New move to expose school place cheats (From Bournemouth Echo)

New move to expose school place cheats

3:00pm Saturday 13th March 2010 in

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PARENTS face having their personal records checked to ensure they aren’t dishonestly applying for sought-after school places.

The issue was blown open by the case of Poole mum Jenny Paton in 2008.

Her family was spied on over suspicions they had lied about their address on an application for Lilliput First School. It was proved they hadn’t.

The new approach, instigated by schools secretary Ed Balls, would see council tax or benefit records of one in 10 applicants scrutinised to check for fabrications.

A whistleblower ‘hotline’ could also be established to encourage parents to shop suspected frauds.

Ms Paton said she welcomed a more measured approach than the one her family was subjected to.

She said: “There is no need to resort to undercover surveillance.

“I feel this would be a much more appropriate way of approaching the problem. “Councils have every right to scrutinise applications to ensure they are correctly filled in.”

Ms Paton added she was “slightly dubious” over the prospect of the hotline, which could be open to abuse.

Around 4,200 school places in the UK are thought to have been obtained dishonestly last year, but only 1,400 of these were caught.

Poole council said it already made random checks on applications for oversubscribed primary schools and parents were asked to provide proof of residence.

The likely sanction if parents are found guilty of fabricating an applic-ation is the removal of the child’s school place.

Ms Paton said she believed this would provide a strong deterrent to would-be frauds.

The new recommendations come in a report by Dr Ian Craig, the UK’s chief schools adjudicator.

Mr Balls said he was keen that parents were not “criminalised” for their actions but that a “proportionate” response was needed.

He said: “I am reassured that only a tiny minority of parents apply dishonestly.

“But I am also clear that every place gained by deception is denying another child their rightful place.”