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FOI request Admission of children outside their normal age group - summer born, reception class 2018/2019

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Samantha Rahman

Dear Leeds City Council,

FOI Request

I have the following questions

1. How many requests has Leeds city council received pertaining to “admission of children outside their normal age group” from parents or carers of summer born children regarding entry to reception class at compulsory school age for the school year 2018-2019?

2. How many of these requests have be granted and how many have been refused by Leeds City Council for the school year 2018-2019?

3. How many such requests are still under consideration for the school year 2018-2019?

4. Could you provide the dates and planned dates since January 2018 of any subgroup or committee or working party that has concerns or has concerned the school admission of summer born children, the Department for Educations advice on the admission of summer born children, and/or paragraph 2.17-2.17b of the school admissions code?

5. Could you provide the agenda, papers and minutes of any meetings identified in point 4 above?

Yours faithfully,
S. Rahman

DPFOI, Leeds City Council

Dear Samantha Rahman,

Freedom of information request Ref 21403 : Admission of children outside their normal age group

Thank you for your request for the above information which we received 14, June 2018. We will respond to your request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

We have passed your request onto Nicola Palmer, Information Access Manager, Childrens & Families, [email address] who will arrange a response within the appropriate statutory time limit.

Please remember to quote reference number FOI 21403 in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Mr Adam O’Connell
Information Governance Assistant
Information Management & Governance
Digital and Information Service
Leeds City Council

0113 37 84251
www.leeds.gov.uk

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Samantha Rahman

Dear DPFOI,

Please find below an amendment to my original question, please include this in your response:

Amendment to question 1: please provide the same data for school years 2016-2017 and 2017-2018.

Amendment to question 2:
Please provide the same data for school years 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 AND confirm for all the requests that were granted how many stated being summer born as their main reason for applying (as opposed to providing evidence of a medical condition )

Yours sincerely,

Samantha Rahman

IMG.AC.FOI, Leeds City Council

Dear Samantha Rahman

 

Freedom of Information Request (Ref: 21403)

 

I refer to the above and your request dated 14, June 2018. I have
contacted the relevant services and now provide a response to the
following request regarding admission of children outside their normal age
group.

 

Please find below an amendment to my original question, please include
this in your response:

 

Amendment to question 1: please provide the same data for school years
2016-2017 and 2017-2018.

 

Amendment to question 2:

Please provide the same data for school years 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 AND
confirm for all the requests that were granted how many stated being
summer born as their main reason for applying (as opposed to providing
evidence of a medical condition )

 

1.      How many requests has Leeds city council received pertaining to
“admission of children outside their normal age group” from parents or
carers of summer born children regarding entry to reception class at
compulsory school age for the school year 2018-2019?

                Leeds city council has received the following requests
pertaining to “admission of children outside their normal age group” from
parents or carers of summer born children regarding entry to reception
class at  

                compulsory school age for:

                The school year 2018-2019 47

                The school year 2017-2018 48

                The school year 2016-2017 28

 

2.      How many of these requests have be granted and how many have been
refused by Leeds City Council for the school year 2018-2019?

In 2018-19 42 requests have been granted

4 have been refused, 1 parent withdrew their request.

In 2017-2018 45 requests were granted and 3 were refused. 

In 2016-2017 26 requests were granted and 2 were refused. 

 

Parents are not asked to provide their ‘main reason’ for requesting a
deferral therefore it is not possible to determine a parent’s main reason
for their request as this would require subjective interpretation.

 

We can confirm, however, that no requests were granted solely because a
child was summer born. All cases are considered based on the individual
circumstances of each case and are granted where it is determined that it
is in the best interest of the child concerned to defer admission as set
out in the School Admissions Code 2014 2.7A

 

3.      How many such requests are still under consideration for the
school year 2018-2019?

There are no outstanding requests at the moment but children legally do
not have to start school until the term after their 5th birthday so
applications can be received until the 31/12/18 for children whose 5th
birthday is in the autumn term, the 29/3/18 for children whose birthday is
in the spring term and end of the 2018-2019 academic year for summer born
children who legally do not have to start school until the term after
their 5th birthday.

 

4.      Could you provide the dates and planned dates since January 2018
of any subgroup or committee or working party that has concerns or has
concerned the school admission of summer born children, the Department for
Educations advice on the admission of summer born children, and/or
paragraph 2.17-2.17b of the school admissions code?

The dates and planed dates since January 2018 of Leeds City Council
Deferment Out of Chronological Year Group Panel  

28/2/18 (cancelled due to bad weather)

19/3/18

20/6/18

18/8/18

The LCC approach decision making about deferments out of chronological
year group, in line with the School Admissions Code (2014) states clearly
that every application for a deferment is looked at individually and a
decision is made on a case by case basis by a panel of experts including
Admissions, SEN, Early years and Education Psychologist, with the decision
made in the best interests of the child. Our published guidance note can
be viewed here:
[1]https://www.leeds.gov.uk/docs/Guidance%2...

 

5.      Could you provide the agenda, papers and minutes of any meetings
identified in point 4 above?

We confirm that we do hold the agendas, papers and minutes for the
meetings identified in point 4 above however they relate to individual
children. We are unable to provide this as we consider this information to
be exempt under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the
FOIA) together with the condition in section 40(3)(a)(i).  This provides
an absolute exemption if disclosure of the personal data would breach any
of the data protection principles.

 

In the Information Commissioner’s view, the two main elements of personal
data are that the information must ‘relate to’ a living individual and
that person must be identifiable. Information will ‘relate to’ a person if
it is about them, linked to them, has some biographical significance for
them, is used to inform decisions affecting them, has them as its main
focus or impacts on them in any way.  It has been held by the Article 29
working party, the advisory party to the European Commission, that to
determine whether a person is identifiable, account should be taken of all
the means likely reasonably to be used either by the controller or by any
other person to identify that person.

 

It is our view that the information requested is personal data since there
is a strong case that living individuals can be identified if the
information was to be disclosed.  This is because the information relates
to  meetings for individual children, the next question is whether to
disclose this data would breach the data protection principles.

 

To fulfil the first data protection principle, a disclosure of personal
data must be fair, lawful and meet one of the relevant fair processing
schedule conditions.  Since the information requested is sensitive
personal data, as it relates to physical or mental health, a fair
processing condition in Article 6 and Schedule 9 of the GDPR must be met. 
It is our view that none of the conditions in Article 9(2) can be met and,
therefore, any such disclosure would be unfair.  We consider that it would
be the reasonable expectation of the data subject that the information
would not be disclosed.  Therefore, it is the Council’s view that to
disclose the information requested would be a breach of the first
principle of the Data Protection Act.

 

I trust that this response is satisfactory. If however you are
dissatisfied with this response you have a right to appeal to an
independent officer within Resources and Housing. They will re-examine
your request and assess whether we have adhered to the requirements of the
act. Should you wish to follow this course of action please address your
concerns in writing to Moin Patel, Information, Knowledge & Procedures
Lead, Resources & Housing via email to [2][email address].

 

You also have a right under Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act
to ask the Information Commissioner to decide whether we have met with our
obligations under the act.  The Commissioner has however made it clear
that he expects all applicants to exhaust internal appeals procedures
prior to making such an application. Should you wish to contact the
Commissioner’s office then you can write to the following address:

 

            Office of the Information Commissioner,

            Wycliffe House,

            Water Lane,

            Wilmslow,

            Cheshire,

            SK9 5AF.

 

You may also contact the Commissioner via his website at [3]www.ico.gov.uk

 

I trust that this is self-explanatory.  If you have any queries please
contact me on 0113 3784251, or by return email.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Sam Slatcher

Information Access Officer

Information Management & Governance

Digital & Information Service

Leeds City Council

Tel: 0113 37 84251

 

 

 

 

 

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We’ve got Plastic Recycling SORTED in Leeds – plastic types 1, 2 and 4 can
be recycled in your Green Bin.
For more information visit [4]www.leeds.gov.uk/plastic

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We’ve got Plastic Recycling SORTED in Leeds – plastic types 1, 2 and 4 can
be recycled in your Green Bin.
For more information visit [5]www.leeds.gov.uk/plastic

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References

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1. https://www.leeds.gov.uk/docs/Guidance%2...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. blocked::UrlBlockedError.aspx UrlBlockedError.aspx www.ico.gov.uk
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4. http://www.leeds.gov.uk/plastic
5. http://www.leeds.gov.uk/plastic

We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Samantha Rahman please sign in and let everyone know.