Labour excluded from school admissions decisions

Labour member thrown off despite being the most regular attendee since 2006

Southwark’s Lib Dem/Tory coalition has thrown the Labour representative off the committee that makes decisions on the rules governing school admissions. School admissions for primary school have become a fiery political issue in Southwark in the last 12 months, with parents in the south of the borough furious about the way the process was handled last year and worried about the process this year.

Southwark Labour’s Education spokesperson Cllr Veronica Ward had been a member of the School Admissions Forum for almost four years, before being chucked off at a meeting of Southwark Council’s Executive on Monday night. She had attended the meeting more regularly than either the Lib Dem or Tory representatives.

Both the Lib Dems and Tories have kept their place on the forum, despite the Conservative Party holding less than a quarter of Labour’s seats in the council chamber.

Southwark Labour’s Education and Children’s Services spokesperson, Cllr Veronica Ward said:

“I just can’t understand what’s happened with this decision.

“Parents in East Dulwich and Peckham Rye have genuine concerns about the way the admissions process for primary schools is handled and I want to fight their corner. But the Lib Dems and Tories have chosen put their own interests ahead of the interests of the parents they’re here to serve.

“They’d rather pretend that everything’s OK than resolve the serious issues.”

NOTES

Cllr Ward has attended more than either the Tory or Lib Dem councillors since her nomination to the forum in 2006.

Last year there were only two meetings of the Forum and the only one since the controversial school allocations in March was rearranged to fall in the middle of the Labour Party Conference. Cllr Ward was unable to attend due to her attendance at the Conference in Brighton.

The School Admissions Forum is responsible for almost all aspects of Southwark’s admissions. Specifically it has responsibility for:

i. assess how well the admission arrangements serve the interests of local parents and children collectively;

ii. determine the relevant area of the authority;

iii. try to promote agreement on admissions issues;

iv. consider existing and proposed admission arrangements in the area;

v. review the comprehensiveness and accessibility of guidance and the composite prospectus produced by the local authority;

vi. review the effectiveness of school preference advice to parents provided by the local authority;

vii. review the effectiveness of school preference advice to parents provided by the local authority;

viii. consider and provide advice on the effectiveness of the local authority’s coordinated admission arrangements;

ix. consider the means by which admission processes might be improved and monitor how actual admissions relate to published admission numbers;

x. agree, promote and monitor protocols for potentially vulnerable children, including those previously excluded from school, those who have special educational needs, disabilities or those who are looked after and those other children who are hard to place or arrive in the area outside the normal admission round;

xi. consider the effects that admission arrangements have on social inclusion.

xii. refer an objection to the Schools Adjudicator where it identifies policy, practice or oversubscription criteria that may be unfair or that do not comply with the mandatory provision of the Code;

xiii. consider any other admission issues not covered above.