About this guidance

This is statutory guidance from the Department. This means that recipients must have regard to it when carrying out duties relating to school admission appeals.

The guidance covers the statutory basis for the School Admission Appeals Code, the constitution of appeal panels, appeal hearings, reaching decisions on appeals, infant class size appeals, further appeals and complaints about appeals. It also covers appeals by governing bodies against local authority decisions to admit twice-excluded children as well as relevant legislation and further information about the local government ombudsman and complaints about appeal panels.

Expiry/review date

This guidance will next be reviewed in February 2013.

What legislation does this guidance relate to?

Under section 94 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, responsibility for making arrangements for appeals against the refusal of a school place rests with the admission authority of the school. The admission authority and appeal panel must act in accordance with this code, the School Admissions (Appeal Arrangements) (England) Regulations 2012, the School Admissions Code, other law relating to admissions, and relevant human rights and equalities legislation, for example, the Equality Act 2010.

Who is this guidance for?

This guidance is for:

  • governors;
  • headteachers;
  • local authorities;
  • key statutory agencies; and
  • school advisers.

It applies to:

  • admission authorities of maintained schools as defined in Section 88(1) (a) and (b) of the SSFA 19982;
  • governing bodies and local authorities (when not admission authorities);
  • schools adjudicators; and
  • admission appeal panels.

Academies are required by their funding agreements to comply with the Code and the law relating to admissions.

Key points

  • the purpose of this code is to ensure the independence of admission appeal panels and that all admission appeals for maintained schools and academies are conducted in a fair and transparent way;
  • this code is designed to give admission authorities the freedom they need to run the appeals process efficiently, whilst maintaining minimum requirements which will ensure fairness and transparency; and
  • in drawing up this simpler, shorter code, the Department has been guided by the principle that admission authorities are best placed to decide how to meet those requirements.