Disclosure Log
summer born children deferral requests (FOI/5186)
Message from Nottinghamshire County Council - 17 January 2025
Dear ***** *****
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 – REQUEST FOR INFORMATION REFERENCE FOI/5186
Thank you for your request for information relating to summer born children deferral requests:
Request the following information about requests for admission of summer born children to Reception at the age of five rather than four:
1. The number of applications from parents of summer born children (those born between April 1 and August 31) asking to defer their child starting Reception for the academic years starting in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Please provide a breakdown by year.
Unfortunately we do not record this information in a way that is automatically retrievable. Therefore the Council is exempt from providing this information under s12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on the grounds that to do so would exceed the cost limit of £450. There are over 10,000 records per year to examine and even if it took only 1 minute per record (a very conservative estimate) to find and extract the information this would mean spending over 166 hours on this task. At a cost of £25 per hour (as set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004) this would amount to over £4,166 for each year of records. Given the number of records per year it is difficult to advise how you might narrow the scope of your request to bring it within the cost limit. You could ask for a small, random sample of records to be examined, but there would be no guarantee that this method would capture any deferral applications; alternatively you could request information in relation to a particular school or small set of schools.
2. Of these, the number of applications which were successful and the number which were refused. Please provide a breakdown by year.
Unfortunately we do not record this information in a way that is automatically retrievable. Therefore the Council is exempt from providing this information under s12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on the grounds that to do so would exceed the cost limit of £450. There are over 10,000 records per year to examine and even if it took only 1 minute per record (a very conservative estimate) to find and extract the information this would mean spending over 166 hours on this task. At a cost of £25 per hour (as set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004) this would amount to over £4,166 for each year of records. Given the number of records per year it is difficult to advise how you might narrow the scope of your request to bring it within the cost limit. You could ask for a small, random sample of records to be examined, but there would be no guarantee that this method would capture any deferral applications; alternatively you could request information in relation to a particular school or small set of schools.
3. The number of appeals by parents of summer born children if their application for delayed entry was refused. Of these, how many were successful. Please provide a breakdown by year.
There is no right of appeal in relation to requests for admission outside the normal age.
4. Any details about the council’s policy on deferred school entry of summer born children. For example, do you automatically agree all requests or only agree requests where parents present very strong evidence.
This information is publicly available at: Applying for a School Place
We trust this now satisfies your request and that you find this information to be helpful.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Requests should be submitted within 40 working days of the date of receipt of the response to your original request and should be addressed to: Complaints and Information Team, Nottinghamshire County Council, County Hall, Loughborough Road, West Bridgford, NOTTINGHAM, NG2 7QP or [email protected]
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, WILMSLOW, SK9 5AF or https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/foi-and-eir-complaints/
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
Your privacy: we use your personal information such as name and address so that we can comply with our legal obligations to respond to FOI requests. For further details about the use of information about you, please see the information handling privacy notice on our website at https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/media/4323566/informationgovernanceandinformationrightsprivacynotice.pdf
Yours sincerely
Complaints and Information Team
Chief Executives Department
Nottinghamshire County Council
The Council is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring all personal information is kept confidential and safe. For more details see our general and service specific privacy notices at: https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/global-content/privacy