Since their inception back in the 1980’s, the law on Admission Appeals has changed considerably.
The current School Admission Code came into force on 1 September 2021. A new Appeals Code was published in September 2022 which allows for admission appeals to be heard virtually. This has allowed us to administer appeals in all parts of the country.
Together with the Lambeth and Islington Judgements, there will be numerous changes which your panel members and clerks must put into practice.
While larger Admission Authorities, such as Local Authorities, have a small team dedicated to appeals, smaller Admission Authorities including Academies, Free Schools, Foundation and Voluntary Aided schools, rely on either their local authority or an independent clerking service.
Local Authorities charge schools between £200 and £350 for each appeal they organise. Our basic cost per appeal us much less than that!
Educationappeals Dotcom is a team of experienced, truly independent professionals who have been clerking appeals for 35 years. We are the largest non local authority organisation to administer appeals in London and the South East. We hear half the admission appeals in Greater London.
While we give free independent advice to appellants in accordance with the code, we are not involved in providing a fee based service helping parents to win their appeal. We believed that this would undermine our independence.
Educationappeals Dotcom believes that a truly transparent independent service can only be achieved when we manage the entire process.
We do NOT provide clerks to service a school’s own panel; clerks need to be in control to ensure that the Code is observed at all times.
This is what we can do for your Admission Authority:
- Give you general advice on the appeals process. Ensuring that at all times that your school or schools are not breaking the Appeals Code. Our independent admission advice team can also advise on admission arrangements and how to deal with in year admissions – an area where many own Admission Authority schools unknowingly break the law.
- Allocate a Clerk to your school, who will administer the whole of the school appeal process.
- For ease we use online appeal forms and an information booklet.
- We regularly keep the school updated on the number of appeals lodged. You get a copy of the appeal form at the same time as we do.
- We can source and book an independent hearing venue and arrange for any catering.
- You will have access to our pool of panel members who will have no connection with your school. Each has been trained to a standard that complies with the Admission Appeals Code.
- We send out the invitation letter inviting parents to the hearing. The letter will include advice about the hearing, an agenda, as well as who will be sitting on the panel.
- For secondary and primary transfer appeals, we prefer to use the multiple appeal method – this saves you time and money!
- We will send out the statement from the Admission Authority. Our admissions advice team, who will not be involved in your appeals, will be happy to review your statement and make suggestions about how to make your statement stronger.
- Book translators.
- Give independent advice to parents.
- The Clerk will attend the hearing. Ensure a smooth “code compliant” operation, take contemporaneous notes, offer procedural and legal advice to the panel, record the decision, the reasons for the decision and the voting.
- Decisions will be e mailed to you within 24 hours of the panel’s deliberations.
- Within 5 school days of the final deliberation for each school, the Clerk will send out the decision letter and a copy will be e mailed to the Admission Authority. The letter will include details about how the panel reached its decision. Our letters are not “one pagers”. During the summer the 5 school days could be longer due to sheer volume of appeals.
- We will produce minutes of the hearings in the form of a word table. These are available on request.
- Finally we produce an electronic format file, with copies of all letters, notes and minutes which are archived for two years. A copy of this file is available for the school or LA to also achieve for two years.