In Year Offer Withdrawn

[Honeyrah]

My daughter was made an in year transfer offer. I accepted it within the time frame of 5 working days (4 working days). However mentally my daughter had prepared to leave her current school as soon as the offer was made. She told her friends she was moving, we looked at uniform and planned her school route. 8 days after the offer had been made and 1 day after it had been accepted the LA withdrew the offer due to human error. Apparently the space was available in a different year group. I am appealing and have received a date really quickly for next week. In addition to the offer withdrawal causing emotional distress to my child I am appealing based on needing a school close to home as she has a medical condition which requires an extensive physio routine every morning so extra travel would be difficult and that her life was threatened at her current school one year ago. I tried to home school her for 5 months but she hated this and as there were no other available spaces in any of our closest school I was forced to return her. Since then her engagement and motivation have disappeared. She is unhappy and failing at her current school. The offer was a lifeline which was snatched cruelly away. I can see a judicial review has previously been mentioned saying offers should be withdrawn within 3 days. Does it matter that I waited before I accepted the offer. I only did this as it was half term and didn’t think it would matter as she couldn’t start until after the break anyway. Will the appeal board be aware of this judicial review decision if I mention it? the @prh47bridge I can see you are very knowledgeable on these matters. Any input would be very gratefully received.

Sorry I should have said the offer was withdrawn 7 days after it was made not 8 days.

It was actually an LGO decision that set the limit at 3 days. It isn't available on the LGO's website, but the reference is 99C01876.

The judicial review that is often mentioned essentially established that an offer made in error can be withdrawn if the withdrawal happens quickly. The LGO decision established that the admission authority only has 3 days to withdraw the offer and is therefore the more significant of the two decisions, but I would mention them both.

The appeal panel should be aware of this, but it depends on how well they have been trained. In case they aren't, the broad outline of this case is that the head teacher of a school offered places to 5 pupils incorrectly. The LA found out and wrote to the parents 3 days later, withdrawing the offers (so the parents received these letters 4-5 days after the offers were made). The parents threatened legal action, and the LA consulted a barrister, who advised them that the parents would win and that withdrawing the place after this time would be regarded by the courts as an abuse of power. The LGO agreed with that assessment.

The reason offers made in error must be withdrawn quickly is that, if they aren't, parents may well have bought uniform, entered into childcare contracts, etc., based on the offer that was made. If they have done so and the offer is then withdrawn, they may not be able to get their money back.

Note that the clock starts ticking when the offer is made, not when it is accepted. If the appeal panel understand the precedents properly, the fact that you delayed accepting will not be considered relevant.

@prh47bridge thank you so much. I will certainly add this to my appeal paperwork. I have also made a complaint against the council for the error. I wonder if the appeal fails, would I be able to appeal the appeals decision or would it be the complaint against the council that I take to the ombudsman? My understanding is that an appeal decision can only be challenged on the basis of maladministration by the appeal panel. The error was made by the council. The school in question is also an academy not sure if that changes anything. Thanks again for your support.

As this is an academy, you can refer the matter to the ESFA if your appeal fails. However, they don't act as a further appeal. They generally only step in if there was a breach of the Appeals Code, which can include the appeal panel failing to act independently. The other option is judicial review, but that is expensive and, if you lose, you may have to pay the school's costs in defending the case.

Frustratingly I cannot find any details of the ombudsman case. Here is the response I got from the Ombudsman:
Thank you for your email, dated 10 June 2025. We are dealing with this as a routine request, rather than a formal Freedom of Information Act request so that we can provide you with a faster and less formal response.

We do not hold this information.

I have searched our website and we do not hold this information. This is because we retain decisions for five years and reports for ten years. Further information about this can be found in our Retention and disposal of casework records policy

The National Archive

The National Archive holds archived versions of our website so you may want to look at this to see if the information is contained there.

You can find it here - Search - UK Government Web Archive (nationalarchives.gov.uk)

I could not find the case at the website above. Any ideas on how to obtain details of the case?

Don't worry about it. If the appeal panel isn't aware of it, the details I've given above tell them everything they need to know about the case.

Someone posted these in a similar thread from March.

web.archive.org/web/20120604221234/www.lgo.org.uk/complaint-outcomes/education/education-selected-older-cases/york-city-council-99c01876/

web.archive.org/web/20120604234104/www.lgo.org.uk/GetAsset.aspx?id=fAAxADEAOAAyAHwAfABUAHIAdQBlAHwAfAAwAHwA0

That is the correct case, but I would avoid introducing the whole write up as evidence. It is quite long and, if they aren't familiar with the case, the panel may not understand the implications. I would stick to the brief summary.

Thank you for this user149799568
but I couldn’t access the full report using that link are you able to access it when you click on it? All I can see is the summary.

Ignore the above post it wasn’t working on my phone but got it up on the laptop. That’s brilliant thank you both so much for your help. Fingers crossed for the appeal next week 🤞

"The appeal panel should be aware of this, but it depends on how well they have been trained. In case they aren't, the broad outline of this case is ..."

I've looked at the panel training slides used in my borough and this case is not included, though they do include other definitive case references. The only place I've ever heard about this one is here on Mumsnet. You'd think that something so fundamental would feature on the web pages of education lawyers at the very least. If the OP were to describe it in the way you suggest in their appeal statement, panel members may try to find it online, but they won't be able to, so the OP would be relying on a diligent clerk to confirm it. Do you have a copy of the case @prh47bridge? If so, where did you get it? Or can you at least point to a definitive online reference that the OP could cite as her source for the information?

The second link posted by @user149799568 leads you to the full decision by the LGO.

I couldn’t see anything cited in the report regarding the 3 day rule. My worry is that the circumstances in the report are different to mine. In their case the offer was made by the school and that the children had already started school when the offer was withdrawn by the LA. I interpreted that as being why they are said to have ‘exceptional circumstances’. That’s if I understand it correctly?

This is why I said to stick to the summary I provided rather than giving the full decision to the panel. It is easy to miss the important points and hence fail to realise that this case established a 3-day deadline.

The critical facts are:

• Five families were offered places by the head teacher on 25 May 1990 (the parents described as Group X in the LGO decision) - para 33
• On 28 May, the LA wrote to the parents withdrawing these offers - para 35
• The LA got Counsel's opinion in 9 September. This told them that, if the parents took the matter to court, there was a "real risk" that they might succeed (lawyer speak for "I think you will lose"). One of the grounds was that the offer gave the parents a legitimate expectation that their children would be admitted due to the offer being made and the absence of any letter from the council to the contrary - para 58(ii)
• The LA accepted this advice and reinstated the places, and the LGO did not contradict Counsel's opinion on this point

To simplify even further, the offers were made on 25 May and withdrawn on 28 May, three days later. Counsel's reference to the absence of any letter from the council to the contrary clearly means that a letter 3 days later withdrawing the offers was too late.

A separate judicial review established that an offer made in error could be withdrawn the day after it was made. This case established that the admission authority has at most 3 days to withdraw an offer made in error.

Amazing! Thank you. I will send the summary with the points you have mentioned to the panel.

We won!! Thank you ever so much for the information.

Well done! That's great news.

That is fantastic.

Only just found this thread. I’m so pleased you won. I hope your daughter is very happy at her new school.

Ah, brilliant!

Have you had your appeal? What was the outcome
Hope it's worked out for you.