Coronavirus: School Appeals in Kent & Medway Part 4
Written by Peter Read-
The clerk should contact the appellant and presenting officer, in line with the amended timetable. The presenting officer should be provided with a copy of the appeal lodged and asked to submit the admission authority’s arguments and evidence; the appellant should be given the chance to submit additional evidence if they wish.
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The panel and clerk should meet by telephone or video conference to consider the submissions and formulate questions for the appellant and presenting officer. The aim should be to clarify points made and solicit further relevant information. They should bear in mind that appellants, in particular, may be less familiar with the kind of information and arguments that are required, and may have less experience preparing written submissions.
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The clerk should send the questions and all the papers to each of the parties, for example, the presenting officer’s submission will be sent to the appellant along with both sets of questions, and vice versa.
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Both parties should reply with answers to the questions, and any further points they wish to make. On receipt, the clerk should send each party’s submission to the other party.
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The panel should meet by telephone or video conference, with the clerk, to consider all the information and reach a decision in the same way as prescribed in the Appeals Code.
There is nothing of the same prescriptive order for the government’s preferred route of using telephone or video conferencing, presumably drawn up by Civil Servants comfortable with the process, and so assuming that all will run smoothly.
I am aware that government has consulted with Local Authorities over these regulations but fail to see that any notice has been taken of the above issues in these challenging times, missing the opportunity to be flexible with the terms of the Appeals Code of Practice. This flexibility has already been used with time limits for hearing appeals, so the principle of holding to the Code inflexibly has already been broken.
The one saving grace appears to be for appeals conducted through written submission, where 'admission authorities and appeal panels must exercise their own judgement in the circumstances of any particular appeal being considered'.
I sincerely hope that is the case, lawyers permitting, for the alternative appears to be an unnecessary collapse of the system locally.
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