Secondary School Fair Access Protocol (FAP)

Section 4 - Exemptions

All Lancashire schools must participate in FAP - this is a legal requirement. The only circumstances where referrals will not be made are:

1. Where the child was previously permanently excluded from a school they will not be referred back to the same establishment.
2. Where there is a serious recent or ongoing complaint / legal issue with the child or family in relation to a particular school or a member of staff at a particular school.
3. Where there has been a police investigation of a serious nature involving a pupil or member of staff at a particular school.
4. Additionally, decisions can be made by panel members to exempt a school or a particular year group within a school because of challenging circumstances such as the behaviour of a cohort.

If the Local Authority is aware that a school has recently taken a referred Fair Access admission and in the short term a second request is made, the Area Pupil Access Team will inform the parents / carers about the principles of sharing Fair Access admissions and about other locally available places.

Occasionally, there may be very good reasons why successive Fair Access admission requests are made to the same school (for example - existing family links or isolated geographical location near to home address).