Parents who hoped to use the Human Rights Act to challenge school admissions decisions may be disappointed.
Jack Rabinowicz, chair of the Education Law Association, says appeals on secondary school entry are getting harder to win, while the Government’s class-size guarantee makes it almost impossible for parents to win appeals for infant school places. The Human Rights Act, which became law last October an includes a right to education, has made little difference to the success rate.
“The duties of the authorities are to provide schools, and so long as they provide the right number - and they may get their calculations wrong - and there is a fair system for expressing preferences, and appealing against decisions, it is unlikely that the Human Rights Act will have any impact,” says Mr Rabinowicz.