Oct 25 2011
Access to The Schools Adjudicator
You will no doubt be aware if you have read the articles on the site and the handbook that I am a great advocate of the Schools Adjudicator. I believe that if you can access the Schools Adjudicator process then you will receive a fair hearing based on my experience and the experience of a few other schools that I know.
The field becomes a level playing field because the local education authority is not controlling the process and is only seen as one of a number of parties to the decision. if you have good arguments, present them well and relate them to the statutory guidance then you have a good chance of success.
However, I believed that, from reading the statutory guidance, that access to The Schools Adjudicator was limited to faith-based schools and trust schools. So normal, mainstream schools were at the mercy of the local education authority.
Yet recently I have been contacted by a school under threat in the Shrewsbury area and they have revealed something very surprising to me. This is the original comment I received from Helen Fletcher:
We’ve used your great website and advice to fight the Shropshire Council’s proposal to close The Wakeman School and Arts College in Shrewsbury. This is the current situation which I thought might be of interest.On 7th September, we had lots of complaints and concerns about the proposal and consultation lodged with the Ombudsman, but despite this Cabinet voted unanimously to close the school. We are waiting for the Ombudsman’s findings. More importantly for us and I think for your website too, though, is that the Lichfield Diocesan Board of Education has referred the decision to the Schools Adjudicator and we are hopeful that this will result in our wonderful school being saved. This is significant because The Wakeman is not a church school (please see http://www.lichfield.anglican.org/news&newsID=840), but the church has still given us us that precious route through to the Adjudicator and a fair hearing for the school. We’ll keep you posted.
The fact that the local diocesan board has been able to intervene on behalf of a non faith-based school and result in the matter being referred to The Schools Adjudicator is very encouraging. This gives more hope to those mainstream schools who previously have had no access to an appeals process.
Helen’s latest comment is:
Following on from my post of 24 September- we’re in the process of preparing for our meetings with the Schools Adjudicator (both potentially between the school and the Adjudicator, and the public meeting) and your experience would be very helpful to us. Any information or tips would be much appreciated. Does the Adjudicator act as the chair of a debate between the two sides, or does s/he take more of an active lead, asking questions of both sides and wanting information about particular things? Are there any issues that you think are particularly important to demonstrate at the meetings? Our appeal is entirely structured around the statutory guidance as you advise, and we think we have a strong case, but we want to make sure we do the school justice at the meeting(s) too. The LA’s case seems riddled with holes- all the way through this process the issue for us has not been looking for ways in which it has failed to meet the statutory guidance but deciding where to stop- so any advice on what to focus on in the meetings would really help. Thank you, and best wishes.
I am still unsure how this came about legally but I will do a little more digging. But from now on I will be advocating that all schools make direct contact with either of the local diocesan boards – Catholic or C. of E. – to see whether they are prepared to support your case against closure proposals. If they are then there may be a chance to access The Schools Adjudicator which can only be a good thing.
