Ensuring that vulnerable children are allocated a school place (Fair Access Protocol)

The success of the Buckinghamshire Fair Access Protocol is dependent on the willingness of all parties to work together to:

• Accept collective responsibility for the vulnerable children living in Buckinghamshire and their right to education.
• Act with a sense of urgency to minimise a pupil's time out of education – allocating appropriate school places to vulnerable children within 20 school days of them being identified as requiring support.
• Ensure all schools admit their fair share of unplaced vulnerable children.
• Work together in partnership, in an open and honest way, offering constructive support and challenge to each other.

• Once agreed by the majority of schools, the Fair Access Protocol is binding on all state funded mainstream schools in Buckinghamshire.
• The Fair Access Protocol may only be used to place vulnerable and/or hard-to-place children, where they are having difficulty in securing a school place in-year, and it can be demonstrated that reasonable measures have been taken to secure a place through the usual in-year admission procedures.
• The arrangements regarding the admission of students above the published admission number only apply to mainstream state funded schools and not to establishments providing alternative provision or to special schools.
• When making placements, the Fair Access Board will consider any special circumstances that may apply, including the need to avoid or minimise transport costs.
• There is no duty to comply with parental preference when allocating places through the Protocol, but the wishes of a child’s parents/carers should still be considered when making a placement decision.
• When seeking to place a child under the Protocol, all schools will be treated in a fair, equitable and consistent manner.
• Non-attendance at one or more meetings of the Fair Access Board meetings will not preclude the school/schools concerned from being required to admit a pupil who needs to be placed under the Protocol.
• The Fair Access Protocol only applies when a child is unplaced and is not on the roll of a mainstream school. Children may be on a short-term placement in alternative provision funded by the Local Authority.
• The Fair Access Board will consider previous admissions, group dynamics and transport implications before deciding a placement. Advice from external agencies will be considered when appropriate (e.g. Police, Youth Justice and Support Team, Social Care).
• The Fair Access process cannot be used to circumvent the normal in-year admissions process and a parent/carer can, at any point, make an in-year application for a place. If a place is refused a parent/carer has a right of appeal.
• The Fair Access Protocol cannot be applied to admissions made through the normal admissions round for primary, junior, or secondary schools and cannot be used where this would involve contravening the regulations on the size of infant classes.
• An application to the Secretary of State to direct a child’s admission to a specific school will only be made as a last resort.
• Any child without a school place is the responsibility of the Local Authority up until the point at which they are taken on roll at a school.
• The Fair Access Protocol will not be used to require a school to automatically admit another child with challenging behaviour in the place of a child excluded from that school.
• Decisions on the placement of children will be made in accordance with this Protocol.