Sheffield Secondary School Places Crisis Appeals Chaos, Why You Need a Solicitor
Local / Educating Children Mar 03, 2013 - 04:06 PM GMTBy: N_Walayat
Parents of Sheffield's children will have received the results of their secondary school applications this week and many will be finding that they have been denied a place at their choice of school, in many instances even for catchment area schools due to the blanket response of the schools being over-subscribed. However, what this hides is the underlying truth of why so many children are being denied places at schools of choice which as consequences of severe cuts in school budgets that continues each year. Many parents will now be considering going down appeals route which this article will seek to illuminate.
Sheffield School Places Chaos as a Consequence of Deep Spending Cuts
The reason why a large number of parents will find that their child has not have been granted a place at for instance a catchment area school, is as a consequence of the Labour run Sheffield City Council continuing the Liberal Democrats programme for deep cuts in Sheffield's education budget as the below graph illustrates that in nominal terms has seen the education budget already cut by 11% since 2010 and 17% in real terms for the year 2012-13 and with the budget for 2013-14 announced continuing the the deep cuts to 14% and 24%, (after inflation of 3% per annum).
The impact of these cuts on child places in effect reverses the picture of more than a decade earlier, when Sheffield's children could more or less have expected to receive a place at a catchment area school of their choice at the application stage, with the remaining accepted on appeal, this was as the below graph illustrates by virtue of the fact that for many years Sheffield had a surplus of 5,000 school places (about 5%). However over the past 2 years deep cuts in the budget in real terms has reversed the situation from a an estimated 5,000 surplus places to a deficit of 5,000 places as of 2012-13, i.e. a cut of 10,000 school places through school closures and reductions in the number of classes running at exiting schools, against that which were available during 2010-11, the consequences of which is that schools are being effectively stuffed full to the rafters with the number of children per class now far exceeding the recommended guidelines for maximum class sizes which is resulting in the lack of school places at catchment area schools.
In terms of school admissions and places for 2013, this is resulting in an crisis for many families as many children are not be placed at catchment area schools due to a deficit of 5,000 school places which is resulting in children being placed at schools right across the city thus making it impossible for children with siblings to be in receipt of an effective education service that parents are still forced to pay for through high council and payroll taxes.
This situation is expected to be far worse for 2013-14 due to further deep budget cuts, which implies a deficit for 8,000 school places for 2013-14. The consequences of this is not just lack of school places at schools of choice but that ALL existing schools will be stuffed full to rafters with children they have no room for with severe consequences in terms of the quality of teaching and social consequences in terms of breakdown in school systems including the the behaviour of students, and ultimately in the performance of schools as all schools are likely to see a worsening in the attainment levels of their students.
Furthermore social consquences are likely to spill out into the wider commmunity as frustrated parents start to blame others for the crisis in Sheffield's schooling such as the continuing influx of eastern european migrant families being blamed for schools being full to bursting point when instead the reality is one of a 24% real terms cut in the education budget (2013-14).
What Happens At Education Appeal Hearings
The appeals panel gives the aura of independence however amateur parents usually attending their first appeal are at a severe disadvantage as they will find themselves up against seasoned professional representatives put up the school and school admissions department towards whom the panel will defer.
Parents tend to be given the illusion of independence by initial statements of impartiality however during the hearing the panel's statements will veer towards the school and education departments position which is why the vast majority of appeals fail (est 95%).
The bias can be seen in statements such as
* That the parent of another child attending the school could drop off and pick up your child for the next 4 years.
* or where children are forced to attend separate schools that both parents could pick up and drop off children which implies that the working parent should cease working.
* The schools counter suggestions could include that the parent could utilise breakfast club's and after school club's thus enabling early drop off and late pickup, however the school will usually fail to specify that these are typically charged at the rate of £8 per session and therefore cost the parent upwards of £3,300 per annum as schools seek to charge parents for schooling so as to offset spending cuts.
A week or so following the appeals hearing, parents will tend to receive a letter letter informing them of the rejection of the appeal for a school place that is based on selective editing of the facts mentioned at the appeals hearing such as ignoring -
* Lack of competence of the Education authority in the handling of the application process where many parents can find themselves excluded form the process entirely as decisions are automatically made for where their children should go regardless of the impact in terms of siblings and catchment area.
* Ignoring any SEN (Special Education Needs) statement that the child may have.
In summary the appeals process is a mere formality for having gone through a process so to dot the t's and cross the i's.
The bottom line is -
1. That parents are amateurs in the appeals process, unaware of the intricacies of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 that the professionals will repeatedly expertly refer to.
2. That the parents will be opposed by highly practiced professionals representing the school and and admissions department who are well versed in the processes for maximising their case whilst ignoring all the points that would go contrary to the case, especially any errors made on their part on the process of making places available to all prospective students.
For instance in Sheffield not all parents are given a choice as the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 suggests should take place in being able to apply for school places, rather selections are automatically made without parental input for instance in the transfer of children from nursery to linked junior schools.
The only real solution parents have as any alternative to a virtually guarantee for failure of their appeal to succeed is to appoint a legal representative to hold the appeals panel to operate to a standard of impartially and be able to defend the parents case against professionals employed by the School and Admissions Department.
What Parents need to do -
1. If you have not been granted the right to a apply for a school place then appoint a solicitor now as you have already missed the deadline and thus were excluded.
2. If you have applied for a school place and failed to get a place, especially at a catchment school then you must appoint a solicitor at the earliest because without whom your chances of wining an appeal are only about 5%.
During 2013 and over coming years parents will increasingly find themselves forced to pay upto several thousand pounds to get a place at even an catchment area school, never mind schools of choice as the number of places and quality of schooling continues to diminish as a consequence of DEEP real terms cuts of already amounting to 24% from 2010 to 2013-14.
Holding Labour and Liberal Councillor's to Account
Sheffield's Councilors of both Labour and Liberal Democrat parties are letting the electorate down as they concentrate on preserving bureaucracy and their own perks and allowances at the expense of actual front line services as illustrated by the School Pupils Admissions Team which is failing to operate a fair and level playing field in the handling of annual applications for all pupils, failure to do so should mean that they should also lose their place in the council chamber (be voted out) just as many children are annually denied their right to a place in the nearest school due as a consequence deep cuts and operation of a two tier system for school places which is supported by a pseudo independant rubber stamping appeals process. The responsibility for Sheffield's education crisis lies firmly with the Labour and Liberal Democrat Councillor's, current and former cabinet members and their advisors.
The bottom line is that as the city council is unable to operate an efficient and fair education system then parents should be allowed to opt out of state schooling altogether, in which respect a proportion of their taxes, including council taxes deducted towards state education should be refunded to allow to be utilised towards paying for competent private schooling especially as cutting funding by 24% (real terms) and stuffing existing schools full of students WILL obviously result in the WORSENING of the quality of education and student attainment levels for ALL state schools.
Source and Comments: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article39294.html
Nadeem Walayat
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Nadeem Walayat has over 25 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of four ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series.that can be downloaded for Free.
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