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Welsh authority launches online admissions

Mon, 14/11/2011 - 13:18

Monmouthshire County Council has become one of the first authorities in Wales to enable parents to apply for their child’s school place online. The software behind the new system, Capita One's Admissions and Transfers Online, will help reduce the risk of errors and speed up the authority's school admissions process.

The launch of online school admissions in Monmouthshire comes at a time when the Welsh government is calling on councils to improve the delivery of public services.

Applications for secondary school places in the area can be submitted online from October 2011 via the authority's website. Parents of children eligible to start primary school in September 2012 in Monmouthshire can apply for their school place online from November 2011. The new software will reduce the risk of errors in the authority's school admissions process and enable council staff to do their jobs more effectively.

Cath Sheen, manager of the school and student access unit at Monmouthshire County Council, said: “Choosing the right school for a child is an important time for  parents. As a rural authority with 37 schools and nearly 12,000 school-aged children, we want to ensure the process of applying for a school place runs smoothly. The new system is simple to use and will enable parents to be informed of the school their child will be moving into much sooner than they could previously. It will also help us to improve efficiency across the team responsible for managing school admissions.”

The software is instinctive to use as it guides parents step-by-step through the online application form and prompts them to complete any areas they have missed. They will also receive an automatic acknowledgement to confirm that their application has been submitted successfully. This will reduce the time authority staff currently spend checking forms and contacting parents to gather the information they need to process applications and produce paper letters, freeing them to concentrate on other tasks.

The new system will remove the need for staff to key data manually into the authority's management information system as all the necessary details will be automatically loaded once an application has been submitted online. Having school and child data in one place will also provide the team with greater flexibility as authorised staff will be able to access the information they need from different offices within the authority or from home if they need to.

Phil Neal, Managing Director of Capita SIMS and One, said: “Councils across the UK are under growing pressure to find ways of working more efficiently and improving the delivery of services to their communities. This was a key objective in Monmouthshire and we have worked closely with the authority to put a system in place that meets their needs.”

Find out more about Capita One's Admissions and Transfers Online and our new migration service.

For media enquiries or to arrange an interview please contact:

Rebecca Bremner
Catherine Lane PR
Tel: 07092 872 720
Mobile: 07775 155 882
Email: rebecca@catherinelane.com