven't heard anything by the end of the month.

Two weeks before - dealing with leavers and withdrawals from the accepted Year 7 places.

Two weeks after - dealing with no shows, tracing those who haven't turned up as normal, making file requests, chasing electronic requests, setting up user accounts, adding to messaging accounts and sending those out, doing FSM checks, trying to trace the ones where a previous school wasn't declared, receiving file requests and transfer requests, dealing with people phoning up asking if there are spaces or how to apply for 2028, FAP admissions, offering further places, getting shouted at, filling in reports for every single one that's left and started, dealing with statutory changes, creating new records for schools that have changed names or academised, having repeated calls and emails from people who are chasing a response - oh, and doing the other parts of their jobs, as they won't only be employed to do Admissions.

If they are fulltime TTO, you're actually talking about them being able to do all that in what could be less than ten days, assuming the council took their usual length of time to provide the in year list. And if they're, like most support staff, only on a part time contract, even less time.

Yes, it's frustrating and worrying, but there's only so much that can be done.

Yes I know that they won't fall under the fair access protocol in regards to the 4 weeks out of school. But they do fall under the fair access protocol because they are service children and have always gotten into achool via the fair access protocol as they have always struggled to settle into schools. My kids moved nurseries..primary schools and secondary schools almost every year for the past 10 years.

And I know it says 20 school school days. But I sent the applications off 2.5 weeks before the summer holidays. So they had 13 school days then ...plus now another 10 school days since schools are back. That's without the 6 weeks school holidays.
My eldest has been offered a place almost 5 weeks weeks ago...I understand that it is different as it was a space for secondary school, but that all happened during the summer holidays. Just don't understand why the application for my younger two came to a stillstand.

As I said in my post ..they have a unusual high number of in year school applications but admissions told me that those are mainly children who currently have a school place but want to switch to a different school. And my main question was if children out of education with no space at all should be prioritised over kids who are attending school but want to switch?

And my main question was if children out of education with no space at all should be prioritised over kids who are attending school but want to switch?

No, because if that were the case, many more people would withdraw their children from school altogether in the belief that they would be able to force themselves to the top of the queue and also get the school of their choice. Plenty do already and often find out to their disappointment that it doesn't work like that in Law.

Primary school staffing levels are much lower - whilst in secondary, you are likely to have somebody only doing about 5 separate and time consuming jobs and at least possible that they will be paid to come in for a couple of weeks in summer (assuming they are their own admissions authority and they're given authority to make the decisions without having to run them past SLT or governors who are on holiday themselves), in Primary, it's likely to be somebody doing almost everything on the equivalent hours of about 3 days a week.

But they do fall under the fair access protocol because they are service children and have always gotten into achool via the fair access protocol as they have always struggled to settle into schools

Unfortunately, this is no longer true. The latest version of the Admissions Code sets out 13 categories of children and states that the FAP may only be used to place children who fall into one of those categories. Service children are not included. They are, however, excepted children so, if they are in Reception, Y1 or Y2, they can be admitted even if it would push a class over the limit of 30 pupils.

And my main question was if children out of education with no space at all should be prioritised over kids who are attending school but want to switch?

No, they should not. That would be a breach of the Admissions Code. All applicants must be treated equally unless the FAP applies which, unfortunately, it doesn't in your case at the moment. However, at the end of the month it will apply as they will have been out of education for four weeks so it can be used to allow your children to jump the queue.

Make a compliant. When I felt the LA were unreasonable I contacted local MP and although he didn’t even respond I mentioned this to the LA and asked for their complaints procedure. They then helped me out. Don’t give up. Covid / no staff. / backlog seems to be the norm at the moment. It is just an excuse your children need to be in school so kick up a fuss

Thank you I have emailed the MP to see if there is anything I can do to speed things along. And I have also emailed the LA again 3 days ago asking for their complaint procedure but as usual no response from anyone. It's so frustrating, I just want my kids in school so I can go back to work 😫

Thank you! It does make sense..haven't even thought of it in that way, because admissions is not explaining it at all...but it is rather frustrating 😒 and it also seems so unfair because most of those kids have a school place whilst mine sit at home pulling their hair out.. literally 😞 all I want is for my kids to go to school so I can go back to work !

It absolutely is.

You don't mention having applied to schools direct, which is what you need to do for those schools that act as their own admissions authorities (the LA only deal with some maintained schools and those who have specifically decided that the LA can administer their in year provision - they email a list of requests to other schools, eg, academies, but don't provide any more information than name, DOB and contact details in the vast majority of cases) - which could mean your application is only going to certain schools and isn't providing enough information for the OAA schools to place your DC higher up the waiting lists.

If you search all the schools in the area, the academies at the very least will be very likely to have a way of applying directly on their websites. If you include evidence to demonstrate that you're applying under the Crown Servants category at the time of application, you're likely to be in a better position, as then you know that you've contacted everybody, rather than relying solely on the LA.

Most people who handle admissions do just want to help - especially as they're just about dealing with getting the no shows off the roll (because the alternative schools are confirming they've started attending now) and everybody wants to be full before the first week of October when the Autumn Census is taken. Even if you get one in school, that's a start, because it could mean that the other goes to FAP and they instruct the same school to take them, thus keeping them together.

Go into the schools you want to be in and ask them. It's census day in a couple of weeks' time (ie schools will only get this year's funding for children who've actually arrived by them). If they have spaces, they will be very keen to get your children in asap and will try to chase the LA on your behalf.

In our LA (I'm a head), they're quite happy for us to sign up children directly as long as we know we are risking going over numbers if they then find some more in the pile. Our local area has a huge surplus of places, so I can't imagine they're going to have 17 Year 1 children for me in the system ... It's worth asking ...

No, it is not necessarily the case that the OP needs to apply direct to schools that are their own admission authorities. Some LAs deal with in-year applications for all schools. North Northamptonshire deals with in-year applications for all bar three primary schools, none of which are in Corby. So OP doesn't need to apply to schools direct.

North Northamptonshire deals with the admission of every single school here I'm afraid! My friend who moved here too did go directly to the schools to find out if there was a place and they said yes so she went to LA with that information and they literally told her off as that is not how it works etc.

It seems that most schools here in Corby are massively oversubscribed.
They are building houses galore here but don't seem to build anymore schools to be able to take on the children of those families moving into all those beautiful new homes.
It is so frustrating.

My friend who had moved here 6 months ago has actually been told off by the LA for ringing up schools directly to ask for available spaces. They won't have non of it even though she found several schools with a place for her son they told her that this isn't how it works and ignored her emails for a further 2 weeks. Then she emailed the pm but didn't get much further with that either. She did eventually get a place offered but it took ages.

Have you researched local private schools - not as a permanent solution but bursars often seem to be ex military and may have ideas or connections. You never know...

That's a PITA.

North Northamptonshire Council co-ordinates all in-year admissions for North Northamptonshire schools, except for the following:

Bishop Stopford School
Glapthorn CE Primary School
Polebrook CE Primary School
If you wish to apply for a school place at any of the above schools, please contact the school directly.

And you could submit a complaint to the Director of Children's Services, as they are failing in their Statutory duty under the Education Act to provide your children with a school place.

www.northnorthants.gov.uk/your-council/comments-compliments-and-complaints

Unfortunately, those three schools are not in Corby.

The council is not yet in breach of any statutory duty.