School admissions (archive)
9 December 2008
The astonishing thing about the North Yorkshire County Council Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee decision this morning was not that they upheld the Executive Member’s decision to go to judicial review on the Schools Adjudicator’s decision. As far as I am aware, only one call-in has ever been successful at NYCC and although the Constitution makes it clear that there must be no whipping of scrutiny committee decisions, the votes almost always divide on party lines, with the administration’s proposals being confirmed.
The truly surprising – and deeply disappointing – outcome was that the Conservative councillors on the committee also voted against requesting that the Council undertake a consultation process. The Executive Member for Education was questioned several times on whether he would launch a consultation and each time he refused to give that commitment.
What I have found profoundly disillusioning about this whole matter is the Conservative administration’s refusal to listen to and take into account the views of residents in Harrogate. I keep hoping that they will say in response to the concerns expressed by Harrogate parents “Yes, there’s an issue here. Let’s talk about whether we can devise a better system”.
The admissions system creates three groups of of families: Those in rural areas who have priority and are guaranteed a place in their first choice of school; an underprivileged group in the north of the town who, living furthest from all the schools, can never get their children into the most popular school, no matter which it is; and a third group, who face a lottery, since their fates depend on the numbers of places allocated to the rural children and those living very close to the most popular schools.
I do not believe that fair minded rural residents believe that to be just and equitable, any more than I do. Regardless of whether the Council succeeds at judicial review, the real issue is about whether Conservative leaders at County Hall wish to adhere to one of the commitments of their vision, stated clearly in their Council plan: That the Council will listen to and take into account the views of residents of the County. At the moment that does not seem to apply to parents in Harrogate.
4 December 2008
With a few exceptions, notably from those representing the rural areas that benefit from current NYCC admissions policies, Harrogate Borough Councillors last night supported Geoff Webber’s motion calling on the County Council to review its oversubscription criteria. Nothing surprising in that. There is widespread agreement that the policy is unfair.
The motion lost a little clarity from an amendment, accepted by the movers, calling on the Government to revisit last year’s changes to the preference system. Admittedly these have exacerbated the unfairness, but according to the LEA’s figures only by increasing the number of rural students admitted to Harrogate Grammar School by 9 or 10 – in a total rural entry of 82 in 2008. The system NYCC uses was unfair before the 2008 national changes were implemented and would remain unfair were they to be reversed – which of course they will not be because the new Admissions Code benefits many communities across the country, not least those living in Knaresborough.
The next instalment of this debate will be the County Council’s Scrutiny meeting on Tuesday 9 December, convened as a result of the Liberal Democrat call-in of the decision to judicially review the Adjudicator’s decision. I am looking forward to hearing why the County Council feels that the existing system is the fairest that can be achieved. I cannot, no matter how hard I try, understand their point of view.
17 November 2008
Today is the day that the County Council’s Executive Members decide whether to judicially review the Schools Adjudicator’s decision on their admissions policies in Harrogate. The support of the Harrogate Advertiser for the parents’ stance has been most welcome.
This is a difficult problem – the stark truth is that all oversubscribed schools are selective schools and changing their admissions criteria simply changes the group of children who are offered places. It does not change the numbers who have to be refused.
It seems to me that the Adjudicator’s suggestion of quotas is the only fair way forward. The conundrum is how to allocate the quotas – is distance fair, given that the most sought after schools are located in the most affluent areas? Is a lottery acceptable to parents, perhaps combined with a sibling rule to ensure that families do not end up with their children at different schools? Or are feeder primaries the way forward?
These are the questions the County Council should be asking, not whether they should spend our money on a judicial review.
11 November 2008
Opposition is growing locally to North Yorkshire County Council’s announced intention to seek judicial review of the Schools Adjudicator’s criticism of their Harrogate secondary school admissions criteria.
Yesterday the parents of children in Harrogate primary schools received a letter from the Director of Young People’s Services explaining the situation. This has had a completely opposite effect to the one intended and parents who had not previously been aware of the unfairness of the system are now joining those who made the initial complaint.
Local anger has been increased by learning that the decision to embark on the judicial review process was taken without consultation with Harrogate councillors, by Executive Members and the Director. And the decision to go ahead will also be taken by Executive Members on Monday 17 November. As it has been classed as an urgent decision, the call in procedure, which allows councillors to question executive decisions, cannot be used.
Local residents are now questioning the democratic procedures of North Yorkshire County Council and whether they pay any attention at all to the views of the people living in the town which makes the largest contribution to the funding of the county.
4 November 2008
Harrogate families have complained about this for years and this year there were far more complaints because of national changes to admissions procedures which meant that even fewer Harrogate children were admitted to their first choice school.
The County Council has steadfastly refused to change the system, so Phil Willis MP and I suggested to some local families that they might make a complaint to the Schools Adjudicator. They did this and at the end of September the Adjudicator upheld their complaint. She ruled that the County Council should conduct a consultation and introduce a new system for entry in September 2010, which is equally fair to rural and urban children.
The County Council has reacted very negatively to the decision, first complaining that they have no time to implement it. Today, the parents who made the complaint have received a copy of a letter from one of the Council’s legal officers to the Adjudicator, threatening judicial review if she does not withdraw her decision.
Harrogate parents are very angry. They cannot understand why the County Council wishes to continue with arrangements that so clearly disadvantage their children. They are asking if it could be because the ruling Conservatives at County Hall are predominantly elected from rural areas?
Judicial review will cost a great deal of council taxpayers’ money. Harrogate, as the largest town in the county, raises more council tax than any other area of North Yorkshire. So in essence, Harrogate families will be paying the lion’s share of the cost of trying to overturn a decision that they have been asking for for years.
