Warwickshire’s education chiefs face fresh backlash from councillors over county’s school place admissions process

Warwickshire’s education chiefs are facing a fresh backlash from councillors just weeks after a review was ordered into the county’s admissions process.

County council leader Cllr Izzi Seccombe (Con, Stour and the Vale) ordered an investigation after admitting she was ‘not happy’ with a new online system that had left children without a school place when the new school year started.

Now councillors are unhappy that children in the north of the county are unable to access good schools because places are going to pupils from other counties.

At the latest meeting of the council’s resources and fire & rescue overview and scrutiny committee [Dec 14], an update on the admissions process prompted the fresh concerns.

Rob Powell, the council’s strategic director for resources, said: “In terms of cross border flows, we are a net importer of schoolchildren into the county. The criteria generally runs through from those who are, or have been, in care, pupil premiums, special educational needs, siblings and then you get to distance.”

This prompted Cllr Caroline Phillips (Lab, Nuneaton Abbey) to question the policy. She said: “It is the distance thing that bothers me because the very good schools in Nuneaton are on that Leicestershire border and the really bad schools are further towards the west. Are you saying that children from Leicestershire will be prioritised because it may be a shorter distance?

“I would hope that kids from west Nuneaton, which I represent, would have priority for the good schools.”

Mr Powell admitted that could happen and Andy Felton, the council’s chief finance officer, added: “Legally we cannot discriminate for where somebody lives county-wise so we cannot differentiate that children in our county have preference over others if the school is on the border. The admissions policy is what the admissions policy is. That is just the reality around the national regulations.”

Cllr Peter Gilbert (Con, Bedworth West) said: “My message would always be Warwickshire first. If we have an academic child in the north of the county then we should make sure they do everything they can to give them the best academic education and if that means taking them to the south of the county then so be it. We should do everything we can to do that.

“It is a reality that kids in the north are not getting the standard of education that I’d hoped they would and we need to do something about that.