Flaws in the Secondary Admissions Review Process

Many parents are fuming at the way that the changes to secondary admissions have been made, and the way that their concerns have been ignored.

Here are some of, what we believe, are the worst examples of procedure by the Secondary Admissions Review and the Council during this last review. When you have read them you might want think about complaining to the Council.


1. The sacking of Juliet McCaffery by Simon Burgess, leader of the Labour group, at the eleventh hour. He said it was because she is only thinking about her constituents. We know that she is concerned about the whole city. She was at the demo on 6th January and listened to parents from across the city then; she also received emails from concerned parents from every area.

As far as we can see, Juliet McCaffery only put into practice no.6, Personal Judgement, of "The Ten Principles of Public Life" as stated in the Brighton and Hove "Code of Conduct for Members" which states
"Members may take account of the views of others, including their political groups, but should reach their own conclusions on the issues before them and act in accordance with those conclusions."

Meanwhile, Simon Burgess' actions can be seen as bringing into disrepute the very notion of democracy in this publicly elected body. By sacking Juliet McCaffery, he could be accused of breaking (4) and (5a) of the Code of Conduct for Members:

(4) A Member must not in his/her official capacity, or any other circumstance,
conduct himself/herself in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as
bringing his/her office or authority into disrepute.

(5a) [A Member] must not be in his/her official capacity, or any other circumstance, use
his/her position as a Member improperly to confer on or secure for
himself/herself or any other person, an advantage or disadvantage...

Find the Code of Conduct here: Code of Conduct for Members

2. The lack of consultation with many of the parents in Brighton and Hove, including those from Coombe Road School who found out about the consultation and proposals at the end of November 2006, parents from Bevendean Primary who found out just before the Christmas holidays, and others from elsewhere in the City who didn't find out until the New Year. Many parents still don't know. We want to know why the Council did not send out letters to all parents after at the beginning of the consultation process on November 6th, and why they did not properly consult with parents by sending out a questionnaire as they did the previous year? The Working Group

3. Failure to extend the consultation for a further 6 weeks after changes to the original proposals which had been presented to CF&S Committee at the beginning of the public consultation on 6th November. There are two alterations that require further consultation: the move south of the border to the Portslade catchment to the railway, and the change to the Patcham catchment to encompass Coldean. If they had moved the Falmer catchment boundary south they were intended to extend consultation. Why are these changes any different, since they were made well after the meeting on November 6th?

4. The Governors' meeting on January 8th at which a pro-SAR member of the Parent Stakeholder Group and Working Group, Sue Smith, was allowed to speak at length to those present about the benefits of the proposals and the effectiveness of the consultation and to answer questions from the floor. This was unbalanced and undemocratic, as no anti-SAR member of the PSG or Working Group were given similar privileges. Also, as a result, many governors did not get a chance to ask questions, and when they requested a further governors' meeting, they were flatly refused.

5. The "maps of injustice" posted on the Council website that originated with Sue Smith and, it was discovered, were in fact inaccurate. They were called emotively named "maps of injustice" and were clearly biased for the proposals.

We urge all parents angry with the way that the Secondary Admissions Review has been conducted, and with the way the decision was made at Children Families and Schools Committee on Friday 2nd February to write to the council and complain. See this article:

How to Complain to the Council