A council has agreed to compensate two families because their children missed out on places in the same primary school as their siblings, the local government watchdog has revealed.

Nottinghamshire County Council will pay two families £500 a year because their children missed out on places at their preferred schools after it stopped giving priority to siblings when allocating school places.

It will also pay both families £250 each for the “distress in being denied the remedy they should normally have been entitled to” and a further £250 each for the time and trouble in bringing their cases, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said.

The two families were left having to take their younger children to different primary schools, which had a “significant impact on daily life”, the watchdog said.

The £500 annual payments will stop when the elder sibling leaves the preferred school, or the younger sibling is found a place there.

But the watchdog said there was “little prospect of the younger siblings of either family being offered a place in the near future”, so payments could continue for several years.

‘Impact on daily life’

Ombudsman Michael King said that because the school had turned into an academy, the council did not have the power to offer families a fresh appeal in this case.

He said: “The changes Nottinghamshire County Council made to its admissions arrangements have had a significant impact on daily life for these two families, which could last until the older siblings have moved on to senior school.

“In cases like this, we would normally ask the council to offer a fresh appeal to the families. But because the school has now converted to an academy, neither the council nor we have any authority over its admissions arrangements.

“I am, therefore, pleased the council has accepted my recommendations, and hope these will go some way to help these families with their arrangements over the coming years.”

Councillors in Nottinghamshire decided to remove priority in the oversubscription criteria for children from outside the schools’ catchment areas who had siblings already attending the school.

This decision affected the two families, who applied for Reception places at the same school for entry in September 2016. The two families appealed the decision not to offer their children a place, but these appeals were unsuccessful.

The Office of the Schools Adjudicator ruled in January 2017 that the new admissions arrangements for September 2017 were unfair. 

The council decided to offer second appeals to families affected by the changes in 2016 who might thereby have lost places.

The two families were offered a second appeal, but because the school was full it could not offer them places for their children.

The families are now having to transport their children to different schools in the morning, and make arrangements for after-school clubs or for friends and relatives to help with collecting in the afternoon.

Nottinghamshire County Council said it had reverted to its original policy that prioritises sibling admissions.

It also recently started consulting on plans which would give children a higher chance of getting into the same school as their step siblings.

Chairman of Nottinghamshire County Council’s Children & Young People’s Committee, Councillor Philip Owen, said: “This finding relates to decisions taken under the previous Labour administration, but I do understand why the Council took the position it did. It is unfortunately the nature of the school admissions process that there are always going to be some families and children left dissatisfied whichever policy an authority adopts.

“By restoring priority in the oversubscription criteria for children outside a schools’ catchment area who have siblings already at a particular school, this could mean that children who live nearer and perhaps only just outside that school’s catchment may have to go a much longer distance to get to another school. I am not convinced that the adjudication took their rights into account sufficiently. 

“However, Nottinghamshire County Council respects its duty to abide by the Ombudsman’s decision.  There is certainly no desire by this authority to act unfairly or cause distress to any family.”