Academies accused of refusing places for excluded students, figures show

The Local Government Association is calling for councils to force academies to accept students who have been excluded from a previous school.

Government figures show that the Education Funding Agency (EFA) has refused nine out of 10 ‘hard to place’ children a place at an academy.

The statistics suggest that schools are cherry-picking pupils.

At the moment, only maintained schools are forced to accept a pupil and the council only have the power to ask the EFA to advise academies to give a pupil a place.

The statistics also show that 121 applications have been made by the council calling for pupils to be given a place since 2012, and only 15 were approved.

Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, councillor Richard Watts, commented: "By ignoring local council advice the EFA is allowing academies to effectively choose the children they want to admit.

"There are far stronger safeguards in place to ensure maintained schools do not cherry pick their pupils and the same measures should be in place for all academies.”