Agenda item

Report of the Deputy Director, Education and Learning (CS/24/05), outlining the School Admission Policies for 2025/2026, attached.

An Impact Assessment has also been prepared for the attention of Members at the meeting, which is available at Published Impact Assessments - Impact Assessment (devon.gov.uk) / https://www.devon.gov.uk/impact/published/, attached.

RESOLVED

(a) that the Community and Voluntary Controlled Primary Admissions Policies, as set out in section 3 of the Report be adopted for September 2025;

(b) note that the approved admissions policies for September 2024 were used as a basis of consultation with schools and others for formulating the relevant admissions policies from September 2025/26 onwards;

(c) that the Published Admissions Numbers as set out in Appendix One, noting the reduction for West Croft School from 90 to 60, be approved;

(d) that the reduction in the catchment area of Stoke Canon Church of England Primary School be approved;

(e) that the normal round co-ordinated admission scheme and the in-year co-ordinated admissions scheme for 2025-26 be agreed; and

(f) that the admissions timetable as set out in Appendix Five also be agreed.

(Councillors Leaver and Whitton attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

The Cabinet considered the Report the Deputy Director, Education and Learning (CS/24/05), which outlined the School Admission Policies for 2025/2026, circulated prior to the meeting in accordance with regulation 7(4) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.

The Cabinet noted that the Local Authority (Devon LA) had a statutory responsibility to annually propose, consult on and determine admission arrangements for community and voluntary controlled (VC) schools and co-ordinated admission schemes for the normal round of admissions to all state-funded schools.

Consultation on the Local Authority admissions arrangements, detailed in the Report, were held ahead of the statutory deadline for consideration by Cabinet. Schools which were their own admissions authority (Foundation, Voluntary Aided, Academies and Free schools, University Technical Colleges, and Studio Schools) were responsible for their own arrangements and determined by the governing boards and academy trusts.

Devon had consulted annually on co-ordinated admissions schemes for primary and secondary schools; the proposed scheme for 2025-26 was a combined scheme for the normal round of admissions into all state-funded schools. It brought forward the arrangements from the previous academic year with some minor amendments, detailed at Appendix Four. The Cabinet noted that the percentage of children who received a place at the school preferred by the parent remained significantly above the national average see below:

Whilst Local Authorities were not legally required to co-ordinate in-year admissions to all state-funded schools., the Devon LA managed in-year applications for community and VC schools and extended this facility to all state-funded mainstream schools.

Published Admission Numbers (PANs) were proposed for community and VC schools, taking into account the accommodation available, expected local demand, sensible organisation, a strategic overview of the number of places in an area, the constraints of Key Stage One Class Size Legislation and the flexibility to increase PANs where this becomes necessary. The proposed PANs were listed at Appendix One and formed part of the admissions policy document for each school at http://devon.cc/schoolpolicy. Changes in PANs for 2025 demonstrated the impact of a falling early years cohorts compared to upper years groups in Primary Schools and the continued pressure in Secondary schools. Proposed catchment areas for community and VC schools were brought forward from the previous academic year with the exception of Stoke Canon Church of England Primary School.

Admissions Officers also provided support to own-admission authority schools regarding their policies for 2025-26, which also needed to be determined by the end of February to ensure compliance with the School Admissions Code.

The primary and secondary co-ordination schemes had statutory deadlines and must be determined by the end of February 2024 ahead of normal round applications in September 2024 for admission in September 2025. This had been taken into account in a timetable for the admissions process which was detailed at Appendix Five in the Report..

LAs had a responsibility to collate and publish the admission arrangements of all schools. Devon met this requirement by publishing a copy of all policies at http://devon.cc/schoolpolicy and reviewed the policies of all schools to ensure they were legally compliant and meet the potential need from the community.

Section 5 of the Report outlined the detailed consultation on the proposed admission arrangements for community and VC schools and on the proposed co-ordinated admission schemes for all primary and secondary schools, including how this was publicised, the website, targeted emails and links with groups such as the Devon Education Forum. Feedback from schools suggested they were largely content with matters such as oversubscription criteria, Published Admission Numbers, catchment areas and the application process. Responses were received regarding specific local admissions issues, detailed at Appendix Three, which was common with neighbouring Local Authorities.

An Impact Assessment had also been prepared for Members at the meeting, which was available at Published Impact Assessments - Impact Assessment (devon.gov.uk) / https://www.devon.gov.uk/impact/published/. Cabinet noted that equality of access to education opportunities was a fundamental feature of school admission arrangements and all policies for consideration had been subject to an Equality Impact Needs Assessment, available at www.devon.gov.uk/admissionarrangements.

In summary, the Council had a broad and constantly changing role in school admissions with a priority for ensuring timely access to statutory aged education and the recommendations in the Report would ensure the Council met its statutory responsibilities with regard to school admissions as well as its broader role in supporting children and young people.

The matter having been debated and the options and alternatives and other relevant factors (e.g. financial, sustainability and carbon impact, risk management, equality and legal considerations and alignment with the Council’s Strategic Plan) set out in the Deputy Director’s Report having been considered:

it was MOVED by Councillor Leadbetter, SECONDED by Councillor Hart, and

RESOLVED

(a) that the Community and Voluntary Controlled Primary Admissions Policies, as set out in section 3 of the Report be adopted for September 2025;

(b) note that the approved admissions policies for September 2024 were used as a basis of consultation with schools and others for formulating the relevant admissions policies from September 2025/26 onwards;

(c) that the Published Admissions Numbers as set out in Appendix One, noting the reduction for West Croft School from 90 to 60, be approved;

(d) that the reduction in the catchment area of Stoke Canon Church of England Primary School be approved;

(e) that the normal round co-ordinated admission scheme and the in-year co-ordinated admissions scheme for 2025-26 be agreed; and

(f) that the admissions timetable as set out in Appendix Five also be agreed.