Children's Education and Postings Back to UK
 

An RAF colleague of mine is returning to the UK for a year after a number of years abroad in a series of accompanied posts. He is posted as an 'orphan lodger' on a much larger tri-servie unit, whilst he undergoes a year's specialist training. However, he is having great difficulty persuading the local authority that his younger child is entitled to schooling in England. She was born abroad, and although she is a British Subject and a passport holder, the Local Authority (LA) admissions staff have requested to see the passport - in person - before they will make a place available.

He has provided the local authority all the information they have previously requested - birth certificates, UK addresses etc - (about 3 months ago, I believe) and this latest request has come on the eve of the closing date for allocations. The LA claim that 'its a Home Office regulation' yet there are no guidelines available that state this. The LA furthermore claim that she will be required to provide a 'Letter of Admission' to the Border Agency staff on her return to the UK. He has pointed out that he is a SP, posted to a well-known unit and that the LA has a 'Fair Admissions Policy' that covers, inter alia:wards of the state, travellers, refugees and government servants.

Have other SP returning from overseas encountered similar nonsense?

Get him to email his local MP.

or the RAF Families' Federation. They should have a children's education advisor.

The RAF Families Federation, Royal Air Force, RAF - RAF Families Federation

or:

Children’s Education Advisory Service (CEAS)on 01980 618244 or at: [email protected]



Good luck!

Duncs:ok:

I would very much recommend the Children's Educational Advisory Service. We had some issues with special needs provision for our daughter when moving from the Scottish system back to England on posting and what appeared to be a huge issue with the LEA was solved in one phone call from CEAS.

I know people who had issues coming from overseas, particularly one involving someone returning from an embassy posting in a strange in fairly similar circumstances that you describe and CEAS sorted them out and even managed to get the child a place at an even better school than they ever thought possible.

I've passed the recommendation of CEAS on to the SP; I'll keep ppruners posted.

Thanks.

The mere mention of CEAS sparked our local authority into action when my little boy was left without a school place due to posting.

It appears the County Council concerned have backed down from the 'requirement' to present the child's passport prior to allocating a place, after the parent concerned provided them a particularly foreign birth certificate with lots of stamps and seals on it.

Also, the CC admissions people were caught out telling porkies about the 'Home Office' Regulation - it isn't! I am in a similar situation and the nice lady (and she is nice, friendly and helpful) who takes Department For Education helpline calls listened to the case and referred to the School Admissions Code of Conduct which demonstrated that the CC concerned were being a bit naughty.

I'm waiting to hear about my own child's application for our return to the UK in August and I've got the relevant paragraphs of the CoC ready...just in case. Nonetheless, it's a moot point - because irrespective of nationality, there is a statutory requirement to provide education!

I've also got CEAS in the back pocket, however my own experience of using them when serving in unusual locations abroad was that they were not particularly helpful. When we sought advice about schools suitability their response was 'Oh, just find a school and send us the bill'. Similarly I had the issue of lack of suitable senior schooling (in English language) for my older child so I was obliged to go down the golden shackles of boarding school in the UK, whereas another SP posted in a couple of months later got his daughter into the local, expensive and rather good, international school (which had been denied to me on cost grounds!). BS has worked well for our son, but it would have been nice to have had the option...

I had to take my kids back to their former school and we had an "interview" before they were re-admitted. The joys of overseas tours!

University
 

Slightly off topic but a "child" returning from outside the EU to take up a university place may find they are charged non-EU fees even after producing a British passport because they don't meet the residency qualification.

yes...

Yes indeed they do, as most universities class you as overseas unless the student has been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands (Channel Islands and Isle of Man) throughout the three years immediately preceding the course start date.

However, universities also say that if the student or their spouse or parent was, temporarily employed outside the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area or Switzerland, then they would qualify for home status.

I know this as it happened to Nams jnr. All I had to do was produced evidence that I was indeed temporarily employed outside the United Kingdom. No problem at all.

Claim that you are an illegal immigrant. You should have no trouble at all. :mad::mad:

I wasn't aware of this business about University entrance and it will affect us, as I am likely to go overseas (outside of the EEA/EU) in about 15 months for another 3-4 years before retiring - just as No 1 son should be going to university (we hope). Doing a bit of digging, it seems that UK Boarding School addresses don't count, either.

I look forward to a rather shouty conversation in a few years' time - which I will dutifully report on PPrune!

Separately I spoke to the offending county council (above) because the SP is OOA and the spouse was rather flummoxed by the whole business (hence why I sought advice here). In spite of pointing out that they were both wrong and descriminatory in their policies and practices, they stated that they will not change either...

A letter to my MP will follow.

Whenurhappy,

Hopefully quoting the Armed Forces Covenant!

Good luck!

Duncs:ok:

Most assuradly I did. And I referred to their 'Fair Access Protocols' which lumps us with refugees, asylum seekers, travellers, wards of the state, permanent excludees etc etc. Nice that we keep such fine company!

Another vote for the CEAS from me. One phone call triggered a massive reversal from the school and local authority; the school seemed very pleased after the call as they didn't realise they got extra cash for taking on a service kid.

Whenurhappy,
I assume you are going overseas to work in an Embassy, in which case talk to the CLO at post or the DSFA back in the UK(you are granted temporary membership of it DSFA when at post), I understand they are a good source of info on local schools. If you don't have access to Firecrest at work PM for details of DSFA.

Regards

Adminblunty

University Fees - Home Fees or Overseas Fees
 

Suggest you read this from the UK Council for International Student Affairs, especially Box 3.

The UK Case Law relating to this issue throws up some interesting cases. If you have a house in the UK that you intend returning to then see Temporary Absence and Ordinary Residence in more than one place

Hope this puts your mind at rest. :ok:

Dear Adminblunty and Adams Nam,

Thanks for the guidance. I essence I am dealing with two cases here - I am lending a hand to a colleague (who is currently OOA) who is returning to the UK this summer, who has experienced some difficulties in getting the County Council Admissions team to understand he and his family are UK nationals and thus entitled to a free school place (see above). After digging around a bit (and thanks for all the guidance) the Admissions Team have accepted that they do not have to 'demonstrate entitlement' as part of the admissions and allocations process. Perhaps I should have used CEAS to run with this, but (qv) my previous experience of them was 'less than Stellar'.

However, arising from this matter is the separate issue of University admissions in a couple of years' time for my son and local schooling at my next Post for my younger daughter, after a stay of 15 months in the UK starting this Summer (hopefully not anticipating the difficulties that my colleague has had). As you have deduced, I am going to a Mission and the CLO has been particularly helpful via a vis international schooling for my daughter and I will raise with the CLO the matter of my son/boarding school/university/ordinarily resident etc.

It is heartening to read the body of case law that can demonstrate being 'ordinarily resident' and I look forward to rolling these out idc. Once in Post, we will get our breather flights, MTL and 'reverse' SCV back to UK and retain a property there, quite apart from being subjects and Citizens. Discussing this with a US friend (who is an Attorney, by chance) he is astounded that local authorities and Government Departments can't or won't use their judgment along the lines of: 'British officer (complete with letter from the Queen proving this), British family, serving on Sovereign British Territory, employed by HMG, paid in Sterling, paying UK taxes, ergo they are resident British'. But no. You have to prove all of this, from a position of being regarded as Alien and thus hostile.

Perhaps we embue officials with too much common sense, vide Service children born abroad in British Military Hospitals who have to jump through all sorts of hoops to demonstrate their, err, Britishness

And I wouldn't leave the private sector out of the debate either - no amount of cajoling would convince 'the world's local bank' that I was, for tax purposes, a UK resident, not even the trappings of the FCO would sway them, I physically had to be back in the UK to find closure on a financial matter!?*. Grrrrrrrr!