has anyone phoned the adjudicators office today? Judd etc

Eleven Plus (11+) in Kent

Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators

Post Reply
11 Plus Mocks - Practise the real exam experience - Book Now
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

has anyone phoned the adjudicators office today? Judd etc

Post by mystery »

Sorry I don't have time or easy access to phone today, but if you phone the school adjudicators office today you will be able to speak to the case manager for the Judd, Skinners, TOGS enquiry who is back in the office today.

If anyone does, please can you find out if KCC objection is a public document that can be e-mailed to you?

Could you also find out what the timescale of the process is, when would the adjudicator have to give a decision for 2011 entry by, how many years is is decision fixed for, what would trigger it moving on to judicial review?

Please tell us the answers.

Thanks
monapotsnooper
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 1:27 pm

Re: has anyone phoned the adjudicators office today? Judd et

Post by monapotsnooper »

Hi, I'm a former lurker who has an OOC child sitting the Kent test next week, so have been following the thread with some concern over the last few days. A big thank you to all those who have posted before for your invaluable comments and advice.

I have just spoken to the case manager at adjudicator's office who told me that the objections are not public documents and he is therefore unable to send these out to interested members of the general public.

He did, however advise that all complaints received related to the same issue, ie that the three schools involved all had a double selection process and were "cherry-picking" the highest scoring candidates rather than taking from the wider pool of children who had achieved passes, but had not necessarily scored highly. They claim that these schools are therefore depriving local children of places.

The format of the meeting will be:

Introduction by the adjudicator and a statement as to the purpose of the meeting.
The school and local authority representatives will then be introduced and eachwill have the opportunity to make a small presentation to support their case.
The meeting will then be opened to the floor for the public to make (brief) comments

It was stressed that there will not be a Q&A session, this is merely an opportunity for people to put their views across.

Following the meeting there will be a one week period where supporting arguments by all interested parties should be put forward in writing to the adjudicator and he will gather any additional information he needs. He will then compile his report and recommendations which will be sent to legal teams and solicitors before his rulings are publicised. The possible outcomes are:

The selection process is unfair and impose changes
The selection process is partly unfair and impose changes
The selection process is fair and impose no changes

They aim to publish their decision by the end of October so that parents have all the necessary information before completing the CAF forms by the end of October - so this most definitely does affect September 2011 intakes.

This decision would last until such time as any valid complaint was made which reversed or altered it. The earliest any such potential complaint or appeal could be submitted is following publication of the admissions criteria for 2012, ie April 2011.

I am sorry, but I neglected to ask what the trigger would be for moving it on to a judicial review.

Hope this helps. :D
Etienne
Posts: 8978
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:26 pm

Re: has anyone phoned the adjudicators office today? Judd et

Post by Etienne »

Decisions taken by Adjudicators are binding on all parties involved, and can only be challenged through judicial review.

As far as I know, any interested party who is dissatisfied - and presumably understands the implications in terms of legal costs - can seek judicial review. They would first have to get permission for judicial review from the High Court (which has supervisory jurisdiction over public authorities and tribunals).
Etienne
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: has anyone phoned the adjudicators office today? Judd et

Post by mystery »

Now that's useful information, thank you. I'm still rather puzzled as to why an objection by KCC should not be a public document, and that people who wish to support the school policies only have one week after having heard KCC's objections at the meeting to make pertinent written comments, and equally that people who want to support KCCs objections similarly have to attend the meeting and respond pertinently within one week.

KCC is a public body, the objections are presumably in the best interests of somebody somewhere, we are not talking about stuff with affects national security, so what can the big deal be?

I e-mailed the Office for the Adjudicator to ask if it was a public document or not, and received no response. Will this be one of those things it is possible to request under the FOI?

There is a potted version of it in the News section on the ***** website. So how did he get a sight of it? And who has had sight of it?

Don't know if you have time to ring back, thanks again for the info so far.
WP
Posts: 1331
Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:26 am
Location: Watford, Herts

Re: has anyone phoned the adjudicators office today? Judd et

Post by WP »

mystery wrote:I'm still rather puzzled as to why an objection by KCC should not be a public document, and that people who wish to support the school policies only have one week after having heard KCC's objections at the meeting to make pertinent written comments, and equally that people who want to support KCCs objections similarly have to attend the meeting and respond pertinently within one week.

KCC is a public body, the objections are presumably in the best interests of somebody somewhere, we are not talking about stuff with affects national security, so what can the big deal be?
Maybe you should ask KCC, as the public body that produced the document. FOI requests have to be in writing (email counts) and include your name and address.
pheasantchick
Posts: 2439
Joined: Tue Jun 02, 2009 10:28 pm

Re: has anyone phoned the adjudicators office today? Judd et

Post by pheasantchick »

Heard today that Robbie Williams is looking at a 5 million pad near Tunbridge Wells also, so Robbie JR will be fine also.

GEtting back on thread, does anyone have an address to send letters to?
doodles
Posts: 8300
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:19 pm

Re: has anyone phoned the adjudicators office today? Judd et

Post by doodles »

Not at the moment but I have emailed and asked for complete name and address of person to send my "views" to. I am awaiting a reply.
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: has anyone phoned the adjudicators office today? Judd et

Post by mystery »

There is an address in the contact section on the office for the adjudicator website, but it doesn't have the name of the case manager on it. I don't know if it matters - but as time is of the essence it feels better to have a named person so our responses don't spend more than a week going round in circles inside the building.
monapotsnooper
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 1:27 pm

Re: has anyone phoned the adjudicators office today? Judd et

Post by monapotsnooper »

Sorry Mystery. I didn't have another opportunity to call the adjudicator's office again yesterday and won't get another today i'm afraid. I do, however have the name and direct dial number for the chap I spoke to yesterday. Not sure if I am allowed to post the details on here so I have pm'd you.
Etienne
Posts: 8978
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:26 pm

Re: has anyone phoned the adjudicators office today? Judd et

Post by Etienne »

I've moved some of the posts here across to the main topic "judd, skinners and togs enquiry into admissions policies".

Could we keep this thread specifically for the points Mystery raised at the beginning, please? (mostly about contacting the Adjudicator).

Otherwise we shall finish up with posts on the same subject scattered among multiple threads ......
Etienne
Post Reply