11 Plus Exams Forum

Hello,

I have posted a few(confidential) details to the appeals box. If the Secretary of State finds maladministration has occured what can he recommend apart from a fresh appeal? Does he have the power to instruct the school to provide the pupil with a place?

Thanks in advance

lancs2000 wrote:I have posted a few(confidential) details to the appeals box. If the Secretary of State finds maladministration has occured what can he recommend apart from a fresh appeal? Does he have the power to instruct the school to provide the pupil with a place?

He can't instruct the school to offer a place. This may seem unfair, but the SoS didn't hear the appeal, nor did he hear the other appeals for the same intake for that school. Therefore, even though there may have been maladministration, it does not necessarily follow that your child would have won the appeal had there not been maladmin...

For example: if the appeal had been heard correctly, the panel may have decided your child was worthy of a place, but so were four others. They then went on to decide that the school could only accept 3 children before the prejudice against the school was greater than against the appeallants (ie - the school genuinely couldn't fit more pupils in). They would then have to decide which 3 to allow.

In that case, even though there was no maladministration, you could have still lost the appeal, so it would be wrong to then force the school to take your child.

It is possible for the High Court to force a school to take your child if you take thecase to Judicial Review. That, however, is very expensive, time consuming, more stressful than an appeal and virtually unheard of.

So the S of S can tell the school to offer a fresh hearing with a new panel. They should not know anything about the first appeal (well, they might guess that it's a re-hearing, but that will probably make them extra-careful) and certainly won't know any details of why it's being heard again. I've been on a couple of re-hearing panels in the past and always approach it with no pre-conceptions. One won the re-appeal, the other lost.

I should add that I can't see the appeals drop-box!

Thank you Capers123. I vaguely recall the LGO instructing a school to give a pupil a place in a case of maladministration

I'm not sure though, so I thought I would ask on this forum.

lancs2000 is absolutely right (although it was a recommendation rather than instruction).

The Secretary of State has only been involved in academy complaints (with ultimate responsibility) for a relatively short time, but there certainly have been occasions when the local government ombudsman has recommended the offer of a school place. Here is but one example:
http://www.lgo.org.uk/complaint-outcome ... 8-011-742/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However, it would be correct to say that the more usual 'remedy' following a successful complaint to the ombudsman or Secretary of State, or following a successful judicial review, is likely to be a re-hearing.

I would have thought the immediate offer of a place is usually going to happen only where it is clear what the original outcome should have been. Most cases are not like that - they require difficult judgements to be made, and those dealing with complaints about the process that was followed will not normally substitute their own judgement for that of the appeal panel. If they find in favour of the complainant with regard to flaws in the process, they are more likely to refer the matter back for a re-hearing in front of a different panel.

Thank you Etienne.

What if the appeal is only against oversubscription? The child actually passed the entrance test.

The same!

The focus is on any faults in the process leading up to the decision, rather than on what the decision ought to have been.

Any such faults (if serious enough) are usually going to be 'remedied' by the offer of a fresh hearing.