THE Government is considering a single national day for allocating school places in an attempt to stamp out the chaos that often surrounds admissions.
Civil servants are discussing the practicalities of the move. It goes further than earlier proposals to co-ordinate arrangements within individual education authorities which councils fear will not solve the problem of pupils who cross borders.
Councils such as Hertfordshire and Kent, where large numbers of schools opted out, have been dogged by problems over admissions, and the adjudicators who rule on disputes favour co-ordinated arrangements.
Sir Peter Newsam, the chief adjudicator, said: “Anything that co-ordinates the present arrangements and makes things easier for parents is worth pursuing.”
The proposal, one of several under consideration, comes as the public spending watchdog revealed that overcrowding in secondary schools has increased in more than six out of 10 councils since 1996.
One in four education authorities continues to have high levels of unfilled secondary places and one in three has surplus primary places, says the Audit Commission.
Councils have cut 174,000 surplus places over the past five years, freeing around pound;50 million for reinvestment in schools each year.
But the figure is half the amount the commission estimated could be saved in its 1996 report, Trading Places - The Supply and Allocation of School Places.
The recent findings are based on evidence collected early last year from 135 English councils. Part of the increase in overcrowding in secondaries stems from a 9 per cent rise in pupil numbers.
The commission warns that having more places than necessary ties up resources that could be used to improve the quality of education.
Since 19956, councils have removed 46,000 unfilled primary and 128,000 surplus secondary places by closing temporary classrooms, finding alternative use for the spaces or shutting schools.
Three-quarters of councils have made good progress in removing unfilled secondary places while 45 per cent have reduced primary places. Most (64 per cent) have cut overcrowding in primaries and half have reduced the number of small secondary schools.
But the number of sixth forms with fewer than 160 pupils has hardly changed and continues to make up nearly half of all school sixth forms.
Trading Places is available from PO Box 99, Wetherby, LS23 7JA
