Education chiefs do not understand the full scale of parents cheating to get places in the best school for their children, says an independent advisor.
Former Kent headteacher Peter Read feels far more parents get away with address fraud than are investigated by local authorities, and is backing a new Government-commissioned report calling for a crackdown on the problem.
Written by former Kent County Council education director Ian Craig, the study says an estimated 3,500 parents nationally lie on school application forms each year.
However, both KCC and Medway Council deny there is a big problem in Kent.
Mr Read said: “The problem is that local authorities don’t investigate toughly enough and as a result people are getting away with it, which in turn encourages others to do the same.
“I receive reports from parents who are concerned that others are cheating but it is rare that these people are ever found out.
“I think if the councils are saying it’s not a problem then they don’t know the full scale of it. They don’t dig deep enough.
“When KCC does choose to take action, it delegates the investigation to whichever school is involved. I was dealing with one case last year where we reported to KCC that we had found a case of fraud address, but they put it to the school and the school said it trusted its parents.
“It was only when we pushed it and pushed it that the child lost their place.”
Dr Craig was commissioned to carry out the report as a direct result of a London authority’s failed attempt to use the 2006 Fraud Act to prosecute a parent who had allegedly lied about her address to get her son into a popular state primary school.
After seeking legal advice, Harrow Council was told the legislation did not apply and the action was dropped.
As part of his report, Dr Craig asked the 150 English education authorities to provide information on the scale of fraudulent or misleading applications in their area.
Two-fifths of the 123 councils that responded said the problem was a growing one, with a total of 1,100 investigated incidents reported.
Of the 16,270 secondary school admissions processed by KCC in September, only 13 were flagged up as misleading.
Just six were found to be fraudulent of the 14,750 reception year applications made.
Medway council was unable to provide figures.
Dr Craig’s report recommends local authorities use all means open to them to deter parents from cheating the system, such as removing places from the guilty and pursuing them through the courts.
Mr Read, who runs Kent Independent Education Advice, agreed that this was the best way forward.
He said: “Of course I can understand why some parents cheat because they want the best for their children, and if they are faced with a situation where a school is inaccessible to them they will sometimes break the rules.
“But they shouldn’t because it’s wrong and they’ve stolen a place from someone else. What’s needed is a strong policing of the system.
“I think it’s only the child in question who will suffer, but it seems to be a necessary solution to remove them if their parents are found to have cheated.
“If parents knew this would be the likely outcome it might stop them considering it in the first place.”
KCC’s education director Rosalind Turner said while the authority did not consider fraudulent applications to be a big problem in Kent, it took any potential abuse of the system very seriously.
She added: “We will investigate any cases brought to our attention. These tend to be made by schools that carry out address checks.
“The Secretary of State (Ed Balls) has published his response to the chief adjudicator (Dr Craig) and asked him to investigate what further action might be regarded as appropriate.
“We will wait with interest to see what further recommendations are made.”
A Medway Council spokeswoman said: “As part of our admissions process, we do check addresses for all secondary school applicants and whenever a query may arise concerning the legitimacy of an application, parents will be contacted and asked to provide further evidence of their residence.
“All queries concerning fraudulent applications are investigated by the admissions team.”
Peter Read gives advice to parents on school admissions and appeals. See www.kentadvice.co.uk for more information.
POSTED: 07/11/2009 08:00:00
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