Changes to Oversubscription Criteria for Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools (run by the council) for the 2028/29 academic year

Admission arrangements

The School Admissions Code requires all schools to have admission arrangements that clearly set out how children will be admitted, including the oversubscription criteria that will be applied where there are more applications than places available.

Durham County Council is required to determine their admissions arrangements annually. Where no changes are proposed, consultation is only required at least once every seven years. The current admission arrangements were last consulted upon between 1 October and 31 December 2022.

Proposed change

We are consulting on a proposal to amend the over-subscription criteria to include children of staff employed at the school with effect from September 2028 for all Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools.

A number of schools (e.g. academies) who are able to determine their own admission policy in County Durham already include this within their admission arrangements.

The proposed over-subscription criteria from September 2028 would be:

Proposed Oversubscription Criteria from September 2028

If the school is oversubscribed, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria set out below, in the following order of priority:

1. Children who are ‘looked after’ or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, residence/child arrangements, or special guardianship order, or children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted. A looked after child is a child who is, at the time of making an application to a school, (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see the definition in section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989). An adoption order is an order under Section 12 of the Adoption Act 1976 or Section 46 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. A "child arrangements order" is an order settling the arrangements to be made as to the person with whom the child is to live under Section 14 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a 'special guardianship order' as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child's special guardian (or special guardians).
2. Medical reasons – children with very exceptional medical factors directly related to a school placement. Children with very exceptional medical factors directly related to school placement.
3. Sibling links - Children who have a sibling already attending the school and who is expected to be on roll at the school at the time of admission. Sibling is defined as children who live as brother or sister in the same house, including natural brothers or sisters, half brothers or sisters, adopted brothers or sisters, stepbrothers or stepsisters and children of the parent or carer's partner. You should indicate when applying if there is a sibling currently attending the school for which they have applied.
4. Children of staff employed at the school. Children of all staff employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission is made and/or the member of staff has been recruited to fill a post at the school where there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
5. Applications to their nearest school Those children who have applied for a place at the nearest school to their home address measured by the shortest walking route.
6. All other applicants This category covers all applicants who do not meet the requirements for criteria 1 to 5 and are applying for a school which is not their nearest.

Tiebreaker – when a school is oversubscribed within any of the above criteria, the following tiebreaker will be applied:

• Priority will be given to those children who live nearest to the school applied for. Otherwise, if only one final place can be offered and two applicants live equidistant from the school, the council's system of random allocation will apply.

Why are we proposing this change?

Schools rely on being able to recruit and retain talented teachers, teaching assistants and other staff who play an important role in supporting children's education.

We are proposing to give some priority to the children of eligible school staff because it may help schools attract and keep experienced employees, particularly where there are difficulties recruiting to specific roles.

For staff, having their child attend the same school where they work can make managing family commitments easier and reduce the challenges of travelling between different schools each day.

By supporting staff recruitment and retention, this proposal could help schools maintain a stable workforce and continue to provide high-quality support for pupils and families.

This proposed criterion would sit below looked after children, medical reasons and sibling links within the oversubscription criteria. It would only be used if a school has received more applications than available places.

This consultation will last for 6 weeks until Friday 13 November 2026

To find out more contact schooladmissions@durham.gov.uk