Last September I held an Adjournment Debate in the House of Commons, calling for the Government to give summer born and premature children the right to defer their start to school, and for a premature child’s due date to be used for schools admissions purposes. Too many of my constituents, and people across the country, had found applying for a deferral to their local authorities a very long and painful process with no guarantee that the child’s school year would not later be changed.
Nick Gibb MP, Minister for Schools, responded stating that the Government had been convinced of the need to give parents a right to defer their summerborn child’s start to school and a guarantee they will stay with that age group throughout school. This would come via a change to the Schools Admissions Code, and the Department for Education would consult on any potential changes. The Minister also wrote to all Local Authorities to tell them of his intention to amend the Schools Admissions Code and to ask them to be more flexible when it came to summer born children in the interim.
I continued to press the Department for Education to make sure they consult as soon as possible. You can find two written questions I asked in October here http://tinyurl.com/htblpn7 and here http://tinyurl.com/zuaqn5l
I also raised the issue in other debates in the House of Commons, particularly those concerning prematurity. You can see these here http://tinyurl.com/zffhdcb and here http://tinyurl.com/zp6g2nb
I then met with the Minister last month to reiterate the case for summer born and premature children. Following this the Minister wrote to me to acknowledge the “compelling case” we have made for allowing parents of summer born children more flexibility over when their children should start school. He assured me that “officials are now preparing for a full public consultation on this and other changes to the code which will be launched in due course” and that “using a premature child’s due date for school admission purposes will be considered as part of the assessment of all changes to the Code.”
The Minister has promised to keep me up to date with his plans, and I will continue to press him and the Department for Education for more details on when the consultation will begin.