Parents must 'provide evidence of their finances' to secure school place

A council has sparked fury after telling parents to "prove" their finances. A local authority in the south of England has sparked a furious row after telling parents to "provide proof" they can no longer afford private school fees.

An email sent out by Buckinghamshire Council showed a mother being told her daughter had been rejected by two local secondary schools because "they are full." She was then told to give evidence of her financial situation in order for her daughter to be considered for another school in the area.

The email from Buckinghamshire council seen by The Telegraph said: "Unfortunately we cannot offer any places at your preferred school/s as they are full. In this circumstance, we would normally advocate that [the child] should remain at their current school.

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"However, if you can provide evidence that you can no longer finance the independent school fees, please advise and we can make a local authority non-preference allocation." A spokesman for Buckinghamshire Council said they wanted to "apologise for the choice of language" and insisted it did not reflect any formal policy.

Buckinghamshire Council’s cabinet member for education and children’s services Anita Cranmer said: "We believe this wording was taken from an individual correspondence rather than being a formal policy and we apologise for the choice of language. We are happy to confirm this directly with the family and will not be seeking personal financial information from them or any other Buckinghamshire family.

"The intention was to seek confirmation in this case as to whether the family was relinquishing the child’s current school place and would definitely be seeking an ‘in-year’ school place even though their preferred school is full, or whether they would be staying at their current school which is often the case when families aren’t able to get a place at a preferred school."