Criticism over plans for schools to give priority admission to children who attend their nurseries

New admission plans by the Government, will give children from deprived backgrounds who attend a school nursery, priority when applying for a place at the school.

The proposal is part of a consultation on 'Changes to the Schools Admissions Code', launched by the Department for Education.

The consultation states that the aim of the proposed change is 'to improve the fair and open allocation of places' and to 'support social mobility'.

This involves requiring all state-funded schools to give priority in their admission arrangements to children eligible for pupil premium or service premium funding.

It will also mean admission authorities of primary schools will have to give priority to children eligible for the early years pupil premium, pupil premium or service premium who attend a nursery which is part of the school.

The Government claims that ‘the change will allow for continuity of education for those most in need of such stability’.

However the Pre-School Learning Alliance is concerned that this will give children attending school nurseries an advantage over those attending private, voluntary or independent (PVI) nurseries and will end up forcing more parents to opt for school nurseries in order to be prioritised for a school place.

Encouraging more schools to take two-year-olds was a policy particularly favoured by former childcare minister, Elizabeth Truss, in a drive to make childcare cheaper and more flexible for parents. So much so that one of her reforms was to remove the red tape so schools don't have to register with Ofsted to take two-year-olds

Alliance chief executive Neil Leitch said: “While we of course support efforts to ensure that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are able to access high-quality education, allowing schools to give priority admission to children who attend their own nurseries is likely to put eligible children who attend PVI settings at an unfair disadvantage.

“Parents of eligible children who might have preferred to place their child with a local childminder or at a local PVI group setting may feel under pressure to instead opt for a school-based nursery to have a better chance of securing a place at that same school later on.

“We are concerned that this is yet another example of the Government pushing for a more school-focused early years system at the expense of the PVI sector, and about the potentially detrimental impact this could have on children and families.”

A previous consultation on the schools admission code warned that allowing schools to give priority admission to children who have attended their own nurseries may 'disadvantage families who have recently moved to the area and those who have opted for other providers or who choose to take up the free entitlement at an alternative local provider. It may make some parents feel they have to enrol their child at the school before they consider him or her ready, in order to gain a place at the primary school'.

The most recent Office of the Schools Adjudicator annual report also stated that 'the practice of some primary schools of giving priority for admission to the reception year to children who have attended particular nursery provision has been found to be unfair to other local children'.

The proposed changes to the code also seek to clarify guidance for summer born children. The consultation document states: ‘We therefore propose making a number of small changes to the Code to clarify its application to parental requests for summer born children to be admitted out of their normal age group and to aid decision making for local authorities’.

This includes clarifying ‘that the circumstances which the admission authority should take into account when making their decision include: the parent’s wishes; information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development; and whether they have previously been educated outside their normal age group. In the case of children born prematurely, it will include taking account of whether they would naturally have fallen into the lower age group if born at the expected time’.

The guidance will also require the admission authority to take account of the views of the headteacher of the school concerned and require the admission authority to set out clearly for parents the reasons for their decision to ensure transparency in the decision making process.