The Department for Education issued its new school admissions code in February this year, and it makes it clear that school must give prioity to children who are looked after or were formerly looked after but are now subject to a special guardianship order, residence order or adoption order. This is what para 1.7 of the code actually states:
This is of course good news for family and friends carers whose children are looked after, or were previously looked after, whether the children were with them or somebody else, and who now have SGO or RO. You are in a good position for getting your child into a particular school - they should be top priority for any additional places.All schools must have oversubscription criteria for each ‘relevant age group’ and the highest priority must be given, unless otherwise provided in this Code, to looked after children and previously looked after children. Previously looked after children are children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a residence order or special guardianship order). Further references to previously looked after children in this Code means such children who were adopted (or subject to residence orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following having been looked after. Oversubscription criteria must then be applied to all other applicants in the order set out in the arrangements.
However, I could not find anything in the code that would assist family and friends carers whose children were not previously looked after. If the local authority insisted that you apply for RO or SGO without the child spending any time in the looked after system, then there is nothing I can see to state that the child should be a prioity for school admissions.
If you would like to read the admissions code and other related papers, you can download them from the DfE website here: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/adm ... egulations