Schools and parents flouting admissions rules, chief adjudicator warns

Elizabeth Passmore, the outgoing chief schools adjudicator for England, has published a report containing her concerns regarding the school admissions system, claiming it ‘leaves parents in the dark and fails to serve children well’.

Passmore’s report unveils a host of problems, including the large proportion of schools which have acquired academy status and run their own admissions. Other concerns include: schools spending more public money on lawyers to defend admissions policies; a 53 per cent rise in offers being withdrawn owing to fraudulent applications by parents; expensive banding systems used to take bright pupils at the expense of local children; and academy admissions arrangements that are unpublished or difficult to find.

In the study Passmore advised that ‘too many schools’ were continuing to flout the rules over the consultation and publication of admissions arrangements and that it was ‘still no easy matter to find’ admissions policies that should be readily accessible.

The chief adjudicator maintained that the local authority admissions arrangements for community schools were ‘almost always clear and uncomplicated’, but that those for academies and faith schools were ‘frequently less clear and more, or even very, complicated’.

The study also highlighted that banding tests could cost as much £500 for each pupil admitted and left children in some areas with the ‘hurdle’ of taking a variety of tests for different schools over several days.

Passmore also cautioned that some of the cases involving banding ‘raises questions about the effects on children, its purpose and costs’.

The Comprehensive Future Admissions campaign group said: “Although the chief adjudicator uses mild official language, her report is very disturbing.

“She is right to raise concerns about own-admission authority schools failing to meet the requirement of the code and about so-called fair banding. These problems will only increase as more schools become academies.”

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: “The chief adjudicator’s annual report helps us identify how we can continue to improve the admissions framework to ensure fair access for all children. We will review her findings and take action where appropriate.”