Crackdown demanded on parents who lie to win school places » Education » 24dash.com

Tougher action against the thousands of "thieving" parents who lie to get their children into popular schools was demanded by the chief adjudicator today.

Parents who make fraudulent or misleading applications are denying other children of their "rightful place", Ian Craig said.

Under current rules, parents have "nothing to lose" by lying, as the worst that can happen is they will have the school place withdrawn, he said.

Dr Craig today published the results of an inquiry, ordered by Children's Secretary Ed Balls, into the scale of fraudulent or misleading applications to schools.

It recommends that parents who are found to have won a place by deception should not have priority over other children if and when they have younger children applying to the school.

The inquiry also says that "additional sanctions" are needed, "probably through the courts", suggesting parents could face criminal proceedings.

But at a press conference this morning, Dr Craig appeared to distance himself from this, saying he now believes this would be difficult to do.

"I'm not persuaded that it's a sensible action at this time," he said.

Dr Craig added: "The majority of parents are honest, if the dishonest few deprive the honest majority of their rightful places, that is a form of theft."

Dr Craig said that a survey of 123 local authorities had revealed that action had been taken against around 1,100 parents who made dishonest applications in the last year.

But he estimated that the total number of parents who made fraudulent applications, including those who did not get caught, is double this, around 3,500 in total.

This is still only a very small proportion of the total number of school applications made each year, he added.

Two fifths of the councils that replied to the survey said they thought the current sanctions against parents were not good enough.

Dr Craig said: "If parents make a fraudulent application and don't get caught they've gained a place, if they do get caught it just puts them back to square one. Obviously they made the application because they thought they weren't going to get a place.

"So they're only back to where they would have otherwise been.

"They have nothing to lose."

Dr Craig was asked to investigate misleading applications following the case of Mrinal Patel.

Mrs Patel was taken to court by Harrow Council in north London for allegedly using her mother's address when she applied for a place for her then five-year-old son Rhys at Pinner Park First School in January last year.

The council brought the case under the Fraud Act 2006 but dropped it in July this year amid concerns about whether the Act could be applied in this instance.

Dr Craig published the findings of his inquiry as part of his annual report today.

Mr Balls said: "I understand that some local authorities have suggested that criminal or civil penalties could be used to sanction parents that undertake deceptive behaviour.

"I have always been clear that it has not been and is not our intention that parents should be criminalised. But I recognise that is a serious issue, and accept your conclusion that we need to look at further sanctions.

"I would therefore like you to provide me with recommendations on how the problem should be addressed, including proposals on how to strengthen the deterrents, bearing in mind the need for any sanctions to be legitimate and proportionate."

Despite distancing himself from the idea of taking parents to court, Dr Craig did say he would look at "all options" for further sanctions.

The survey of local authorities showed:

:: There were 70 examples of parents using relatives addresses, such as that of a grandparent, to win a place at a popular school last year;

:: Some 20 examples of parents reporting their marriage had broken down, with the mother moving to a different address, which were later found to be untrue;

:: Twenty-five examples were the parents had genuinely split up, and the parents said the child was living at a particular address in order to get a place.

Dr Craig said the issue was complicated. For example, parents who rent in a particular area to get their child into a certain school are not making a fraudulent application, but they are "bending the rules".

Imposing fines on parents who can afford to rent a second property near a popular school is unlikely to be effective, he suggested.

Dr Craig also published the findings of two other inquiries ordered by Mr Balls, one into school admissions of twins and the other into school lotteries.

The first came following concerns that some twins were being offered two different schools because their applications are treated separately by local authorities.

Dr Craig's inquiry concluded that twins and other children from multiple births should be included in the list of "excepted pupils" under rules governing class sizes so they can go to the same school.

Keith Reed, chief executive of the Twins and Multiple Births Association (Tamba), said: "The Chief School Adjudicator's report confirms what we have been telling officials for years. The school admissions system in England is causing harm to a number of multiple birth children by splitting them across different schools against their will.

"Parents of multiples, Local Education Authorities and now the adjudicator all agree that the Secretary of State should act and the adjudicator's recommendation to make multiples an exception to the class size regulations would resolve the problem at a stroke.

"Ignoring these recommendations would be an act of cruelty towards those multiple birth children and their families who are let down by the current rules every year."

The second inquiry concluded that the use of lotteries is not uncommon, but has "little impact" on the allocation of school places. This is because most councils only use them as a "tie-break" to allocation their final places.

The adjudicator's annual report also revealed at drop in the number of objections to admissions arrangements, down to 201 cases in 2008/09, from 369 last year.

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said: "It is impossible to know how much cheating goes on, but schools do not welcome the increasingly exaggerated concern of parents deciding on the 'right' school for their children.

"Over-anxiety has been encouraged over the years by governments with their emphasis on choice. However, the reality, shown by the Government's own statistics on value-added performance, shows that most schools differ very little in their effectiveness, and improvements in recent years guarantee a good education in almost all our schools.

"Admission by lottery is the fairest way in densely populated areas, and the Government should encourage its use."

Shadow schools minister Nick Gibb said: "Of course we cannot condone parents making fraudulent claims about their situations in order to get their children into a particular school. But the Government is dealing with the symptoms rather than the causes of mass parental dissatisfaction.

"At the moment there are hundreds of thousands of parents not getting their choice of school. We need to allow new providers into the system so more parents have the kinds of schools they want, with strong discipline and smaller class sizes, on their doorstep."

Liberal Democrat schools spokesman David Laws said: "The Government is in a complete muddle over whether the problem of fraudulent applications is a big concern or an issue affecting only a few pupils.

"The schools adjudicator claims that his report paints a gloomy picture while Ed Balls appears to be playing down the extent of the problem.
What is clear is that the adjudicator's own report is highly anecdotal and leaves us without a clear impression of the scale of abuse."

Cllr Shireen Ritchie, chair of the Children and Young People's Board at the Local Government Association, said: "It is natural that parents want to do the best they can for their children, and many put a lot of effort into identifying the school where they believe their children will be happiest and most successful.

"If some parents are willing to bend the rules and potentially break the law to gain an unfair advantage over other families it is very sad.

Councils are alert to this problem and work hard to make the process as fair as they can for all involved."

Dr Craig is due to report back on possible new sanctions against fraudulent applications next February.