Decision

To appoint the following panel
members from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028:
 
Barry, Ken
Bate, Louise – extension
to term of office
Beedham, Alison
Clark, Maria - extension to
term of office
Cooper, Darren - extension to
term of office
Everett, Sarah - extension to
term of office
Gair, Nigel - extension to term
of office
Gallagher, Judith - extension
to term of office
Guest, Claire
Hopkinson, John
Jones, Julie
Lee, Angela - extension to term
of office
Oldham-Hepper, Ellen
Ramsden, Mark - extension to
term of office
Richardson, Gillian- extension
to term of office
Schofield, David- extension to
term of office
Sheekey, Adrienne- extension to
term of office
Sinclair Graham- extension to
term of office
Talbot, Beverley- extension to
term of office
 
And to note the continuation of
the following panel member until 31 December 2026:
 
Pearson, Teresa
 

Reasons for the decision

Section 94 of the School
Standards and Framework Act 1998 and School Admissions Appeals Code
2022 requires admission authorities to make arrangements to enable
parents to appeal against any decision of the admission authority
to refuse admission to school as set out in the.  Barnsley Council undertakes this for all local
authority schools and has a number of service level agreements in
place to provide an appeals service for other schools throughout
the borough.
 
Section 4 of the Education Act
2011 (which amends Section 3, Part 3 of the 2002 act), and
Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools,
academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil
movement 2024 statutory guidance requires the Local Authority, or
in the case of Academies, Academy Trusts, to make arrangements for
Independent Review Panels to consider pupil exclusions, where
requested by parents.  Barnsley Council
undertakes this for all local authority schools and has a number of
service level agreements in place to provide this service for other
schools within the borough.
 
Barnsley Council Home to
School/College Travel Assistance Policy - 2018- 2023 (still valid
and in use) provides for parents to request that an independent
panel reviews their application should it be refused by
officers.
 
The above functions are
undertaken by the Democratic and Member Services Team, working in
conjunction with colleagues in Children’s Services and with
the Home to School Transport team in the Growth and Sustainability
Directorate.
 
To ensure there is sufficient
availability of panel members for the above hearings, the Local
Authority maintains a pool of panel members who are available to
constitute panels for numerous hearings of individual appeals
throughout the year. 18 panel members were engaged from 1 January
2024 to 31 December 2026.
 
There has recently been a small
number of resignations, and one member has indicated that they
would no longer wish to to continue
post 31 December 2026.  In addition, a
number of existing panel members have indicated that they will have
reduced availability going forward.
 
Therefore, a recruitment
process has been undertaken by Democratic Services, and 6
additional panel members with the appropriate skills and experience
were selected.
 
Though the term of office of
current panel members expires in December 2026, given the need to
recruit at this point, existing panel members have been approached
to ask whether they would be amenable to extending their of their
term of office.  13 indicated that they
were happy to have their term extended, whilst 1 responded that
they would like their term of office to come to an end in December
2026.
 
It is therefore proposed to
reappoint and extend the terms of office for panel the 13 current
panel members to 31 December 2028, and engage the 6 panel members
secured through the recruitment process from 1 January 2026 to 31
December 2028.
 
This will enable the service to
be effective going forward.
 
Authority
 
Under Part 3 of the
Constitution – Responsibility for Executive Functions Officer
Delegations:
 
8a) To exercise the functions
of the Council in respect of the provision of personal social care
for children and young people, education and schools and wider
children’s services arrangements under the following
legislation:-
·        
School Standards and Framework Act 1998
·        
Education Act 2002 and 2011
 
(and as part of this any
related statutory guidance related to School Admissions Appeals and
School Exclusions.)

Education Act
1996
Education and
Inspections Act 2006

 
In so far as this relates to
transport, however it is noted that it is only local policy for
appeals against the refusal of support with home to school
transport, rather than this being a statutory
requirement.
 

Alternative options considered

A number of alternatives have
been considered:-
 
1.         Do
nothing - To maintain the current number of panel
members.
 
During the 2024/25 academic
year there have been a number of panel members who indicated they
no longer wished to continue in the role, and have since
subsequently resigned.
 
There have also been a number
of minor issues when arranging hearings, with some dates proposed
where no panel members were available. 
Although these issues were resolved, this leaves the service
vulnerable with a risk that the service may be
compromised.  Therefore, this is not the
preferred option.
 
2.         To
maintain the current service, but work with other authorities to
share panel members where issues occur.
 
All local authorities have
pressures at similar times, most notable in May – July when
processing appeals for Reception and Year 7 admissions.  Barnsley Council has been approached by other
authorities in the past, however there can be significant
differences between authorities and their admission policies and
processes, which may cause issues. 
Therefore, this option is not recommended.