More parents successful in school places appeals
The number of successful appeals by parents whose children were denied places at a chosen school in the Black Country and Staffordshire rose last year, new figures have revealed.
In 2014/15 1,679 cases were put forward across the region, 1,313 of which were considered by an appeals panel.
A total of 216 of the appeals were decided in favour of parents, a jump of 16 per cent on last years figure.
Over the period 16.5 per cent of all appeals in the Black Country and Staffordshire were successful, meaning the region still lags behind the rest of the UK where more than one in five appeals were resolved in favour of parents.
[breakout title="Primary and secondary school admissions appeals 2014/15" align="right"]
Key: a) Appeals heard b) Appeals resolved in parents favour and percentage
Dudley: a) 225 b) 26 (12%)
Sandwell: a) 287 b) 27 (9%)
Walsall: a) 219 b) 71 (32%)
Wolverhampton: a) 381 b) 66 (17%)
Staffordshire: a) 201 b) 26 (12%)
UK: a) 40,014 b) 9,123 (22.8%)
[/breakout]
The Department for Education statistics relate to appeals made by parents who were refused their first choice of primary and secondary schools.
Wolverhampton saw the highest number of appeals heard at 381, with 66 (17 per cent) resulting in children being able to attend their chosen school.
The highest proportion of upheld appeals was in Walsall, where 32 per cent of 219 appeals were resolved in favour of parents.
Sandwell saw the lowest rate of decisions being overturned, with 9 per cent of 287 appeals favouring parents.
Councillor Simon Hackett, cabinet member children's services, said: "These figures demonstrate the popularity of our schools against a background of increasing demand.
"We have processed more admissions than all of our Black Country neighbours so it's inevitable that we will deal with more appeals.
"To deal with the demand we have been successful in providing over 4,400 new primary places over the last five years and this has enabled us to offer almost 90 per cent of primary parents their first preferences."
In Dudley the number of successful appeals was 26 - the same as in 2013/14 - although last year schools in the borough saw a 13 per cent spike in the number of cases heard.
In Staffordshire there were six fewer appeals upheld last year than in 2013/14, despite the number of appeals rising from 188 to 201.
The figures show that the majority of appeals lodged last year across the Black Country and Staffordshire were concerned with primary school places, with 692 heard as opposed to 621 for secondary schools.
The region is currently gripped by a squeeze on primary school places, with Wolverhampton and Sandwell embarking on expansion programmes to cater for increased demand caused by immigration and a rise in birth rates.
Last year 54,000 cases were lodged for consideration across the UK, a rise of 8 per cent on the previous year.
Parents can lodge an appeal if they can argue that schools broke official admissions policy or that there special reasons why their son or daughter deserves a place.
