Admissions

Admission Appeals Update

CES Guidance - School Admission Appeals during Coronavirus

School Admission Appeal Hearings during the Coronavirus Outbreak

The government has passed new legislation regarding how appeals will be heard during the current lockdown. This can be found at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/446/made. The legislation comes into effect on 24th April and will stay in place until 31st January 2021 (unless the government revokes it earlier than that date, but you would be updated if that were to be the case). The DfE have indicated that they would expect to make new guidance about this legislation available during the week commencing 27th April this will be circulated to schools and published on this page as soon as it is available..

However, for now, this revised legislation will require schools to make some changes and it is vital that this begins immediately.
Specifically, with immediate effect, schools are required to do the following:

In relation to any refusal of a school place where that refusal was made after 28th February, give at least 28 calendar days to lodge an appeal from the date of the notification of the decision. The refusal notification needs to state a fixed date or the number of calendar days for the appeal to be lodged;
If a place was refused after 28th February and the deadline to appeal that was give does not comply with the above, then the deadline originally given must be revised and a new deadline set if:
- No appeal has already been lodged;
- The original deadline refers to school days or if the admission authority considers that the deadline is unclear; and
- The existing deadline has not already expired.

This must be done within 28 days of 24th April or within 7 days from the date of a decision made that does not comply with the above, whichever is later.

Schools only need to comply with the above point if it was the school that notified the parents of the original decision. If the local authority notified the parents of the school’s decision on the school’s behalf, then the local authority is required to notify the parents of the new deadline, not the school, but the school is required to notify the local authority of what the new deadline should be;
The school needs to provide appellants with at least 14 days written notice of an appeal hearing and the new or revised reasonable deadlines for submitting additional evidence, and for all of the appropriate papers to be sent to the parents, the presenting officer, the panel members and the appeal Clerk.
Where a school does not wish to admit a child because that child has been permanently excluded two or more times and the date of the last permanent exclusion was less that two years ago and the refusal to admit is on or after 24th April then the appeal must be made within 21 days. However, if the refusal was before 24th April then the deadline for appealing must be amended to 21 days from 24th April if no appeal has already been lodged.

With regards to the appeal hearings themselves, the new legislation states that:

Where a panel member withdraws, the appeal can continue with at least two panel members without having to have a particular mix of Lay and Education members;
If it’s the Chair of the panel who withdraws, the admission authority must appoint one of the two remaining panel members as Chair (or arrange for the Clerk to appoint one;
An appeal panel can decide to hold the appeal hearing using remote access provided –
- The parties are able to fully present their case;
- Each participant has access to the electronic means so that they can hear and be heard and (if using video) see and be seen throughout the hearing;
- The panel considers that the appeal is capable of being heard fairly and transparently.

If any of the above points are not met, panel members may make their decision based on the written information submitted;
If it is considered on the written information submitted, the panel must ensure that the parties are able to fully present their case in order for the panel to make a decision on an appeal which is fair and transparent;
Decisions must be sent to all parties within 7 days wherever possible;
All appeals, whether submitted on time or not, must be heard as soon as is reasonably practicable.

Therefore, moving forward, schools will need to work very closely with the appeals Clerk that they appoint to ensure that everything contained within the legislation is covered and all processes are put in place to ensure that the appeal hearings can go ahead by video conferencing and parents are offered guidance and support to ensure that their appeal is heard fairly and that they can access the hearing. These changes are involving a lot of additional work and responsibility for Clerks to ensure that the video conferencing system is well managed and appeals go ahead in line with the legislation and the School Admission Appeals Code. Please do all that you can to support your Clerks. For this years appeals to work well it is going to require a degree of flexibility, understanding and co-operation, but I’m sure working together they will be successful.

IMPORTANT
If you have appeals requests submitted and appeal hearings need to be arranged, please do not do this using any guidance or information that you have ever been sent to you before today. PLEASE DESTROY ANY APPEAL GUIDANCE AND PANEL MEMBERS LISTS THAT YOU HAVE HAD SENT TO YOU IN THE PAST. I have updated all of the guidance to schools and new model letters/governors’ statements and information for parents to take into account the changes detailed above. There have been changes to the lists of panel members available to hear appeals as not every panel member has the technology or resources to hear appeals via video conferencing. If you need to arrange an independent appeal hearing, please email me directly to request the most up to date guidance documents and lists for Clerks and panel members. It is essential that appeals are arranged in line with this new legislation in order for schools to be protected against a complaint of maladministration after a hearing has taken place.

I hope that all of this is clear and helpful. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries or to request appeal guidance to organise your appeals and as soon as any further DfE guidance is available I will make this available to you.

Rebecca Tonks
Governance Adviser
Birmingham Diocesan Education Service
24th April 2020