A damning new report has exposed how 25 families in Birmingham deliberately provided false information in a bid to secure coveted school places for their children.
Every single one of these parents saw their child's school offer rescinded following thorough investigations by Birmingham City Council's counter fraud team.
The Scale of the Problem
The council's investigators probed a total of 43 suspected false applications, with many of the cases coming to light thanks to tip-offs from members of the public. This represents a significant increase, with the number of revoked places more than doubling compared to the previous year.
One particularly brazen case involved a parent who worked at a lettings agency. She used the address of a flat she was advertising for rent as her own home address on the application. The genuine tenants living in the property were completely unaware that their home was being used to try to gain an unfair educational advantage.
This parent's attempt ultimately failed when she failed to attend a formal interview under caution to discuss the allegations, leading to the school place being revoked.
Council's Response and Rising Concerns
The issue of fraudulent school applications is now considered so serious that the council is actively exploring the creation of a full-time school admissions fraud officer to tackle the problem.
These details were revealed in the annual counter fraud report authored by John Preston, the council's audit lead on corporate fraud. The council's audit committee, which reviewed the report this month, has recommended that resources be found to fund additional staff to investigate the growing number of cases.
This type of fraud is described in the report as a difficult and high-profile area for the authority to manage.
Intense Competition for Top Schools
The situation highlights the extreme lengths some parents will go to in order to get their children into schools perceived as the 'best', particularly when they live outside the catchment area or do not meet other strict admission criteria.
Competition for places at schools with top Ofsted grades and strong exam results is incredibly fierce across Birmingham. The city's grammar schools, for instance, are massively oversubscribed, with nine out of ten applicants missing out on a place last year.
Some of these grammars have specific address criteria designed to benefit children from more disadvantaged areas, a policy that some parents are now attempting to deceitfully exploit.
The pressure is not limited to secondary education. Applications for the most sought-after primary schools in the city also regularly exceed the number of places available. A significant number of parents do not receive an offer from their first-choice school, with proximity to the school being a major factor in the allocation process.
With admissions for primary school reception and secondary school Year 7 places for September 2026 now open until January 15, 2026, the council is on high alert for further fraudulent activity.
