Overview
Lincolnshire County Council consulted on a change to the published admissions number at Corby Glen Primary School, which will alter the minimum number of places from 20 to 15. This will allow the school greater flexibility in complying with regulations that state that infant classes can contain no more than 30 students. There are no other changes proposed to the policy.
Executive summary
This was a survey on a change to the published admissions number at Corby Glen Primary School, which would alter the minimum number of places from 20 to 15. It was open for six weeks.
It was very widely promoted to news outlets, parents, social media and the public.
There were 42 responses to the survey made up of:
- 25 (60%) were a parent of a child aged between 2 and 18 years
- 5 (12%) were a professional from a school
- 12 (28%) selected other
Of these:
- 20 (48%) agree or strongly agree with the proposed reduction
- 5 (12%) were not sure
- 17 (40%) disagree
Introduction
Lincolnshire County Council, as the admissions authority for maintained schools, is responsible for ensuring that an admissions policy is in place detailing how applications are processed for these schools. This admissions policy must include each school’s published admissions number (PAN), which is the minimum number of places available in the intake year. Schools may propose changes to PAN which triggers the consultation process.
This was an annual statutory six-week consultation taking place between 20 October and 1 December.
- 28 February 2024 - arrangements must be formally determined
- 15 March 2024 - arrangements must be published
- 15 May 2024 - deadline for objections to the schools adjudicator
Stakeholders
- there is a statutory list of stakeholders
- the school wishing to decrease the PAN wrote out to all parents via parentmail and engaged directly with parents
Methodology
A survey was open to the public on the homepage of Let’s talk Lincolnshire for six weeks from 20 October to 1 December 2023.
Promotion was carried out via various methods:
- five social media posts were posted over the six-week project
- a newsletter was sent to all registered participants on Let’s talk Lincolnshire
- a news release was sent out to local media outlets
- the school wishing to decrease the PAN wrote out to all parents via parentmail and engaged directly with parents
- an article was placed in the October edition of the Town and Parish Council newsletter.
Findings and conclusions
The project page had 299-page visitors. Of that number, 95 people clicked for further information and 42 of them completed surveys. This is a 14% visitor to respondent conversion rate. This number is quite low, but it was a very targeted survey. The number of respondents using the different access methods were very similar:
- 19 (the highest number) used an email link they had received directly
- 14 came from social media
- 9 from the Let’s talk newsletter
Of the 42 respondents
- 25 (60%) were a parent of a child aged between 2 and 18 years
- 5 (12%) were a professional from a school
- 12 (28%) selected other
When asked if they lived or worked within five miles of Corby Glen Primary School:
- 22 (52%) said they did
- 3 (7%) said they didn’t
- 17 (41%) didn’t respond
When asked about the change in number, of the 22 respondents:
- 10 (45.5%) agreed or strongly agreed
- 1 (4.5%) wasn’t sure
- 11 (50%) disagreed or strongly disagreed
Respondents were asked if they agreed or disagreed with the proposal to change the PAN at Corby Glen Primary School. The following were the results:
| Opinion | Number of responses (percentage) |
|---|---|
| Opinion: Strongly agree | Number of responses (percentage): 9 (21%) |
| Opinion: Agree | Number of responses (percentage): 11 (26%) |
| Opinion: Not sure | Number of responses (percentage): 5 (12%) |
| Opinion: Disagree | Number of responses (percentage): 4 (10%) |
| Opinion: Strongly disagree | Number of responses (percentage): 13 (31%) |
Of the 42 responses:
- 20 (48%) agreed or strongly agreed with the proposed reduction
- 5 (11%) were not sure
- 17 (44%) disagreed
There were comments from 16 respondents, the majority of whom (11) disagreed with the proposal. They cited the new housing being built in the area and number of children who would be eligible for places.
Conclusions and next steps
The report will go to children’s services DLT and then the decision will be made by the Executive member for children’s services.
Appendix A - Equality Impact Analysis
Background Information
Title of the policy / project / service being considered
School admission arrangements for LCC schools in the academic year 2025-2026.
Service area
Childrens Services
Who is the decision maker?
The Executive member
Date of meeting when decision will be made?
6 February 2024
Is this proposed change to an existing policy/service/project or is it new?
Existing policy/service/project
Person / people completing analysis
Emily Nicholls
Lead Officer
Matthew Clayton
How was the Equality Impact Analysis undertaken?
Desktop exercise, consideration of relevant legislation
Version control
V1
LCC directly delivered, commissioned, re-commissioned or de-commissioned?
Directly delivered
Describe the proposed change
The County Council has a statutory duty to have in place admission arrangements for Community and Voluntary Controlled schools for which it is the admission authority and coordinated schemes describing how it meets its duties in respect of coordination of admissions to the normal years of intake in schools. The Council has in place such arrangements for the school year 2025/26 with no major changes proposed. The only amendments relate to Published Admissions Numbers (PAN) which relates to the number of pupils a school will admit.
Positive impacts
The proposed change may have the following positive impacts on persons with protected characteristics – If no positive impact, please state 'no positive impact'.
Age
A child's age is considered to ensure they are admitted to the appropriate school. The Admissions arrangements set out a clear fair and objective mechanism for young people to access education which is a positive impact for young people.
Otherwise, the proposals are neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic.
Disability
Legislation requires that children with disabilities whose needs are met through an Education Health and Care Plan are placed in schools before other applications are considered and that other children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities must be treated equally to children who have none. This has a positive impact on children with this protected characteristic.
Gender reassignment
The proposals are considered neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic and no specific positive impact has been identified.
Marriage and civil partnership
The proposals are considered neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic and no specific positive impact has been identified.
Pregnancy and maternity
The proposals are considered neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic and no specific positive impact has been identified.
Race
The proposals are considered neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic and no specific positive impact has been identified.
Religion or belief
Voluntary Controlled schools may lawfully operate a Faith criterion as part of their oversubscription criteria. Four such schools for which the Council is the admission authority do so.
The potential impact of the criterion is that it will give those meeting the test of Faith priority for school places over those living nearer to the school. For this reason, the Faith criterion is placed after consideration of whether the school is the nearest and before the final criterion of home to school distance. Maintaining this therefore has a slight potential positive impact on those able to meet the relevant test of Faith.
Sex
The Council is the admission authority for one designated single sex school, Spalding High School, which is a Girls' Grammar School. There is a positive impact for girls at this school.
To comply with legislation parental preferences are considered equally irrespective of the gender of the child or the parent. Otherwise, the proposals are considered neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic and no specific positive impact has been identified.
Sexual orientation
The proposals are considered neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic and no specific positive impact has been identified.
If you have identified positive impacts for other groups not specifically covered by the protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010 you can include them here if it will help the decision maker to make an informed decision.
None
Adverse/negative impacts
You must evidence how people with protected characteristics will be adversely impacted and any proposed mitigation to reduce or eliminate adverse impacts. An adverse impact causes disadvantage or exclusion. If such an impact is identified please state how, as far as possible, it is justified; eliminated; minimised or counter-balanced by other measures.
If there are no adverse impacts that you can identify please state 'No perceived adverse impact' under the relevant protected characteristic.
Negative impacts of the proposed change and practical steps to mitigate or avoid any adverse consequences on people with protected characteristics are detailed below. If you have not identified any mitigating action to reduce an adverse impact please state 'No mitigating action identified'.
Age
A child's age is considered to ensure they are admitted to the appropriate school. The Admissions arrangements set out a clear fair and objective mechanism for young people to access education which is a positive impact for young people.
Otherwise the proposals are neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic and no negative impacts have been identified.
Disability
Legislation requires that children with disabilities whose needs are met through an Education Health and Care Plan are placed in schools before other applications are considered and that other children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities must be treated equally to children who have none.
Therefore, no negative impact has been identified.
Gender reassignment
The proposals are considered neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic and no specific negative impact has been identified.
Marriage and civil partnership
The proposals are considered neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic and no specific negative impact has been identified.
Pregnancy and maternity
The proposals are considered neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic and no specific negative impact has been identified.
Race
The proposals are considered neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic and no specific negative impact has been identified.
Religion or belief
Voluntary Controlled schools may lawfully operate a Faith criterion as part of their oversubscription criteria. Four such schools where Lincolnshire County Council is the admission authority do so.
The potential impact of the criterion is that it will give those meeting the test of Faith priority for school places over those living nearer to the school. For this reason the Faith criterion is placed after consideration of whether the school is the nearest and before the final criterion of home to school distance.
Otherwise, the proposals are considered neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic and no specific negative impact has been identified
Sex
The Council is the admission authority for one designated single sex school, Spalding High School, a Girls' Grammar School, Boys are not permitted access to their admissions process. This is expressly permitted under the Admissions Code.
Otherwise, parental preferences are considered equally irrespective of the gender of the parent or child.
Sexual orientation
The proposals are considered neutral in relation to people with this protected characteristic and no specific negative impact has been identified.
If you have identified negative impacts for other groups not specifically covered by the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 you can include them here if it will help the decision maker to make an informed decision.
Rural communities – The County Council's Sufficiency Studies identified that continuing to accept siblings children living further away could lead to the displacement of local children wishing to attend the school from 2021. These would have to be allocated a place further away if this occurred. This would impact travel, time and therefore wellbeing of those children potentially affected. There is a plan to monitor any issues which arise from displacement and sufficient physical capacity within the schools to 'over-offer' to mitigate against this.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders are people or groups who may be directly affected (primary stakeholders) and indirectly affected (secondary stakeholders)
You must evidence here who you involved in gathering your evidence about benefits, adverse impacts and practical steps to mitigate or avoid any adverse consequences. You must be confident that any engagement was meaningful. The community engagement team can help you to do this. You can contact them at engagement@lincolnshire.gov.uk.
State clearly what (if any) consultation or engagement activity took place by stating who you involved when compiling this EIA under the protected characteristics. Include organisations you invited and organisations who attended, the date(s) they were involved and method of involvement such as:
- EIA workshop
- telephone conversation
- meeting
- consultation
State clearly the objectives of the EIA consultation and findings from the EIA consultation under each of the protected characteristics. If you have not covered any of the protected characteristics please state the reasons why they were not consulted or engaged.
Objective(s) of the EIA consultation and engagement activity
The EIA is a Desktop activity at this stage, based on assumptions and a Sufficiency Study, to ensure that any potential positive and negative impacts are clarified, any mitigating factors are identified, and that any limits imposed by legislative requirements are made clear. The EIA is a publicly available document.
Who was involved in the EIA consultation and engagement activity?
Detail any findings identified by the protected characteristic.
Age
No answer given.
Disability
No answer given.
Gender reassignment
No answer given.
Marriage and civil partnership
No answer given.
Pregnancy and maternity
No answer given.
Race
No answer given.
Religion or belief
No answer given.
Sex
No answer given.
Sexual orientation
No answer given.
Are you confident that everyone who should have been involved in producing this version of the Equality Impact Analysis has been involved in a meaningful way? The purpose is to make sure you have got the perspective of all the protected characteristics.
Yes.
Once the changes have been implemented how will you undertake evaluation of the benefits and how effective the actions to reduce adverse impacts have been?
If the decision is made to proceed to a Statutory notice then the statutory guidelines will be followed.
Further details
Are you handling personal data?
Yes. As part of the admissions process, we must capture sufficient information to facilitate any admission authority in Lincolnshire applying it oversubscription criteria correctly; this will include names and addresses of parents and children and the children's dates of birth as well as sibling connections in some cases. This personal information will be managed, in line with LCC policy and data protection obligations. No personal data is collected as part of the engagement activity.
Actions required
Include any actions identified in this analysis for ongoing monitoring of impacts.
Action - None.
Lead officer - No answer given.
Timescale - No answer given.
Version
V1
Description
Equality Impact Analysis – desktop exercise.
Created or amended by
Emily Nicholls
Date created or amended
25 August 2023
Appendix B - Survey questions
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1. Are you:
- a parent of a child aged between 2 and 18 years
- a professional from a school
- other
2. Regarding the change in PAN at Corby Glen Primary School, do you agree or disagree with the proposals?
- strongly agree
- agree
- not sure
- disagree
- strongly disagree
3. Do you have any other comments to make regarding this PAN reduction?