The Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning, Councillor Helyn Clack, met on Tuesday 30 June 2026 to discuss and approve the Fair Access Protocol for the academic year 2026/27. This protocol ensures that vulnerable and unplaced children can be admitted to a suitable school within 20 school days, even if they are unable to secure a place through the standard in-year admissions process.

Fair Access Protocol 2026/27

Councillor Helyn Clack, Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning, approved the proposed Fair Access Protocol for 2026/27. This protocol is a mandatory requirement for all local authorities and ensures that schools participate in a system to place vulnerable and unplaced children who cannot secure a school place through the usual in-year admissions process. The protocol aims to place such children in a suitable school within 20 school days, including admitting children to schools that are already at their published admission number.

The protocol, which complies with the Department for Education's (DfE) School Admissions Code¹ and guidance issued in August 2021, outlines the criteria and processes for determining which children will be placed under Surrey's Fair Access Protocol. It explicitly states that the protocol applies only to in-year admissions and not to the normal admissions round, nor does it apply to children with an Education, Health & Care Plan (EHCP)². The decision was made to ensure that vulnerable children are placed quickly and that no single school is asked to take a disproportionate number of children who have been permanently excluded from other schools or who display challenging behaviour. The protocol will continue to apply to the successor councils following Vesting Day³.

The report accompanying the decision highlighted that the protocol has generally worked well, with 86 children referred under it in the 2025/26 academic year to date. The majority of these placements were made through email agreements or fair access panels. The protocol is designed to reduce the risk of children being left out of school by ensuring shared responsibility between the local authority and schools. Financial implications are considered manageable within the existing budget, with funding available for certain categories of pupils, particularly Year 11 students, to incentivise their admission.