Admissions Relevant Areas

Consultation on the Relevant Areas for Admission Arrangements 2027-29

Under the School Standards & Framework Act 1998, local authorities are required to establish a Relevant Area in which admission authorities must consult regarding their admission arrangements.

The Education (Relevant Areas for Consultation on Admission Arrangements) Regulations 1999 requires local authorities to consult on these proposals every two years.

Devon County Council proposes no amendments to relevant areas for admission arrangements for 2027/28 and 2028/29:

Devon County Council as the admission authority for community and voluntary-controlled infant, junior, primary and secondary schools and with responsibility for co-ordinated admissions schemes and the Fair Access Protocol will consult within the following relevant area:

• The administrative area of Devon County Council (not including the administrative areas of Torbay Council or Plymouth City Council) and
• An area within three miles of the border with the local authorities of Cornwall, Dorset, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay.

Consultees will include:

• all community and voluntary-controlled infant, junior, primary and secondary schools within the relevant area
• all other admission authorities within the relevant area including neighbouring local authorities.
• Diocesan authorities
• parents of children between the ages of two and eighteen
• other persons in the relevant area who in the opinion of the admission authority have an interest in the proposed admissions

The academy trusts or governing bodies of academy, free, foundation and voluntary aided infant, junior and primary schools acting as their own admission authorities, located within the Devon County Council administrative area, will be required to consult within the following relevant area:

• A 10 mile radius of the school, or, where this covers a neighbouring authority area, up to 3 miles into that area.

Consultees will include:

• Devon County Council
• the Diocesan authority (for voluntary aided schools or academy schools which were previously voluntary aided or voluntary controlled)
• all other admission authorities of infant, junior or primary schools within the relevant area
• any relevant neighbouring local authority where this is the admissions authority for a school within the relevant area
• parents of children between the ages of two and eighteen
• other persons in the relevant area who in the opinion of the admission authority have an interest in the proposed admissions

The academy trusts or governing bodies of academy, free, foundation and voluntary aided secondary schools, and the South Devon University Technical College acting as their own admission authorities, located within the Devon County Council administrative area, will be required to consult within the following relevant area:

• A 15 mile radius of the school, or, where this covers a neighbouring authority area, up to 3 miles into that area.

Consultees will include:

• Devon County Council
• the Diocesan authority (for voluntary aided schools or academy schools which were previously voluntary aided or voluntary controlled)
• all other admission authorities of secondary, infant, junior or primary schools within the relevant area
• any relevant neighbouring local authority where this is the admissions authority for a school within the relevant area
• any primary or junior schools that are not covered within the relevant area but which form part a designated area used in the secondary school’s oversubscription criteria
• parents of children between the ages of two and eighteen
• other persons in the relevant area who in the opinion of the admission authority have an interest in the proposed admissions

Where there is an agreement to do so, Devon County Council will consult on behalf of own admission authority schools. The schools themselves will be required to publicise the consultation on their own websites and in school newsletters.

How to respond

If you have any views that you would like Devon County Council to take into account, please email schoolsadmissionpolicy-mailbox@devon.gov.uk or write to Relevant Area Consultation, Senior Policy Officer, Room L60, County Hall, Exeter EX2 4QG by Friday 10 January 2025.