FOI request on council checks of school application addresses

[Alwaysworthasking]

Has any one done a FOI request to see how much work local councils actually do to verify that parents are following the address protocol for secondary school applications?

catchment areas are very small where I live and rumours abound of short term rentals that contravene the policy.

was thinking of asking questions along the lines of

how many investigations done into addresses that potentially contravene policy?

how many offers withdrawn under policy?

how many investigations done into address changes post National Offer Day and before the start of term?

The responsibility for this is a with a central agency so it’s not against the school (that we are hoping to get into)

It seems that parents self certify and it doesn’t get checked (unless very occasional obvious change)

Would it be better to just report specific concerns to the council?
eg I have been lead to understand that XXX is living in a short term rental without selling their house which is at YYY address.

What would you actually do with the information?

Why do you want to know? Are you thinking of trying to play the system yourself or do you know someone who has?

We could've done this (using inlaws address) but didn't...as we know someone who was caught out.
My understanding is there do check electoral role and the child's address held by primary school.
LA have more access to do deeper checks, I think with academies it's a bit hit and miss.

my friend lives down south and she has to upload her council tax bill with her school application as one of the pieces of evidence

im guessing some areas are stricter than others

Well, they’ll have even less time to follow up reports of misdeeds if they’re collating responses to FOI requests. If you do it, make sure you’ve thought about why you’re asking for the information and that it will give you what you need to inform whatever action you want to take. Many people spaff off a time consuming request that doesn’t give them what they really want or need, wasting everybody’s time. Be as specific as you can in your request so you get the best quality information back. It’s your right to have it, of course, but be sure you’ve thought through exactly what you want and what you’re going to do with it.

FOI requests are very time consuming.
I’d direct specific concerns to them first.
Blatant breaches in our area but when reported little seems to happen. Witnessed it twice

Please wait til summer. It's primary offer day next week and it's Easter holidays. FOI requests are so time consuming, and will have to be completed by the team dealing with so much at this time of year. Councils are so understaffed and overworked. It's not an easy job with staff twiddling their thumbs.

I’ve made a few FOI requests to my local education authority regarding admissions data and have always received a response on the same day, literally within a few hours.

I certainly don’t get the impression they’re snowed under with admin tasks.

In my LA we check all oversubscribed schools against council tax. We regularly get tip offs and will investigate, sometimes this will include a fraud team, home visits, and we request evidence of residency. But LAs all have different residency tests. We do also publish the number of fraudulent application received and investigated. We will remove a place offered based on fraudulent info up to the end of autumn term, as per DfE guidance. They are incredibly time consuming to investigate, but I suppose we're not 'snowed under' so it gives us something to do.

I’ve searched everywhere for the data and can’t see it is being published. All references and news articles are 10-15 years old and at that point our area was notably high for fraud - around 3-4% PAN.

Thanks this was helpful.

I definitely can’t find any published data (in school strategy report or school adjudicator report or anywhere else on a reasonably thorough search)

All the historic press reports say our area had high fraud (well off parents playing system) and low levels of investigation. I’d like to know what current status is.

I submitted FOI request off the back of another conversation that mentioned a fraudulent parental separation and a different case of address fraud last year know locally but not investigated. It is still going on but no one has mentioned offers being rescinded.

I know you/they are busy. Just wish they’d publish (and hoping they are tackling issue which the numbers should show).

I’ve made FOI request through public platform so answers (if supplied) will be searchable by others.

And in answer to what I will do with the data - if satisfactory (eg consistent historic and current investigations c 5% PAN) ask that it is routinely published especially as it is a deterrent surely in the future. If data is missing or limited investigation/action follow up with Education councillor and MP.