What happens if the local schools have no places?

[user1486984759]

Does anyone know what happens if you apply for a school place and there are none available in your area? What recourse do you have against the local authority?

You need to check the admissions procedure for your council if in England, and it can vary by school too with preference given to children in care, siblings, religion for faith schools etc.

It's a very common problem, sometimes the school can magic up a bulge year class, but often not, in which case you would be found the next nearest school with a place.

There wouldn't necessarily be any recourse with not enough places at your selected school, unless the council had not followed their process for allocating school places.

LA has to offer a place, but it may not be local. Failing that there is Fair Access Protocol which may allow an extra pupil.

If it's an in year move, sometimes an informal phonecall to the schools asking where in the waiting list your child is can at least give you an idea, people do move/off role and schools are generally more responsive than council admissions.

There is a legal duty for the Local Authority to find a school place, but I don't know the specifics.

I believe the “reasonable distance” is two miles for an under 8 , three for above 8. If there are no school places within those distances you need to tell the admissions department , in writing, that you are applying for a Fair Access place. They have the authority to override the schools PAN to offer you a place in a school within that radius. You won’t get a choice in the school but should accept the place, and then go on the waiting list for any other school/s that you prefer.

They offer the closest. It happened to me when I moved house, both local and walkable primary schools were full so I was offered places in a neighbouring village. Fortunately, I said I would appeal but one school said they would make space and an appeal wasn't needed.

If there is no school place within two miles the LA should fund transport for a primary aged child under 8 or three miles if over 8, but that might be a bus pass.

"Children of compulsory school agee_ qualify for free school transport if they go to their nearest suitable school and any of the following apply:
• the school is more than 2 miles away and the child is under 8
• the school is more than 3 miles away and the child is 8 or over
• there’s no safe walking route between their home and school
• they cannot walk there because of their special educational needs or disabilities or a mobility problemm_"

Thanks all. The responses have been very helpful.

Just to clarify, the question did not relate to finding school at our selected school but rather at any school within a reasonable distance (say <5-10 miles).

The LA has a duty to provide a school place for everyone who applies for one.

If there are none within reasonable travelling time (and they must provide the transport if it's over the qualifying distance), then they should use the Fair Access Protocol (FAP) which means that they can force a school to go over numbers. This will be the school which the LA thinks can cope with an additional pupil with least detriment.

Is this for a normal admission point or an in year admission, as the process is slightly different for both.
For normal admissions if you don't get any of your choices they'll assign the nearest one within the borough with space. If this is more than 2 or 3 miles (which dependent on age) transport will be provided, although in London they just get you to apply for an Oyster card as children get free bus travel anyway. Sometimes they do get more applications than there are places in the borough and a few children initially don't get a place (this is happening a lot for secondary at the moment as that's where the peak of the birth rate is). This may vary by area but our council does a second round of admissions after everyone accepts (or doesn't) their places as there's usually some that go private when they don't get their first choice. They also encourage parents to look at schools in neighbouring boroughs.
If it's in year again they'll give you the closest school with space and provide transport if it's more than 2 or 3 miles. Generally up to 45 minutes is considered reasonable travel time for primary, and up to 1 hour 15 minutes for secondary. It probably depends on where you live if 5-10miles is within that.

Is this a theoretical question or is your child currently out of school waiting for a place?

How old are they?

It's somewhere in between. We have been told verbally by the local authority as well as all the local schools that we have contacted that they are full. We have not applied formally yet but that's the next step before we can look at things like Fair Access Protocol.

7 and 5 years old

It sounds like they are still in school? Yes, you will need to submit applications and take it from there. If they don’t have places, you could join the waiting list for your preferred options. The LA will find you places, however, they might not be in your preferred schools.

We have just had a similar problem. My daughter is 7 and I did an in-year transfer (we moved local authorities). Our local primary school is 2 roads from our house. The next primary school is 5 miles away. I applied to our local school and we were put on the waiting list for a place. I home educated until a place became available, which thankfully happened within two months, and she started this week.

The local authority said that I had to home educate until a place became available, or send her to whichever school in the area had a space, and stay on the waiting list of the preferred school. I didn’t want her to move school twice, which was why I decided to home educate.