On-time objection to admission policy - does decision always happen before the application deadline?

[AdmissionsTimeline]

Don’t know if anyone has any experience of this? It’s a bit long.

I made an objection to a criteria in a local school’s policy that was examined alongside some of the other criteria that the adjudicator (OSA) thought discriminatory too. There is no sign of a resolution and I have been told it’s a busy time and they’ll set a suitable deadline to make changes if needed when a decision is made.

I didn’t realise but you get cc’d in to the back and forth between the school, LA and OSA and they ask for your thoughts. Through this, another school’s policy ended up being investigated and although I have said they don’t need to send me those emails I see that there’s been a big panic to arrange changes by 31/10/2021.

Should I assume that my original complaint is considered more borderline/ less likely to be upheld hence the lack of haste? It does seem to have been examined in great work and taken very seriously from the emails.

As an aside, I have fallen into a bit of a rabbit hole reading the applications and this LA seems to go out of its way to implement policies that discriminate against students in poorer areas of the county and in the extremely close geographically areas in other counties that are deprived but not in the other adjacent councils that are more affluent. I don’t want to be a nightmare but feel a responsibility to highlight this - would be interested in thoughts on this?

great detail

admissions policies not applications in last paragraph

I am very tired!

Think all the Secondary schools are academies if that makes a difference

Hi. This happened to one of my objections. The adjudicator just said they had to implement the changes the following year instead.

Of course, in the meantime, any waitlisted applicants savvy enough to realise that this year's policy is illegal would have pretty solid grounds for appeal, especially if they could show they were disadvantaged by it.

*Assuming the objection is upheld of course.

Should I assume that my original complaint is considered more borderline/ less likely to be upheld hence the lack of haste?

No. It will take as long as it will take. Many of last year's objections were rolled over into this year, so they had a backlog right from the start. Read the annual Adjudicator's report for details.

I wouldnt have thought you could make a change to the admission policy once the admission round had started.
Certainly when they were discussing (fairly big) changes for us, it was for implementation in the second full round post decision - so if a decision was made now, it would have been for admission 2024.

@prh47bridge - come across one like this before?

Sadly, I have. It leaves the appeal panel with a situation where the admission arrangements have been ruled non-compliant. They therefore have to figure out which of the appellants would have got in had the arrangements been compliant and, if that is more than the school can handle, comparing cases to decide who to admit. I don't envy them.

Thank you for the replies - I feel like they should take objections from year 4 parents not year 5 parents!

I did read the adjudicator's report (see rabbit hole ) - it was the contrast between the two objections that was odd. To be fair, the content of the new code was IMO directly relevant to the first (delayed) objection whereas it seemed that there was almost nothing that could be saved from the second admissions policy such was the extent of the infringements and lack of clarity. Another thing I don't understand is that it was a diocese template policy but there's no suggestion that they'll proactively seek out other schools using it. And two other points on the other policy that they agreed were discriminatory are county wide policies but they don't seem to have said they have to change across the board. Why don't admission policies have to be run by the adjudicator in the first place? Most parents will only notice unfair policies that impact them and in fact would keep quiet if they benefit surely?

My point being that objections by parents isn't a good way of policing it.

Given that admission authorities don't have to decide their admission arrangements until 28th February, the Adjudicator simply doesn't have the resources to read them all and challenge any that are inappropriate, so the system relies on parents, LAs and others objecting if they think the arrangements do not comply. Having said that, the Adjudicator can investigate the admission arrangements for a school even if there hasn't been an objection. So, in your case, the Adjudicator could deal with other schools using the template policy even if no-one lodges an objection. I'm not saying they would, but they could.

If an objection is submitted by the deadline (15th May), it should, in theory, give sufficient time for the Adjudicator to make a ruling and the admission authority to make any required changes before the start of the admissions round.

I feel like they should take objections from year 4 parents not year 5 parents!

Anyone can object to admissions policies. I think they could make that clearer on the objection form though. Many parents might read it and be put off, perhaps thinking they won't get anonymity, but that's not the case. Parents applying for places in the relevant year automatically get anonymity, but anyone else can ask for it, and that will usually be respected if you're a parent. If not then they will tell you before priceeding so you can withdraw. They just don't want campaign groups, vexatious objectors or people with a professional interest to have an automatic right to anonymity.

My point being that objections by parents isn't a good way of policing it

Local.authorities are also meant to police admissions in their area, but some are better at that than others. And of course for many schools the Local Authority is also the Admissions Authority, so if there's a problem they may be the culprit. But at least in those cases one succesful objection from a conscientious parent or other party should fix the issue for all schools under the authority's control.

I did read the adjudicator's report

I meant their annual report, here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/osa-annual-report

No need to read it, but it gives an indication of their workload.

@crinkeldin

I did read the adjudicator's report

I meant their annual report, here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/osa-annual-report

No need to read it, but it gives an indication of their workload.

I read more than just last years!

I really think this LA has a clear agenda in preventing applications across the county border to the east and protecting the interests of the residents in the south of their own county. There's even a page on the website where they explicitly describe a reciprocal arrangement between schools in the the two town centres in the affluent south (in order to avoid pupils having to attend schools over the border), with no similar consideration to those in the north. Also skewed by being a grammar area and home to a small town with, bizarrely, no less than 8 secondary schools.

I read more than just last years!

Well done! You are now a qualified Admissions Nerd.

I really think this LA has a clear agenda in preventing applications across the county border.

All LA's need to make sure there are enough places for their own students and that can sometimes be difficult when schools are near borders. They're not explicitly allowed to draw a line round the border - the Greenwich Judgement prevents that (see here: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Judgement) - but some LA's mitigate the effects of the Greenwich Judgement by other (legal) means and the Adjudicator is sometimes sympathetic to that.

They're not explicitly allowed to draw a line round the border

Correcting myself before someone else does. They're not explicitly allowed to draw a line at the border which prevents out-of-county students from accessing their schools.

I am finding it all very interesting.