Applications for primary and secondary school places can now be made online in all England’s 150 local authority areas that provide educational admissions.
Parents starting the process of enrolling their children for the start of the next academic year in 2007 can apply using transactional electronic forms. They will also have access to an email query system and links to relevant web sites.
The eAdmissions National Project is led by Hertfordshire County Council and sponsored by the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Education and Skills, as part of the National Strategy for Local Government.
Take-up in trial areas has been encouraging. In Hertfordshire, 60 per cent of applications for the academic year starting this week were made online, in East Riding 48 per cent and in Bristol 44 per cent.
Online applications are good for both parents and the local authorities, says eAdmissions National Project programme manager Amanda Derrick.
For parents, it allows everything to be done in one visit.
‘People today expect to be able to do things online. They like the fact e-admissions are quick, easy and convenient because if a parent is already on the web looking at Ofsted information or a particular school they can go on and complete the application then and there,’ said Derrick.
For councils, the electronic process is less labour-intensive and more accurate than the traditional paper form.
‘eAdmissions is a business transformation for local authorities in the sense that online forms cannot be submitted without being entirely complete, so there are fewer problems with rectifying mistakes,’ said Derrick.
‘It also saves a lot of data entry because paper forms have to be uploaded into the back office system, which is another place where errors creep in,’ she said.
The next step is to look at take-up figures at national level, and work with individual authorities on their particular needs.
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