Decision report 201004831

Summary
Mr C complained that the council broke an alleged 'silent agreement' between a councillor and the education authority that Roman Catholic children would not be refused a place at a local Roman Catholic school. When we investigated this, it became clear that the 'silent agreement' being referred to was a statement made in a public meeting many years ago, during an earlier consultation process. This was that where a placing request was made for such children at their local denominational school they would not be refused. Mr C told us, however, that although his child is Roman Catholic, they were refused a place at the local denominational school. On further examination, however, it became clear that this school was not the preferred one stated on their school placing request, and was in fact their second choice. Had the family selected the local Roman Catholic school as the preferred school on the placing request, a place would have been available at the time these were allocated.