Lost appeal - help....

[NotQuiteSoOnEdge]

I'm hoping I can reach the appeal experts who were so kind as to help me prepare my appeal. I don't know how to link my previous thread.

I've heard yesterday that I lost my appeal. 60 appeals were heard and 3 upheld.

I'm in shock, as is my DS's school. We are finding it hard to understand how there are three cases 'worse' or more compelling than his. I have a consultant psychiatrists letter explicitly stating that due to the small size of the school in question, the nature of the buildings themselves, and her own experience of the pastoral care offered there, that it will be actively detrimental to his mental and emotional health not to attend. It is the only school like it in the city.

I was in my hearing for one hour. They asked a multitude of questions that I was fully open answering, and they didn't challenge my answers, except in one instance, which I was able to explain what steps I had taken to ensure my information was correct.

I came out feeling that I had done as well as I possibly could, and that the panel were thorough and very interested in his story. I'm honestly feeling sick with shock. I know you aren't supposed to count your chickens etc, but I can't see how this went wrong.

What do I do now? Can you appeal an appeal??

PanelChair. I did - it is down the page. The Catholic one!

Hi there!

I have had a response from the Education and Skills Funding Agency which seems to say they are going to investigate my appeal, although it doesn't explicitly state this. I've anonomised the letter, please do let me know if I've missed anything identifying.

"Based on the information you have provided, I have summarised your complaint as follows:

You believe that the panel did not take relevant information into account:

 Supporting evidence from J’s Child Psychiatrist.

 J’s mental and emotional health.

 History of domestic violence.

The School Admission Appeals Code (SAAC) states:
3.8 The panel must balance the prejudice to the school against the appellant’s case for the child to be admitted to the school. It must take into account the appellant’s reasons for expressing a preference for the school, including what that school can offer the child that the allocated or other schools cannot. If the panel considers that the appellant’s case outweighs the prejudice to the school it must uphold the appeal.

You state that the decision letter does not give clear reasons for the panel’s decision.

The SAAC states:

2.25 The panel must ensure that the decision is easily comprehensible so that the parties can understand the basis on which the decision was made. The decision letter must contain a summary of relevant factors that were raised by the parties and considered by the panel. It must also give clear reasons for the panel’s decision, including how, and why, any issues of fact or law were decided by the panel during the hearing.

1. You state that you did not receive the decision letter within a reasonable time after the hearing.

The SAAC states:
2.1 Admission authorities must set a timetable for organising and hearing appeals that:

d) ensures that decision letters are sent within five school days of the hearing wherever possible.

We will not investigate the following areas, since they are outside of our remit:

 You state that the decision is unreasonble. We can only investigate complaints about the setup of a panel or the process that it followed. Only the courts can overturn a panel’s decision, and you would need to seek legal advice on how to do this.

 You state that the panel upheld 3 appeals and feel that J had a stronger case. The Education & Skills Funding Agency are unable to consider the cases of other children.

Please reply to this email by 17 July 2018 confirming that you agree with the above summary. If you feel that it is inaccurate, please reply to this letter clearly explaining why, and how your amendments sit within our remit of investigation.

Once agreed, the complaint summary will not be changed, and I will use it as the basis for my investigation. This investigation will also include looking at the notes that the clerk took during the hearing, and any other relevant evidence that is submitted.

We expect to complete our process within 30 working days of receiving your agreement to the complaint summary, but this depends on the information received and whether further enquiries are needed. If there are any delays, we will keep you updated."

So I guess that I agree with the above, and they'll request all evidence and review it?

My concern is the time this will take, because they can't make the panel give him a place, so they'd have to recommend a second appeal is held. Which is even more time, and Sept 4th is close now. Is there any way to speed things up?

Any comments welcome. I'm going to formulate and send my reply this evening, so pile on in!

OK while it's great that you have this response the key line is this: Only the courts can overturn a panel’s decision, and you would need to seek legal advice on how to do this.

IIRC they are saying that the outcome of their process is merely deciding whether or not to reprimand the panel for breaking the rules but with no power to actually change the decision.

As they say, you probably need legal advice now - what I don't know is whether you need to wait until you have the result of the ESFA's deliberations before attempting to overturn the incorrect ruling.

As you say, nothing is certain at this stage, but that sounds like a promising start.

The one part of the letter I might quibble with is the mention of the three successful appeals. If you wish, you could respond to this by saying that you obviously do not expect them to examine the successful appeals; your point is that the fact that three appeals were allowed lends weight to your view that the panel did not properly consider your evidence because it is inconceivable (maybe a slight exaggeration but you need to make it clear to them what you’re getting at) that they could properly consider your very compelling evidence and yet conclude that there were three other appellants whose cases were even stronger than that.

Imchlibob - This inquiry could result in a fresh hearing and then, perhaps, a successful outcome. It won’t necessarily be just a reprimand for the panel.

The court would look at whether the decision was Wednesbury unreasonable, without revisiting the decision. If the decision was held to be Wednesbury unreasonable, the likeliest outcome there is probably a fresh appeal hearing, so not much difference between the two routes. Going to court might well be slower and costlier. These are all things on which OP may want to take legal advice.

As PanelChair says, the ESFA can order a fresh hearing with a different panel. The sentence saying "only the courts can overturn a panel's decision" is there to point out that this is not a rehearing of the appeal. The ESFA don't look at the evidence presented at the original hearing and replace the panel's decision with their own. They can, however, step in if the Appeals Code has been broken.

Thank you all.

I shall just have to let the wheels turn, and wait for the outcome then, and hope they will order a fresh appeal. I'm not sure I want to do a legal challenge, especially if the outcome remains along the same lines.

Panelchair that was my gut response to that bit too, so I'll incorporate it into my reply. It feels an 'off' way of interpreting what I put in the complaint, as I made no mention of details of other cases.

I'm exhausted with this.

Hi OP

I think I remember you. My DS is year 7, has adhd and we went through a similar appeal to you (though your evidence sounds way more compelling) for a small local school.

While all this is going on have you considered putting yourself on the waiting list of any other schools you hadn’t considered before? Places are allocated according to the schools admissions criteria - and not the date you were out on the list (we fell foul of this as other people who lived nearer than us went on the list for our desired school and we moved down and not up the list!).

If there is a better school than your allocation nearby add yourself to the list or change your preference priority.

Also to reassure you - I thought DS would flounder really badly in secondary by in fact he has flourished. What has come to pass is his anxiety about travelling alone and we are having to take him in ourselves - which is very difficult. Once he’s there he is happy and has found lots of people to be friends with in a way he was never able to at Primary. It’s still a fairly small school though for London and they are very friendly and approachable.

Good luck

Any news @NotQuiteSoOnEdge ?