We certainly did not expect to still be dealing with Newport City Council’s refusal to offer Alfie a place at his local high school. A whole term has gone by.
We have found yet anther new issue. You can skip on down to where it says New Issue, if you don’t want to read the whole post.
Regular readers of this saga will recall that Alfie had expected to go up to his local high school in September. He was the single, solitary child out of his 60 classmates to be turned away because the school would not find one single additional place, out of nearly 2000 places, to allow every in-catchment child for Bassaleg School to have a place.
We are following a couple of avenues. One avenue is a complaint to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales. The complaint will be about both Newport City Council’s refusal to offer Alfie a place, and also the appeal panel’s reasons for not overturning the decision. Keen followers of Alfie’s plight may recall that the appeal was lost by a majority of 2:1.
The ombudsman process might have been started some time ago but Newport City Council, who are the Local Education Authority (LEA), originally told us that they had no power to set aside the appeal panel’s decision. It turned out that the LEA was wrong about that. Whilst the ombudsman can only recommend that Alfie be given his place or a fresh appeal, the LEA can after all overturn the appeal panel’s decision.
The complaint to the ombudsman is likely to be a one-time opportunity, so it warrants a bit of preparation. I spent most of last weekend understanding school capacity calculations. As a way to spend a weekend, I can’t really recommend it.
On first reading all the relevant documents, for example, the LEA’s statement to the appeal panel opposing Alfie’s appeal, or the decision notice with the appeal panel’s reasons, or even the LEA’s admission policy, little makes sense. It all deals with such unfamiliar concepts. Even where a flicker of understanding threatens to emerge, the context is a mystery and the fledgling flicker of understanding stutters into nothingness. The result is that the entire process takes on an impenetrable aura of damp fog.
Over time however, the more you understand, the more issues you find. Every time I go through the documents, I find further issues. This is especially true since I mastered school capacity calculations.
It is quite staggering how many serous issues we have found with the process. Many of them are outlined in the main petition or in the updates. Presumably, many of these issues will not be unique to Alfie.
So as not to bore you too much, I’m going to share just one new discovery. I think this one is quite important.
New Issue
In a very small nutshell, Alfie’s appeal was based in large part on the prejudice to Alfie being greater than the prejudice to the school. The prejudice to the school is that it has to find a single additional place among nearly 2,000 places so that every in-catchment child had a place. The prejudice to Alfie is that as his 60 classmates all transitioned from primary to high school, Alfie was the single solitary child turned away. He was banished by himself not to the next nearest school but to a school on the far side of city.
A main component of Alfie’s appeal was the potential for harm to Alfie’s emotional and mental health that may be caused by being singled out and rejected. We thought this was pretty obvious. Our concern was supported by Alfie’s GP and his primary school. However, the LEA’s statement opposing Alfie’s appeal said that this was medical evidence and Newport City Council’s school admission policy said that medical evidence can only be considered if it is contained in a medical consultant’s report. The LEA said that the GP’s letter should not be taken into consideration and sure enough, the appeal panel gave no consideration to Alfie’s mental or emotional wellbeing.
Newport City Council’s admission policy is a set of rules made up by Newport City Council. It is true that the policy does say that medical evidence must be in the form of a medical consultant’s report. That is why we now have to obtain a consultant’s report to show what should be completely obvious and was anyway supported by Alfie’s GP.
Here’s the thing. Newport City Council’s admission policy appears to be unlawful. There is statutory guidance from the Welsh Government on which the school admission policy must be based. The Statutory Code document number 005/2013 paragraph 2.4 which says “…admission authorities must give a clear explanation of what supporting evidence will be required - for example, a letter from a registered health professional such as a doctor or social worker - and how this will be assessed objectively.”
So, the LEA are not compelled to insist on a “medical consultant’s report” but have chosen to restrict their own discretion by refusing to consider evidence not in a “medical consultant’s report.” We say this is unlawful because there is a long-standing rule against local authorities fettering their own discretion, which the LEA have pretty clearly breached. There are a number of authorities, for example R v SSHD ex p Venables [1998] AC407 at 496G-497C. “…the person on whom power is conferred cannot fetter the future exercise of his discretion by committing himself now as to the way in which he will exercise his power in future…”
In conclusion, we say that the LEA, and consequently, the appeals panel unlawfully declined to consider the most important evidence. Alfie has been declined a place at Bassaleg School on small margins. He needed just one extra place out of nearly 2,000 in the first instance and his appeal was lost by a majority. It is very likely that the refusal to consider significant evidence was decisive.
As always, we are incredibly grateful to every one who has taken an interest. Alfie’s petition is about to pass 99,000 supporters which is just unbelievable. If there is any where else you can share the petition or any one else you can persuade to sign that would be wonderful. I promise that once we get to 100,000 I’ll stop badgering you for signs and shares and provide updates.
Thank you.