Agenda item

The verbal update was given by Rob Powell (Strategic Director, Resources), who explained there had been difficulties with in-year school admissions at the start of the new school year. The situation had since stabilised and work to improve the long-term position was well underway. Rob Powell said however that the issues that had arisen were unacceptable and he issued an apology to all those who had been negatively impacted by the difficulties encountered at the start of the term.

Rob Powell said Warwickshire was a county with good schools and good levels of educational attainment, and outlined the entirety of the work undertaken by the admissions service, which was much wider than the in-year admissions (8,260 in 2021/22, an increase from the 5,200 in 2020/21), which had been the subject of the challenges at the start of the Autumn term. This included the main transfer round for primary and secondary schools, and those moving from infant to junior school (17,500 applications for the 2023 school year).  The team also oversaw 2,500 11+ tests for grammar school places. He explained that although the majority of parents were able to get the offer of a place at one of their top three preferences (90% of primary parents got their first choice, 97% one of their top three; 82% got their first choice secondary place and 94% one of their top three), strict entry criteria meant that unfortunately not everyone’s preference could be accommodated. There was an appeals process available, of which 8 per cent and 11 per cent had been successful in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

As a result of problems with the way the service had previously been delivered, the service introduced some fundamental and important changes to the in-year process ahead of the summer holidays, but this was not planned or executed effectively and led to some significant problems at the start of the school term. The challenge was exacerbated by very high volumes of applications, in part due to people moving into Warwickshire, and issues obtaining data on school places from schools which was not planned effectively. Rob Powell said the Chief Executive had commissioned a review of what had happened, to ensure the lessons were fully learned. This report was scheduled to be completed by February. He said communication had not been clear enough and responses had not been quick enough because of the volume of contacts, and he reiterated his earlier apology for the poor service. He reassured the Committee that once the issues were identified additional resources were put in place and the backlog of cases was able to be cleared relatively swiftly.

Members were told a new batch processing system had been implemented, which used auto-allocation, and would make the process faster, fairer and more transparent. This new approach relied upon receiving information from all schools about available places in a timely manner, with data from 99 schools missing in late August. Rob Powell said this had not happened in sufficient time. Once the issue was identified in late August, schools had been helpful in rapidly providing the data by 5 September. There was a backlog of 1,657 children who had not been allocated a school place by the start of term; the team worked incredibly hard to process these applications at pace and all secondary school allocations had been cleared by September 9 and those for primary schools were completed by September 16. Most significantly, there was a poor decision to ‘hold back’ until September applications received in the latter part of the summer term, which should have been escalated.

The new process had now bedded down and was starting to show positive effects, although there was further work to do. The team had made over 2,700 offers this term. Problems with the response to calls and emails had been addressed by recruiting additional call handlers through the Customer Service Centre and training them to deal effectively with incoming calls about admissions, creating more capacity for the Council’s specialist admissions officers to deal with the more complex activity working with families, carers and schools.

Systemic factors were the main driver for the decision to move the service back into Education Services from the Resources Directorate, with effect from 1 January 2023. This would provide further improvements through closer alignment with other relevant and inter-dependent services, including commissioning, sufficiency, school transport, fair access and other key dependencies.  This change would also underpin ongoing implementation of the Council’s longer-term change work. 

Rob Powell then explained the longer-term changes being introduced to improve the admissions transfer process. This has involved work with parents, carers, schools, early years settings and professionals. An improvement plan, involving organisational development support for the team, would help further develop the team’s skills, knowledge and culture, and improve the data available to support the process. This identified that over 90% of families apply relatively easily and get one of their top three choices, but 10% often need additional support to overcome challenges. Parents often lacked the information they needed to make good choices, often leading to unrealistic expectations, conflict and resource challenges. The application portal on the website had been redesigned to provide better information on schools and provide access to support parental choices. Rob Powell said schools often set their own admissions criteria and it was important parents understood the relevant criteria for each school and the likelihood of being offered a place. Often school places would be determined by distance to the school from the child’s home address. Webinars explaining the application process and giving advice to parents had taken place during the transfer window, and these had been attended by around 1,500 parents. Videos had been produced to help parents navigate the applications process for primary and secondary applications, and had received over 3,600 views since their launch in August. Early data on the transfer process suggested parents and carers had found the experience of choosing a school easy (with a score of 3.86 out of 5), and felt well informed about their school choices when submitting their applications (3.91 out of 5).

Councillor Pete Gilbert said he hoped lessons would be learned, not just to cover the short-term issues but also to address longer-term concerns. He said children should have the option to travel across the county to attend better performing schools if possible to improve their educational attainment, but also other options should be opened to those who were less academically gifted. Rob Powell said that gaps in educational attainment were a key priority in the recently approved countywide approach to levelling up.

Responding to points made by Councillor Bill Gifford, Rob Powell said that during the summer specific cases had been expedited wherever possible. By the time of the school census day, the service had cleared the backlog of applications. Rob Powell said communication and engagement with schools had improved as a result of the issues over the summer.

Responding to a point raised by Councillor Robert Tromans, Rob Powell said parents would be able to find a school’s admissions criteria on the revamped website. He reiterated that entry criteria often varied from school to school. Councillor Peter Butlin said there had been an almost unprecedented number of in-year applications. This had led to an increased demand for home to school transport, which put constraints on resources and finances. Councillor Butlin stated his belief that parents would sometimes select a school without taking into account the transport implications.

In response to a question from Councillor Rik Spencer regarding school admission appeals, Rob Powell said some parents would only put down one preference on their application and this could potentially put them in a difficult situation if they were unsuccessful. It was important to make parents aware of making more than one preference to minimise potential frustration. Rob Powell said he was unaware how many parents who submitted an appeal had been allocated their second preference school, but would endeavour to include this in the February paper on admissions.

In discussions following a question raised by Councillor Caroline Phillips, members were told that Warwickshire was a net importer of pupils. Distance from the school was one of the admissions criteria which could sometimes mean that children from outside Warwickshire would be given a place over a child living inside the county if they lived closer to the school. Councillor Phillips stated her belief that this was unfair on children living in Warwickshire. Rob Powell emphasised the strict legal requirement to apply the admissions criteria fairly to all children who have applied for a place in a particular school. 

Responding to a question from Councillor Gilbert, Rob Powell said there had not been any issues with people being unable to access the Council’s admissions portal and said he was confident this would continue to be the case.