Update:

We are grateful to Ruth Jones MP, Alfie’s member of parliament, who has been trying to reason with Newport City Council on Alfie’s behalf. Unfortunately, this has not been successful and Ruth is investigating other solutions. We have been keeping a low profile so as not to prejudice Ruth’s efforts.

Recap:

It has been a few weeks since we posted so a quick re-cap.

Alfie was the only in catchment year 6 child not to get a place at his local comprehensive this year. Newport City Council proposed to send Alfie (just Alfie) in a taxi not to the next nearest school but to a school on the far side of the city. The cost would be around £8,500 per year to the local education budget (not to mention the environment). The main issue for Alfie apart from being separated from all his friends, is that the travel times would severely compromise after school activities both at the new distant school and at home.

Apart from anything else, it is frankly bizarre that the local authority would single out one child and banish him from his lifelong peer group to a distant school.

There is more information on the main petition page.

Issues:

Alfie naturally appealed but the appeal panel voted 2:1 to uphold Newport City Council’s decision.

Since the appeal, a catalogue of both substantive and procedural issues has come to light. Not least that Newport City Council gave incorrect figures, underestimating the capacity of the school, to the appeal panel. Further, the “independent” clerk who assists and advises and has access to the independent appeal panel was the local authority’s own in-house solicitor; the same solicitor who has been fighting against Alfie on behalf of the local authority.

Newport City Council do not consider any of this to be a problem. They also told us that they do not have the power to set aside the appeal panel’s decision. That turns out to be untrue.

Going Forward:

All we are asking is that the appeal be re-run, but this time, fairly and properly. Newport City Council have refused.

There also needs to be some change to the process. We would be surprised if Alfie were the first to have been prejudiced in this way. It would be good if he were the last.

We will have to see if the Local Government Ombudsman will recommend that the appeal be re-run; but this process will take 6 to 12 months to complete, and Newport City Council can choose to ignore the outcome anyway. It appears to be a very slow and uncertain process, but the independent scrutiny would be welcome.

We have made a fairly wide-ranging Freedom of Information and Subject Access Requests to Newport City Council; we wait with interest to see what Newport City Council will or will not release.

There are a number of other issues and options that we are actively following up. We will post about specific issues in the coming weeks.

It is a great shame that we must follow the lengthy and uncertain Ombudsman process. Any properly functioning Local Education Authority with even the slightest concern for the pupils whose lives they affect would surely order a new appeal if there was any significant doubt about the probity and fairness of an education admission appeal. The out come is the future and wellbeing of an 11 year old child after all.

Thank You:

Your support has been invaluable. The sheer numbers and the thousands of supportive comments provide real re-assurance to Alfie at what is clearly a very difficult time.

Having nearly 100,000 supporters means that those in authority are very much more likely to be aware and take notice of the situation.

We are almost at 100,000 supporters, please share if you can, to help Alfie over the line.

We are really grateful to every single one of you who has shown support for Alfie; thank you.