Fair Access Panel- School changing mind on admitting child

[michymommy]

I hope someone can help me.

Background

DD started secondary school in 2021 she started yr7 without issues (excellent grades, put in prize draw for good behaviour several times, lots of merits given and few referrals (detentions))
last stretch of yr7 her behaviour deteriorated at home and school lots of tears and tantrums, referrals and constant issues at school- she was referred to CHAMS by myself and put on a 2yr waiting list.

Fast forward to yr8 her behaviour was increasingly poor (NOT-violent- NOT-sexual) consisted of talking back to teachers, speaking to peers in class, her grades dropped significantly. Culminated in her doing something really silly at school (non-violent, non-sexual and not involving peers) school wanted to exclude and agreed not to based on in their words her “potential” a managed move was orchestrated where she moved to another school in the area.

Managed move went well at first but broke down due to severe bullying which led to a suicide attempt, I elected to home school, whilst seeking help for DD’s mental health. She was seen by Chams and began having interventions and based on her mental state I was advised by her nurse to consider mainstream school.

Issue

I applied for an in-year position and was rejected by a school that had places based on them saying she has “challenging behaviour” (apart from the incident which got her in trouble she had never had such a severe situation before and was always on time and attended 100%)
due to me homeschooling it wasn’t sent to the Fair Access Panel. I decided to then say I’m ending home education (I thought by applying for schools that would be clear, but needed to be officially done).
After that her case was sent to the fair access panel and she was allocated a place at another school.

I went for meetings with the Deputy Head who advised she had “gotten a place and would be starting fairly quickly” he seemed very unhappy at her joining the school and mentioned he had worked with the head of her original school for 6yrs and knew him quite well. He spoke to DD quite harshly warning her they would be hard on her and would be watching her, monitoring her friendships etc. (it did make me feel a bit uncomfortable but I thought maybe they thought it was best to keep her very monitored to get the best results), I was told to purchase uniform and given the list and told where the store was. I left and purchased the uniform that same afternoon.

I was asked to fill out the admissions paperwork; signed the school agreements, select a foreign language she is interested in, sign up for their cashless lunch system etc.
the next step was her going into the school to do assessments to ensure she was put in the correct classes and offered the necessary help if needed. I was told she would have to be in full school uniform for this, which she was has I had spent over £100 buying the logo’d uniform after being instructed to do so.

After the assessments her picture was taking and fingerprints for the lunch system and she met her head of years and a few class teachers.
She was told she would start the following Wednesday.
Fast Forward to that day she arrived at the appropriate time and reported to the school office and I received a call from the deputy head saying because of the strikes the administrative parts of her admission wasn’t handled and they would need a few more days, but she would start shortly and they are sorry for the inconvenience.

After two weeks I had heard nothing and decided to send an email.
The day after I received an email with a letter attached saying “your child wasn’t offered a place by the school it was done by the Fair Access Panel and we are currently disputing whether this was done according to protocol” (This comes 3 months after she was offered the place).

My question is why wait three months to dispute this? What changed between us being told to buy uniform and attending the assessment? They had her full report when I went to have the meeting with the deputy, knew about the incident that triggered the managed move, knew her history with CHAMS etc.

Why would they tell her that she had a place knowing her mental health is fragile and then lie to me saying it was an administrative issue allocating the classes when they knew they were appealing the decision?

She is a child with great potential but has missed the vast majority of yr8 so I know she must be behind so I’m wondering if after the assessment they decided she wasn’t at their standard?

I’m so afraid her mental health will be affected by this and I am now watching her like a hawk.

Please help me, what can I do? Do I get to see the schools reasoning behind this 180 and does myself or my child get a say in the matter? If they are forced to accept her how will she feel knowing she was unwanted by the school (I made the poor decision of letting her know I received and email and read it with her present).

If the school has a place, they are obliged to accept her.

The local authority can instruct them to take her.

For you to sign up to the payment system, save her picture and take the biometrics, they have to have already added her onto the register (it doesn't carry the data forward to the software unless that's already been done) - blaming the Admin is a bullshit excuse, as the person doing that has done their job perfectly.

The first school should not have even known anything about her history prior to offering a place - it's in contravention of the Admissions Code 2021 - if you made the application direct bet it was a big academy chain.

You can definitely follow their complaints procedure (details will be on their website) and contact the Chair of Governors direct/via the clerk, as she is on the register, they are simply refusing to allow her into the building, which could be deemed an illegal exclusion now she's on roll, particularly in view of the fact that they could be excluding her because of her SEND. Which then puts them in a position where you can go to Independent Review Panel.

The complaints procedure will also tell you where to go after that if there is no acceptable outcome, either the LA or the DoE (for an academy).

Two things

1. Is this the right school? If you are certain it is, then write to the LA and see if there is anything you can do to force them to accept her. However, if you do this and she then has problems, you may find them less than helpful.
2. Ask the LA to allocate her a school.

I can appreciate you don't want to share what happened in her last school. However, it must have been very serious. You also sound like you are minimising the disruption she caused and calling it 'silly' makes it sound like you don't really get it.

Not if they have concerns re challenging behaviour. They can refer to Fair Access Protocol which it seems has already happened.
At this stage I'd involve the LA who will have arranged the Fair Access Panel and have their Protocol. If the school is Still refusing they need to ensure your daughter is getting other education through Section 19 as well as either taking her case back to Panel or directing the school.

Ask the LA to allocate her a school.

The LA have already done this via the Fair Access Panel. In some towns and cities there are severe shortages of schools places with schools already being over PAN so no vacant to allocate.

Op - This whole scenario is a dog’s dinner - you and your daughter have been treated terribly.

In the first instance I’d contact the LA and ask what is going on. If you get no joy ask for the contact details of the County councillor with an admission portfolio and contact them. Use your MP too. And if it’s an academy contact the EFSA and complain.

That should soon start waking people up.

You definitely need to discuss with LA, maybe initially flag it with Admissions Team Manager, if get nowhere with that then direct your complaint to Director of Education. In addition I'd possibly look to get your local MP on board. Do you have any email trails, letters from the school re purchasing uniform, start dates etc? I'd be furious to be strung along like that, after outlay on uniform too.

The school where she attended first was a big academy chain, very regimented and had no time for children who weren’t perfect.

Only two schools in the Borough have spaces and both rejected her based on this “challenging behaviour” Tag.
One is a big Academy Chain the other a community school.

This new school is a community school and they didn’t have any places but the Fair Access Panel allocated her a place there.

I’m just extremely confused as to why they would allow her to come on site take fingerprints etc in full uniform then go on to dispute the FAP’s decision. I can’t find any details to contact the FAP either. I’m thinking about getting a solicitor at this point because I’m not sure what her rights are.

I have gone through and looked through the email thread and I definitely have all the evidence re-the purchasing of uniform, assessments done. They sent an email about the uniform purchase more than once and also gave me a hard copy at the meeting.

That's good because it will support your 'appeal' against this latest decision. Assuming you've already googled your areas FAP, sometimes it's the LA inclusion Team / Education Improvement but someone in the authority will be able to steer you in the right direction. Good luck with it all.

They are a high performing school, one of the top schools in the area. Considering after she finished the assessment she was told she would start the following Wednesday because that’s procedure. I’m inclined to think this is due to her not performing well in the assessments. She did say she thought she done poorly on the Math and Science assessment (she’s always excelled in English).
I’ve engaged the LA and have yet to receive any contact.
I think it’s important to gather up all evidence and then contact my MP and Child Services too as she is being kept out of school now for 3months based on what they called “administrative” issues.

Thank you

Both the subsequent schools are breaching laws, then.

The academy shouldn't have known at all and have blatantly gone against the Admissions Code in acquiring this information.

But the main issue is with the one who has already put her onto the register - they have to have done - the fact that you have been set up with biometrics, an original start date, a payment account proves that she is on the register, as it's physically/technologically impossible to set the up without her being on the register and admitted - and are now effectively excluding her. Doesn't matter if they're over PAN, the FAP over rules this and the LA are a good source of both support and pressure to apply on them whilst you also submit a complaint for an illegal exclusion.

https://www.ipsea.org.uk/pages/category/exclusion-from-school

The fact is that she is on their register. So she is not being refused a place, she is being unlawfully excluded.

I’ve added the fact she did the biometrics and took school photos for her ID and went through an assessment to my email to the Mp.
I’m honestly at a loss.
thank you for your help.

Ok, you need to contact the Fair Access team.
Ask for the team manager.
The school are breaching the terms of the fair access protocol. She has been lawfully given a place under the Fair Access Protocol , which would have kicked in when the schools refused under Section 3.10 of the admissions code. The fair access protocol over rides any rejection from the school. Even academies have to sign up up to the Fair Access Protocol on their service level agreement (the document which defines which services are provided by the local authority) They cannot just claim that they don't want her/can't take her and if they truly believe that something was done incorrectly then it would have had to go back to a fair access panel. Once offered a place under fair access there are very strict rules, the new school is not allowed to interview the child and a whole host of other things they aren't allowed to do under the admissions code.
It's really important that you contact the fair access team as they may not even know that this has happened. It is indeed an unlawful exclusion and they can't off roll her.
If you can't find details for the fair access team, send me a pm with your county and I'll find it for you as I work within this team for a local authority. Some local authorities have fair access officers within their admissions teams, others in SEND and inclusion teams but they all have senior management who can handle this for you.
They are not allowed to reject after testing either.

I’ve spoken to her again this evening and asked her exactly was said on the testing day. She said they even told her what tutor group she was allocated, said she would be getting a journal on the Wednesday and told her everything was set and showed her how to top up her lunch account.

I spoke to the deputy head face to face at the “meeting” the week before the testing and he said whilst looking me in the eye she definitely had a place and they as a school move quite quickly so she would be starting soon.

I would see their logic if she had started and they had had a major incident, but she has done absolutely nothing she hasn’t been among the student body and only met a few teachers and didn’t have much interaction with them beyond introductions, the admin staff gave her the testing materials and supervised the testing so it wasn’t even a case of her being left in a room with a teacher where something could have been said.

The deputy told me he was at the FAP meeting and they had allocated her a place so why didn’t he dispute it at the time? Furthermore from reading the notes on the councils website it doesn’t seem there is a way for them to reject her after she’s been allocated a place. I’m in disbelief.

To correct some of the previous posts on this thread, a school can refuse to admit a child even though they have places available if they have good reason to believe that the child may display challenging behaviour and they already have a high proportion of such children compared to other local schools. This is set out in paragraphs 3.10 and 3.11 of the Code.

It is not against the Admissions Code for the school to know the child's history before offering a place. They may not take it into account in their oversubscription criteria, but this does not prevent them refusing admission to a child with challenging behaviour.

As a previous poster said, the FAP should have kicked in when the first school refused admission on the grounds of challenging behaviour. The fact you were home schooling is irrelevant. And the second school should now accept your daughter. The LA should deal with this and ensure that your child is admitted immediately. Talk to them. If there is any hint of fudge or delay, tell them you will refer the matter to the LGO if they don't sort it out quickly.

I didn’t call her behaviour in class silly please re-read I said what her behaviour was in class and at school prior to the incident. THEN I called what she did to get to the managed move “Silly” which means “Stupid or foolish” NOT that I believe it was a small thing and they took it too seriously, BUT that the action itself was SO stupid on her part as she must have known 1) she would be caught and 2) she would be in a lot of trouble.

There has been absolutely no minimising of her behaviour I think the fact I self referred to CHAMS shows how much I took the change in behaviour seriously because it started out of the blue and just got really severe very quickly. There was NO “oh she’s pre-teen and it will be fine in a few years” as soon as I saw her reports getting worst and the demerits coming in I took action and I spoke to the school asked for counselling, brought her to the GP and even called social services, I was dismissed at every turn and told “it’s not that bad” and “she’s at the start of puberty and finding her way”.

It took a suicide attempt and hospital staff who were amazing and advocated for her for us to be seen by CHAMS and now she’s getting the help she needs mentally she needs to be back in education.

UPDATE

I spoke to a manager in the in-year admissions department.

I was told they had no idea that the school was having issues with her being admitted until May 10th 2023 (this is the day I emailed asking for an update on her start date I sent my email at 8.23am and the LA received the letter from them via email at 1.35pm), they advised that the school isn’t saying their issue is down to behaviour or anything like that, the school want clarification on whether the FAP rules were applied correctly.
This to me is very bizarre and the manager was very Frank with me on the phone when she said she doesn’t understand 1)why they are disputing the application of the rules 2) why they waited this length of time.
She said she and the senior managers have gone through the case again and are 100% sure everything has been applied correctly and the school has no grounds on which to dispute the admission and an official decision will be given to the school shortly.

I really smell a rat here why wait for 3 months to dispute this? Why have her in and make her take tests etc then dispute her admission? Why only send a letter to the LA AFTER I asked via email for an update? After tell me two weeks prior it’s just an admin issue because of the Strikes.

My daughter said something last night and it broke my heart she said “I’m really working hard on myself but I will always be rejected” I feel so bad for having her there when I read the letter from the school, I honestly thought it was a start date and the excitement got the best of me. I’ve sent an email to CAMHS to have an emergency catch up with her nurse because she’s barely eaten anything since the email.

I'm guessing that what the school is disputing is why the local authority allocated her to them under the FAP, rather than one of the schools with spaces.

However, regardless of whether the LA have followed correct procedure, it seems to me that in her interests, she should not be messed around further. The school should perhaps take note that in future, when being allocated a child under the FAP, they should ask more questions at THAT point, before the admissions process begins.

The point of the FAP is to stop one or two, usually undersubscribed, schools in an area ending up with all the kids with challenging behaviour. So a school having places isn't grounds to not accept a FAP pupil and all schools will have seen the protocol and have to abide by it.

As a FAP manager in a large LA it doesn't surprise me that a school will drag its heels even when the place has been allocated this way. They hope you will just give up or go away. As the schools in my area will attest, I personally don't allow that to happen and am dogged in getting the child on roll and attending

The child was given a place - she was on the register and arrived for her first day.

2.14 A school must not withdraw a place once a child has started at the school, except where that place was fraudulently obtained.

They agreed, they put her on the register, they set up the biometrics, the lunch account and she arrived for her first day. The fact that the somebody probably got something along the lines of 'she attempted to harm herself in school' type of information on the sly afterwards is irrelevant as she had already been put onto the register and she attended for her first day.

So they are unlawfully excluding her.

If this issue is not resolved by the Fair Access Panel then the LA can request a direction to admit a child - they will know what this means. This is a last resort as the strong expectation is the LA and school work together. On what date did the FAP allocate your DD to the school?

No, they are not. OP's child has not actually started at the school so 2.14 does not apply. They are, in effect, arguing that the place was offered in error, although they are too late to do so.

For the sake of argument (like most in MN) I'll use the industry standard apps - Bromcom, Arbour and multiple other MIS aren't that much different.

For them to have been able to record the biometrics and set up the payment account, you have to create the child on the system. ParentPay (and others, it's part of ensuring financial compliance/preventing laundering and GDPR) can only activate once there is a child on SIMS and either the actual or a temporary UPN saved with an admission date set and the status either as accepted (if set up as an application - not appropriate in the case of FAP - but also evidences the offer of a place that cannot be withdrawn when the parent has not committed fraud to obtain the offer of such place) or admitted/input directly in as Add Student so they show as a Future student.

If the FAP paperwork omits the UPN, you log onto GIAP (failing that, the LRS) and you can only search legally for that child if they have joined or are going to join the school - the information held contains enough to identify whether they are PPG, ethnicity, home language, SEND/EHCP, etc, depending upon what Census Data you export. It's enough information for a school to be able to break the law multiple times in discriminating against children which, along with GDPR, is why it's illegal to access it unless the child is coming - the dire warnings on the log in screens and the service agreement make this abundantly clear.

As she was given a start date to come, had these accounts set up and had been timetabled, she had been admitted on SIMS.

Now, they may have done a dirty delete once they realised through unofficial avenues that this child has SEND that manifested in a particular way - but anybody with manager access can create a report of all students deleted from the roll. A Subject Access Request addressed to the DPO at the school specifically addressing the data input onto all systems relating to her, along with emails, will almost certainly demonstrate that she had in fact been put on roll and they then changed their mind and unlawfully excluded a child whose status was admitted and had arrived for her first day.

In short, they left it too late to change their mind.