Agenda item

The report of Libby Johnstone (Democracy Manager) and Clara Davies (School Place Commissioning Lead) seeks to update Schools Forum on the introduction of charges for admission appeals.

Libby Johnstone (Democracy Manager) referred to the update on the introduction of charges for Admission Appeals.  Libby highlighted the following:

·       The Forum would recall that the DfE had updated guidance around admission appeals and that this poses a number of challenges including confirmation that funding for admissions appeals lies with schools; the subsequent introduction of charges and schools electing to accept pupils above PAN to avoid appeal costs;

·       Schools Forum had previously not favoured options to increase the Central Schools Services Block or take an allocation from the budget of maintained schools to fund admission appeals as this would not affect all schools, including those that do not have appeals.  The preferable option would be to introduce charges to schools that do have admission appeals;

·       Schools were consulted over the summer and a survey was issued to ascertain if schools would be likely to buy into an appeals service at a similar rate; and

·     Since the survey, the local authority has become aware of situations where

    schools would prefer to admit pupils over the Planned Admission Number

    (PAN) in order to avoid paying for appeals. This would lead to popular schools

    being over capacity whilst other local schools continued to have surplus places.  It was felt that it would be useful to have feedback from Schools Forum members on this issue and for them to consider drafting a position statement to send out to schools.

Marie Taylor (Head of Finance – Children and Education) reported that the Authority’spowers were limited in this matter, but the Admissions Team had advised that it would be useful if there was a joint statement issued.  Unfortunately, there was not a statutory duty for a School to stick to their PAN and if the PAN’s were simply going to be ignored by schools this would be difficult for the LA to manage the planned admission numbers.  It was suggested that there should be a LA and Schools Forum expectation and hope that schools would conform to their PAN.

The Chair asked what the point of a PAN was if schools can ignore it.  Helean Hughes (Director – Education & Skills) confirmed that schools do have control as an Admission Authority, but for voluntary aided schools and academies, Wiltshire was not the Admission Authority.  It was suggested that Schools Forum could provide a statement to ask schools to consider and be mindful of the situation the LA is in and highlight the need for place planning and to be away of growth planning income. 

After discussion it was agreed that a group be set up to discuss this further outside of this meeting.   Neil Baker, Nigel Roper, Giles Pugh, David Whewell and Lisa Percy volunteered to join this group and work with Clara Davies and Libby Johnstone and an update could be provided at the January meeting.

Resolved that Schools Forum:

1.    Note the update on the introduction of charges for School Admission Appeals and that the Local Authority is currently considering representations received following the consultation. 

2.    Set up meeting to between those detailed above to consider and prepare a draft position statement on behalf of Schools Forum to be agreed at the January 2021 meeting and then circulated to all schools.