Lambeth secondary school admissions

[Amorgos]

I live in Lambeth and applied for my DS's preferred school under the exceptional social/medical needs category. Lambeth did not send the supporting letter to Wandsworth and we did not get offered any school places. The application has now been fast-tracked through the system and DS has been prioritised but there are currently no places at the chosen school. I am obviously furious with Lambeth as my DS would have automatically received a place at the chosen school if Lambeth had sent the supporting letter at the correct time.

I have put in an appeal, made a formal complaint to Lambeth and referred the case to the Local Government Ombudsman.

I want to know if there any other children in Lambeth affected by this issue. If so I would urge you to contact ACE for advice and refer your case to the Ombudsman if appropriate.

Amorgas,
You have done everything that you possibly can to get this resolved. As long as you can prove that Lambeth LA received the information and then failed to pass it on, you have clearly been disadvantaged and somebody needs to take appropriate action to remedy the situation.
My guess is that they are all looking at each other wondering who should do the right thing in this situation. One would hope that the LA would take the initiative and get it sorted so they can at least try and get a few browny points off the Ombudsman for having resolved the situation. However on past performance it would not be a surprise if they left it to an appeal panel to recognise the disadvantage caused.

Thank you admission. This has been a nerve racking experience!! Lambeth only made contact with me when I wrote to the Director of Children's Services threatening to contact the Ombudsman. However they did not contact me until after my deadline (all of this after advice from ACE who were absolutely amazing)

I would really like to know if there is anyone else out there that has been similarly affected. Conversations with Lambeth and Wandsworth suggest that this is the case but of course no one will tell me the exact situation!

I think there was a similar case involving this LA on here last year. If I am right, it is a shame they haven't sorted out their processes.

A mistake has been made and, but for that mistake, your son would have been admitted. The rules state that in this situation your son should be given a place without needing an appeal unless a number of children have been affected and the school could not cope with all of them. In this case the matter does go to appeal and the panel has to sort out which are the most deserving cases. I would therefore be cautious about finding out if others have been affected until your son's place has been sorted out.

Some LAs insist on leaving it to an appeal panel to sort out even when only one child has been affected, despite the fact that the rule say they shouldn't do this. However, if you are the only parent appealing on the basis of a clear mistake by the LA you will be in a strong position.

Thank you for this advice prh47bridge.
The complication is that our LA made the mistake and wandsworth has had to pick up the pieces. In addition the school is responsible for it's own addimissions but has delegated the administration task to Wandsworth! The school says that we have to wait for the appeal panel if no places come up.

Please can you give me the specific section of the Admission code (assuming it is that) re:
"The rules state that in this situation your son should be given a place without needing an appeal unless a number of children have been affected and the school could not cope with all of them". What if there are other appeals for other reasons - does this affect the above?

The relevant item is paragraph 2.7 of the Admission Appeals Code which says, "If the admission authority discovers that an error was made in applying the school?s admission arrangements and that the child should have been offered a place, it must offer the place without requiring the appellant to go through the appeal process, except where a significant number of children are affected and admitting them all would cause serious prejudice."

It doesn't matter who made the mistake. An error has been made in applying the admission arrangements. However, it seems many admission authorities ignore this particular provision and insist on making parents go through an appeal.

This is really helpful. Will try and get this implemented.

What a nerve wracking situation to be in

"my DS would have automatically received a place at the chosen school if Lambeth had sent the supporting letter at the correct time."

Would he, though? I thought only a statement or confirmation of looked-after status could ensure that? Which may be what you have. But I understand that Wandsworth should have been sent the information - very very frustrating.

I hope you get it sorted.

Before centralised admisions we applied to 4 schools with flat access on grounds of need (mobility issues). 2 schools said yes straight away on the evidence supplied (from consultant etc), one school said no, even on appeal, the other said no and we didn't bother to appeal.