Schools admissions system suffers with software problems

Problems with a new London-wide schools admissions system are leaving children within some local authorities without confirmed secondary school places.

The Pan-London Coordinated Secondary Schools Admission project - a £1.5m central system for handling applications across the whole of the capital - was developed by supplier Arete to streamline the admissions process and allow the exchange of information between the 32 London boroughs and a further eight neighbouring local authorities.

The system went live this year and has been generally successful. But eight councils - four within the city and four outside - have had problems getting their internal systems to communicate with the hub, leaving some anxious parents without offers of secondary school places for their children.

All eight areas experiencing problems use internal systems provided by Capita.

'Across large parts of London the system has worked well,' said a spokesman for the Pan-London project.

'However a few councils with Capita software found quite late in the process that they were unable to exchange information with their neighbours because their software wouldn't communicate,' he said.

A spokeswoman for Capita said: 'Of the London Local Education Authorities we support, a significant number have successfully exchanged data within the project and we have helped those remaining LEAs who have ongoing difficulties to use alternative methods.'