Admissions chaos leaves children without schools

Thousands of children may miss the start of the school term this week because of a crisis over admissions.

A survey of 35 local education authorities by The Independent reveals that nearly 300 pupils have not yet been offered a place at any school.

In addition, more than 900 parents are appealing against the places they have been offered. A further 3,000 have had appeals rejected. Councils fear many parents will keep children out of school until the appeal has been settled.

Repeated nationwide, this would mean that just over 1,000 children are without a place, 4,000 parents are waiting on appeals and 12,000 have had their appeals rejected. Graham Lane, chairman of the Local Government Association's education committee, said the admissions system was "an absolute nightmare".

He said: "Some parents hold on to a number of places and only when term starts do you know which one they have taken up. You cannot offer that place to anyone else until you know they haven't taken it up."

He said parents had been "conned" into believing they could choose a school for their offspring. "They don't realise it's like a bus," Mr Lane said. "If it's full up, there's no way you're going to get on."

Admissions staff will be working overtime to make sure all parents get at least one offer by the start of term later in the week, as is their right by law. Those without a place include parents who have recently moved and children of asylum-seekers who have just moved into an area.

In Barking and Dagenham, east London, where 150 children do not have a place, a council spokesman said: "Many children without an offer have just moved to the borough and we have a very diverse population, including a number of asylum-seekers, but I expect that figure to settle down quickly."

In Hounslow, west London, where 300 parents have had appeals against schools allocated to their children rejected, a council spokesman said: "We don't know how parents will react at the start of the school year but the council will take whatever action is necessary. It is a criminal offence to withhold your child from school."

Council staff are bracing themselves for an onslaught from parents disappointed at failing to get their first-choice school. "Parents can get quite abusive," said Mr Lane. "These staff are in the front line and not amongst the best paid. They suffer enormous abuse and are at the end of their tether."

A government crackdown on surplus school places had not helped, he added. "People don't seem to realise that if you don't have surplus places in schools, there is no slack in the system," he said. Education authority officials said that the problems were just as likely to occur at primary schools as they were at secondary schools.

Overall, the survey showed the 35 councils had dealt with 4,900 appeals by parents over school places – a figure that would translate to nearly 20,000 nationwide. Of the 4,900, 1,229 were successful.